General characteristics of the problem

1.1. General characteristics of the problem

The Dnipro River basin includes 30 oblasts of three countries – the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. 14 of these oblasts are located on the left bank of the river, 16 oblasts – on the right one.

The problem of disposal and storage of industrial waste in storage facilities (storage ponds, reservoirs and polygons) is urgent in view of accumulation of large quantity of solid domestic and industrial waste, waste of mining industry, sewage sludge in settling ponds, polygons for burial of hazardous waste and reservoirs for liquid spent oil products, waste (sludge) of galvanic industry and other types of waste in the territory of the Dnipro River basin.

The problem of disposal of industrial waste is one of the major environmental problems since all the objects of waste disposal are real or potential sources of environmental pollution. Waste products concentrated in the objects of waste disposal (in settling ponds, reservoirs and storage facilities) vary in their composition and categories of hazard, these are organic and non-organic substances, which undergo various complex physical-chemical and biological changes being in contact with atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and with each other. As a result of such contact these substances generate various chemical compounds, including toxic, which are discharged into natural environment and have adverse impact on the air, soil, surface and underground water, bottom sediments of the nearest water bodies, streams and plants.

Status as of 2001 not less than 8,5 billion tonnes of industrial waste is accumulated in waste storage facilities (settling ponds, tanks and polygons) located in the Dnipro River basin, up to 50% of these waste products are accumulated in the territory of Ukraine, up to 10% - in the territory of Belarus and about 40% - in the territory of the Russian Federation. Annual increase in accumulated industrial waste makes from 8 to 10%. Operation of industrial waste storage facilities (settling ponds, storage tanks and polygons) in the Dnipro River basin poses environmental threat and has the adverse impact on the environment. Today the storage facilities contain up to 40% of especially hazardous industrial waste. This category includes facilities for storage waste of petrochemical, fuel industry, metallurgy, coal-mining, ore mining and processing industry. The volume of storage facilities (settling ponds, storage tanks) varies from several hundred to several million cubic metres and the height of protecting structures reaches 100 metres.

In most cases the storage facilities for industrial waste have an adverse impact on the surface and underground water, the damage in protecting structures of such facilities leads to the pollution of atmosphere and the neighbouring territory.

The structure of industrial waste and the quantity of waste products (including the region of the Dnipro River basin) depend on the availability and utilization of natural fuel and energy resources, mining operations as well as the development of industry in administrative centres of the regions.

The dynamics of industrial waste generation in three countries for the period 1995 – 2001 is presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 - Dynamics of industrial waste generation in the Dnipro River basin (in waste storage facilities, storage reservoirs and polygons)

The category of especially hazardous waste include waste products of the enterprises of electrical industry, engineering industry, metallurgical works and motor transport. Chemical composition of these wastes includes up to 35% of salts of heavy and non-ferrous metals (lead, cadmium, nickel, chromium, etc.) as well as oil products (up to 2,5%). Difficulties connected with processing and recycling of tailings, black sands, polymeric waste cause low percentage of utilization of the waste, in the region it does not exceed 8-10%. The issues of neutralization of spoiled pesticides, galvanic waste, emulsoids and spent oil products remain unsolved.

In spite of the availability of the well-developed relevant legal base the issues connected with disposal, storage and recycling of waste in the territory of the regions do not have tendency to the positive solution and waste management regulations do not ensure environmentally sound practice of waste disposal. The reasons of the above mentioned are as follows:

- lack of harmonized systems of waste management;

- inadequate inventory of the sources of waste generation;

- incomplete data base with regard to generation, storage, disposal, utilization, recycling and neutralization of industrial waste;

- lack of the systems of collection, assortment and disposal of hazardous waste;

- the need of more strict requirements for the reliability of storage structures at the stage of design and construction of storage facilities (settling ponds, tanks and polygons) for industrial waste.

Index of environmental hazard of the storage facilities for industrial waste is specified taking into account the category of hazard of chemical substances presented in industrial waste. According to the extent of environmental hazard industrial wastes are subdivided into four classes:

- I class - specially hazardous substances;

- II class - highly hazardous substances;

- III class – medium-hazard substances;

- IV class – low-hazard substances

Qualitative structure of industrial waste accumulated in storage facilities (settling ponds, tanks and polygons) in the territory of the Dnipro River basin in 2001 is presented in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Qualitative structure of industrial waste accumulated in waste storage facilities (settling ponds, tanks and polygons) in the territory of the Dnipro River basin in 2001.

In percentage terms specially hazardous wastes come to 0,001% (I class of hazard) within total volume of industrial wastes, highly hazardous wastes make up 0,05% (II class of hazard), medium-hazard waste – 0,24% (III class of hazard), low-hazard waste – 55,8% (IV class of hazard), non-toxic industrial wastes – 43,9%.

The sludge generated at waste treatment facilities as a result of municipal waste water treatment has a significant place within the total volume of industrial waste. In most cases the sewage sludge is contaminated with salts of heavy metals, it is referred to the waste of the IV class of hazard. The storage facilities (sludge drying beds, sludge ponds) located in the Dnipro River basin contain not less than 10 million tonnes of sewage sludge.

Solid domestic wastes (household garbage) accumulated at polygons (dumps) in the neighbourhood of large and medium-sized cities pose not less hazard to the environment.

The adverse environmental impact of the objects of industrial waste disposal is mainly connected with generation of biological gas and filtrate. Biological gas generated as a result of decomposition of organic compounds of industrial waste is toxic, highly explosive, inflammable and up to 80% of its composition is referred to greenhouse gases. Presence of biological gas is typical for storage facilities of domestic garbage and disposal sites of sewage sludge.

Filtrate generated as a result of waste and water contact represents highly fat solution of chemical agents, which arrive from the waste and especially industrial waste of galvanic works.

The aureoles of geochemical anomalies are formed around waste storage structures as a result of spreading of filtrate outside the industrial waste storage facilities. They are characterized by high concentration of ions of heavy metals in soil, underground and surface water as well as mineral organic compounds freely soluble in water.

According to the analysis of qualitative parameters in the rayon of location of industrial and domestic waste storage facilities in the territory of Belarus the concentrations of most of ingredients are at the breaking point or exceed admissible levels established for water fit for human consumption. The specialists register occurrences of deterioration of the quality of underground water as for individual parameters (ammonia, nitrates, etc.) in the sites of disposal of polygons of industrial and domestic waste.

Earth mounds, ditches, impervious membranes are intended to prevent spreading of filtrate to underground (ground) and surface water around waste storage facilities (settling ponds, tanks, polygons). These measures reduce anthropogenic impact of waste storage facilities on the environment, but cannot exclude just the fact of impact.

Construction of protecting structures and facilities for accumulation and storage of industrial waste is carried out on the basis of normative, technical and construction regulations, which are currently in force in three the Dnipro River countries.

Within the framework of environmental monitoring control of environmental conditions (air, soil, underground and surface water) in the rayons of location of storage facilities of industrial waste is carried out in the regions at national and federal levels in accordance with current legal acts, regulations and instructions of government, Ministries and environmental authorities. The procedure of organization of environmental monitoring in the rayons of location of storage facilities (settling ponds, precipitation tanks, polygons), including the networks of observation wells and measurements of emissions into atmosphere is established by the relevant normative documents in each of the country under review.

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