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Potential Sources of an Adverse Impact (Potential Hot Spots)
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4.4. Potential Sources of an Adverse Impact (Potential Hot Spots)
The most substantial quantities of potentially hazardous substances in the territory of Belarus are accumulated at enterprises of the chemical and petroleum refining industry as well as at enterprises where mineral fertilizers are produced. As a whole there are 350 chemically hazardous sites in the Republic of Belarus which store or use 20 kinds of virulent poisonous substances in the process of production. There are 250 explosive sites in Belarus. Fifteen hundred (1500) tank trucks with highly explosive and poisonous substances are transported by the railways of Belarus every month. The occurrences of oil spills and other chemical substances, emergencies releases of liquefied gases take place as a result of various railway accidents which is resulted in the pollution of the natural environment.
Last years’ technogenic emergencies took place mostly at trunk pipelines, related to railway transport, wastewater treatment facilities, and sewerage systems. In particular:
- leakage of diesel oil at Mozyrsky petroleum refinery (February); pipeline breaking and spill of oil in Stolinsky Rayon (August 1996);
- breaking of the gas-main pipeline “Minsk – Ivatsevichy”, which caused fire, damaging 10 hectares of forest (April 1997, Uzdensky Rayon);
- breaking of the main oil-products pipeline “Russia – Ukraine”, spill of petrol and spreading of petrol over an area of 70 hectares (June 1997);
- leakage of 300 kg of ammonia at Bobruisk meat-packing factory (June 1997);
- leakage of more than 8 m³ of petrol in the area of 0.2 hectares as a result of tank damage (February 1999, Borisovsky Rayon);
- blowout of mazut in municipal sewerage system as a result of emergency. It was caused by the overfill of municipal sewerage system after a heavy rain. Consequences: arrival of mazut in the Pripat River and formation of mazut slick over a length of 50 km (June 1999, Mozyr);
- spill of about 500 kg of oil and contamination of top-soil as a result of breaking of oil pipeline “Druzhba” (June 1999, Mozyrsky Rayon);
- contamination of soil-reclamation canal over a distance of 2.5 km as a result of breaking of oil-pipeline (May 2000, oil-pipeline “Druzhba”, Dragichinsky Rayon).
In 2000 there were 3 occurrences of emergency discharges of oil products into the water bodies of the Dnipro River basin. In particular, the Gomel oil transportation enterprise “Druzhba” discharged 51.9 m³ of oil into the soil-reclamation canal at the 257 km mark of the oil-pipeline “Mozyr – Brest” near the Berkozy village of Pinsk Rayon. The material damage to the state amounted to 813.8 thousand roubles. Another 4848 kg of oil was discharged into Valovelsky canal, which took place as a result of an oil spill at the 313 km mark of the oil-pipeline “Mozyr – Brest”. The material damage to the state was 17. 200 million roubles. Mazut (1.7 tonnes) was discharged into the Merechanka River by the Pinsk confectionery from its boiler-house mazut storage facilities. Material damage to the state amounted to 2.802 million roubles.
In June 2002, an oil-pipeline break took place near the village of Vysokoye in Stolinsky Rayon at the 142 km mark of the pipeline “Gomeltransneft”. As a result of this accident oil arrived into the soil-reclamation canal and caused contamination over an area of 1 km. Material damage to the state consisted of 27.829 million roubles.
