12/08/2020 The Ministry of Natural Resources entered the Usoliekhimprom site into the register of objects of accumulated harm to the environment

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The Stockholm Convention Regional Centre for Capacity Building and the Transfer of Technology (SCRC) in the Russian Federation is a body supporting sound chemicals management in the Central and Eastern European region.

12.08.2020 The Ministry of Natural Resources entered the Usoliekhimprom site into the register of objects of accumulated harm to the environment

Previously, only the mercury electrolysis workshop was included in the register.

The territory of the former chemical plant "Usoliekhimprom" USOLIE-SIBIRSKY / Irkutsk region /, August 11. / TASS /. The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation has entered the Usoliekhimprom industrial site into the State Register of Accumulated Environmental Damage Objects (GRONVOS). This was announced to reporters on Tuesday by the Acting Governor of the Angara region Igor Kobzev.

"From now on, the entire site [is included in the register]. The Ministry of Natural Resources has made the appropriate changes, we saw it. I am glad that the Ministry of Nature of Russia promptly responded to this contaminated area," Kobzev said.

Earlier, only one of the workshops of the enterprise was included in the register - the workshop for mercury electrolysis. As the director of the Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which is the focal point of the Stockholm Convention in the Russian Federation, Elena Bagryanskaya, explained to TASS, the entry of the enterprise into the register of objects of accumulated environmental harm makes it possible to allocate federal funding for the elimination of the accident. The register indicates the area of the object, the mass and volume of waste located there, and its hazard class. The interlocutor of the agency noted that the proposal to enter the enterprise into the register was received by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation on the initiative of the head of Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Rodionova.

The Usoliekhimprom, the largest chemical industry enterprise beyond the Urals, which was closed in 2005, has become a hotbed of ecological disaster in Usolye-Sibirskoye, where more than 76 thousand people live. There is a large center of mercury pollution at the industrial site, which remained after the liquidation of the mercury electrolysis shop in 1998. Tanks with chemicals are stored there, and the hulls, soil, and groundwater are saturated with toxins. It is planned to liquidate the mercury electrolysis shop by September 2021.

The nearest residential buildings to Usoliekhimprom are 2 km away. The city is located 77 km from Irkutsk on the banks of Angara. On July 30, President Vladimir Putin ordered to use the resources of all government bodies, including the Ministry of Defense, to solve the environmental problems of Usolye-Sibirskoye. The chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed to conduct a pre-investigation check.