Garbage filtrate for the Peterhof fountains: what the village near St. Petersburg is fighting against

Alexander Dybin, St. Petersburg

Residents of two small villages on the border of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Petrovskoye and Orzhitsa, wonder why the project of a waste processing complex, which they want to place on the site of a former quarry, excites only them. One village separates a kilometer from the future landfill, the second - one and a half. But in these forests, streams flow that feed the fountain system of Peterhof, located ten kilometers to the north. According to residents of Orzhitsa, few people know about the project, which activists have been fighting for almost a year, both in Strelna, where the presidential residence, the Konstantinovsky Palace, is located, and in Lomonosov. At the same time, if the project is launched, very soon a garbage heap will grow here, which will be clearly visible from afar. The problem was discussed last weekend by the villagers and activists who are seeking to wind down the project.

Officially, the facility is known as waste processing complex Brandovka. This is one of the five complexes that the Nevsky Ecological Operator company is going to build as part of the waste reform to dispose of the waste of the Northern capital. Two waste processing complexes will be built within the city, and only sorting and processing of useful fractions is expected there. But three objects on the sites that the Leningrad Region provided to St. Petersburg also suggest burial. This is one of the fears Orzhitsi residents talk about - even in the most ideal scenario, only half of the waste will be recycled. The rest is to fall first into the quarry, and then to the landfill. And how it differs from the usual landfill is not clear.

“We operate only with figures from official documents and do not invent anything”, - says one of the activists Dmitry Parshikov, - “the territorial scheme for waste management indicates that waste processing complex Brandovka will receive garbage from the southern districts of St. Petersburg. This is 931 thousand tons per year. Of these, 339 thousand tons will be taken to Brandovka immediately, the rest will go through sorting inside the city, and at best half will go to us again. In total, 617 thousand tons of waste will be brought to us per year. Part of it will be recycled and, in the most ideal scenario, 437 thousand tons will remain for disposal. We understand that Brandovka is needed not as a plant, but as a place for burial. Is it a lot or a little? This is 1790 tons per day, which is 170 trucks per day. When this project first appeared, the governor of the Leningrad region Drozdenko several times said "why do you need lunar landscapes, you need to recultivate quarries, plant Christmas trees". We have seen how quickly this will happen. Our quarry is small, the depth is 15 meters. We will fill the quarry in 6 months, that's the whole reclamation. But the project is designed until 2032, and no one will leave. So the garbage mountain will grow. How fast will the slagheap grow? It's all school arithmetic. During the year it will increase by 9 meters. In 3-4 years, the height of the waste heap will be higher than Orzhitsa themselves. By the end of the term scheme, the height will be 81 meters. The scandalous Novy Svet training ground in Gatchina is 61 meters high.

Residents assume that after a few years of functioning of the landfill, they will be able to see the garbage mountain just by looking out the window.

Rescue fountains

Waste processing complex "Brandovka" distinguishes from other similar objects by its proximity to a unique object - the Peterhof Reserve with its system of fountains, which is fed from rivers and canals located in the Orzhits region. People believe that the leachate from the landfill will inevitably have a negative impact on the historical monument.

“The second part of our problem is the water supply system of the fountains,” says Dmitry Parshikov. – The filtrate will quickly flow into the fountains. There is such a thing as a height difference. With "Brandovka" not everything is so simple. It is located at around 80 meters. In the area of the village of Petrovskoye, the mark is 40 meters, in the area of \u200b\u200bstreams - 56. There is a slope in both directions. The leachate is a natural product of the landfill. We look at such landfills that are already operating in the Moscow region, and we understand that we cannot get rid of the leachate. In addition, for several years now, the design of a federal nature reserve has been underway - to protect the water supply system of fountains. We've been through this before. Exactly in the same place there was a state farm and a pig farm. And he eventually affected the water, it deteriorated and began to smell. In the 90s, all pig farms were closed. Because in the end, the runoff from the fields reached the fountains, everything stinked and changed color. We understand that the filtrate will go the same way”.

According to activist Andrey Neznamov, the residents' efforts have caused the project to slow down but not stop completely, although almost all regional authorities oppose the people. Activists point to the manipulation of documents and wording. In search of the truth, people turned to the President of the Russian Federation, to UNESCO and even to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, pointing out that there are 12 churches near the future dump.

“We managed to slow down the ice rink that is coming at us”, - says the activist. “There were public discussions a year ago, and most of the negative feedback was on our facility. But the waste management committee gave the same answer, which boils down to the fact that there will be surveys that will show everything. We believe that these events were held formally and challenged them in court. The second plot is the theme of the reclamation of the old quarry. All officials say that disturbed land of natural value has been provided for waste processing complex, these are exhausted quarries that require reclamation. We have made a titanic effort to establish the truth. Our quarry, unlike others, has already been reclaimed. As a result, forest plantations were made and an official reservoir was created. And this information was hidden from us. It was voiced in response only to the request of a State Duma deputy. The cynicism is that simultaneously with this answer to the deputy, the same officials gave us the answer that the object requires reclamation. When we wrote that we know about the work done and we have an answer to the deputy, we were given an even more interesting answer: although the quarry has been reclaimed, it still needs to be reclaimed”.

According to the activists, they were on duty near the quarry all summer to prevent work from being carried out, since the contractors did not have the necessary documents - a forest development project. Because of this, the research was delayed.

But the only officials who took the side of the two villages are the administration of the Lomonosovsky district of the Leningrad region, which writes appeals together with the activists.

“The administration has taken a principled position, we support the residents”, - said the representative of the administration Irina Marinkina, “we sent applications to all responsible committees, sent comments, taking into account the protection zones of water bodies. In addition, they pointed out that, according to the law, it is generally impossible to reclaim quarries with waste. We also notified the GMZ "Peterhof" and the water utility of St. Petersburg. These are heavyweights, they also sent a harsh letter to the Nevsky Environmental Operator. The area proposed for the waste processing complex is indeed superimposed on the water supply system, this is wine according to the maps, there is a significant coverage of water protection zones, protection zones of power lines, a water conduit to Kronstadt, a gas pipeline and regional roads. The district is not interested in such an object. This will stop construction in the entire district”.

Issue not resolved yet

As Novye Izvestia was informed by the press service of the Nevsky Ecological Operator (NEO), no decisions have yet been made regarding the waste processing complex near Orzhytsy.

“On this territory of the proposed location of the Yugo-Zapadny waste processing complex (formerly Brandovka) in the Lomonosovsky district of the Leningrad Region, additional surveys are currently underway, designed, among other things, to assess the possible impact of the proposed activity on the nearest water bodies that are part of the Peterhof water supply system, - reported in the company. “The final decision on the design will be made only after analyzing the survey results and conducting additional consultations with all interested parties”.

At the same time, the complex near Peterhof is not the only problematic one. Residents of settlements near the Ostrovsky quarry (to the north of St. Petersburg) and Dubrovka (to the east of the city) also oppose similar KPOs. Over the past year, residents there have held several actions, including rallies, which they were able to agree on, despite the covid restrictions.

“The projects of waste processing complex Ostrovsky and waste processing complex Dubrovka passed the stage of public discussions in May-June of this year. The positive conclusion of the state environmental review of the project documentation for KPO Ostrovsky was received on October 10, 2022. The project documentation for KPO Dubrovka is still in the process of being reviewed by the state environmental review”, - the NEO said.