Children's porridge with arsenic and mercury: what does the landfill in the Kuban bring to the country

Maria Dubinskaya

However, apparently, the locals are very far from calling the situation satisfactory - on the contrary, people actively continue to sound the alarm.

The village of Poltavskaya is called the "breadbasket of rice". From here it goes, without exaggeration, to all regions of our country (for understanding, 40% of Russian rice is produced here).

According to the latest data, more than 26 thousand people live in the village. It is the administrative center and the largest settlement of the Krasnoarmeisky district.

A large-scale waste dump practically buries the villagers' hopes for a bright future in their native and beloved land.

“They tried to intimidate people, they wanted to silence and not give publicity to what was happening Officials allocated more than 30 hectares of fertile land for a new garbage dump in our village of Poltavskaya. Currently, they are filled with garbage from closed landfills, because there is no more space. Cars are streaming along our only street, where there are not even sidewalks. Children are deprived of the opportunity to safely get to school!” Natalya Garyaeva, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a resident of the village of Poltavskaya, told the Caucasian Knot publication in January of this year (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation - editor's note.).

Activists are trying to convey to officials and the public information about the critical situation in the village. People have repeatedly written to the governor of Kuban and to the presidential administration. As of January 2022, more than 5,000 signatures of stanitsa residents were collected on the closure of the landfill that stinks throughout the district.

The feelings of the residents are easy to understand: as local officials officially reported, “according to the information of MP ZhKH LLC of the Krasnoarmeysky district (this is an organization engaged in entrepreneurial activities at the landfill; 118 Kommunisticheskaya Street, - NI) in 2021, the landfill received 75.5 thousand tons of MSW from the Krasnoarmeisky, Slavyansky and Crimean regions.

Meanwhile, the administration of the Krasnoarmeisky district clarified that as of January 1, 2022, the residual capacity of the landfill is only 862,000 tons. But that's not all.

“According to the territorial scheme for the treatment of MSW in the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, the mass of waste generated from the city of Sochi and the municipality of Tuapse district (Belorechensk zone) in the total amount of expected waste to the landfill will be 404 thousand tons per year, officials were horrified by the sad future”, - informed the site "Live Kuban".

“As they say, you immediately feel the difference between what they plan to import and how much the landfill is able to accept,” the portal noted.

In 2021, local residents told reporters from the Yug Times online publication about the roads of the village destroyed by garbage trucks, the stench coming from the landfill. And also about the fact that the village area adjacent to the landfill has lost its attractiveness, and now it is difficult to sell a house here. They talked about the fact that the environmental problem affects the interests of not only Poltava residents, but the entire region due to the fact that water arteries communicate with the Sea of Azov.

Employees of Rosprirodnadzor have repeatedly identified various violations at the landfill.

For example, in 2020, a burial site for household and construction waste was discovered on the territory adjacent to the landfill. The facts of chemical contamination of the surface layer of the earth and the overlapping of the soil with artificial flooring were also revealed, Tsargrad reported.

After that, OOO MP "ZHKH" of the Krasnoarmeysky district was brought to justice. A re-inspection of the legal entity in January 2021 also led to the initiation of an administrative case.

However, even after that, residents continued to complain about non-compliance with environmental legislation at the landfill.

One can get an idea of what the villagers generally think about this problem from a selection of comments from the online edition of the socio-political newspaper of the Krasnoarmeysky district "Voice of Truth":

Arkady Zorinyants,

- As a citizen and as a doctor, I think that bargaining on the issue of “more garbage should be transported to the Poltava landfill or less” is inappropriate. Dumps under the village, and even close to irrigated agriculture, should not exist at all.

Ivan Tuboltsev, military foreman, chairman of the Council of the Cossack village society, Honorary citizen of the village of Poltava:

- Dump, from the word dump ... How much can you?! It would be time to rake already. In general, I come to the conclusion that our village is long-suffering... Either they cut the Cossacks to the root, then they were evicted. Now it's even better - they poison with garbage. I read somewhere that in addition to harmful gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide, the landfill exudes 140 concomitant substances hazardous to human health. It should not be. Let's remember the biblical one: "... a time to gather stones and a time to scatter stones." Let's start collecting.

Anton Igolkin, deputy of the Poltava rural settlement:

- The news about the redirection of flows from Sochi and Tuapse was the last straw for the residents of our area. Any landfill causes damage, even if done 100% according to all standards. And our standards go off scale - unrealistically exceeded. We want an honest independent review. If this issue is resolved in favor of Poltava residents, I give my word that I will do everything to make every inhabitant of the village become more environmentally friendly: do not litter anywhere, separate garbage, hand over hazardous waste (lamps, thermometers, batteries) for recycling. We live here.

Father Vasily (Starchenko), rector of the church of the village of Poltava Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos:

- I am categorically against the fact that there was a dump on the threshold of our house, our beautiful village. I will say in a simple way, so that it is not scientific, but understandable. No one in the Cossack farmstead arranged a latrine next to the porch. On the contrary, they carried him out of sight, somewhere in the garden. And we get everything in the neighborhood - a landfill, houses of Poltava residents, Erik, a school ... Well, rice too ... actually grows in a landfill.

A slightly different emphasis on the situation related to the MSW landfill in the village of Poltavskaya was placed at the end of December 2021 by the head of the district, Yuri Vasin, at a session of the Council of Deputies of the district:

“Let's remember: a decade and a half ago, garbage dumps, and spontaneous ones, were in every settlement. Over the past ten years, by common efforts, it was possible to restore order by creating one - licensed - landfill for MSW. The work that is currently being carried out there is the fulfillment of the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor for compliance with environmental legislation, nothing more. The polygon will not expand and will remain within the same boundaries. We are talking about the organization of high-quality sorting and processing of waste, for which reconstruction is being carried out with the installation of local treatment facilities.

And then: garbage has been transported to our landfill from the Slavyansky and Krymsky regions for two years now, but for some reason this did not cause concern to anyone before. If we close the landfill, where will we take ours?

A regional commission headed by the vice-governor of the region Alexander Trembitsky visited Poltava on Tuesday. An unequivocal conclusion was made: our landfill is not ready to increase the amount of garbage received, so there is no point in increasing its flow here. As for the redirection of garbage trucks from the streets of the district center, for this a bridge will be built in the near future from the side of the highway to the village of Cheburgolskaya.

I am among those who do not intend to leave the village of Poltava. Therefore, its environmental well-being is far from being indifferent to me. We will act strictly within the framework of the law, and if something goes wrong, the relevant authorities, the prosecutor’s office and Rospotrebnadzor, will correct it.”

Be that as it may, at the beginning of 2022, Rosprirodnadzor sent a letter to the prosecutor's office of the Krasnoarmeisky district in order to hold MP Housing and Public Utilities LLC liable for littering the territory adjacent to the landfill with light fractions. The measures taken, as reported by a number of media outlets, finally "brought results: the site was cleaned and sanitary order was established."

What is meant by this mysterious "sanitary order" is not entirely clear, at least the emotions of the villagers have not subsided, since the problem has not been resolved.

In particular, deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory Natalya Garyaeva and Roman Polivoda , residents of the village of Poltavskaya, at the end of April in a video titled “Do not eat rice or how Russia is being poisoned. Mercury and arsenic from officials - into children's porridge" told on the YouTube channel of the deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma Nikolai Bondarenko "The Diary of a Deputy" about truly frightening things:

“The crux of the problem is that all this garbage is at the heart of the rice system. It is surrounded by irrigation canals.

The distance from the landfill to the irrigation canal in some places is less than ten meters!

Considering that this landfill was created in the 1990s of the last century, it is clear that it does not meet any modern requirements. Previously, the toxicity of garbage was completely different.

This landfill is in the flood zone. We have a floating zone. The water is very high.

And all the products of decay as a result go into this rice system, into the irrigation canals. Also, the water intake of the village is literally two kilometers from this landfill.

Aquifers become contaminated - all this can get into drinking water!

The residents of the village, who live 600 meters from the landfill, have already contaminated water in their wells. There was a case when a herd of geese was poisoned by a local resident after drinking water.

People fill up wells, the water in the cellars is muddy; people fill cellars because there is water with the smell of filtrate. That is, filtrates are formed in huge quantities.

At the moment, according to official statements, garbage is collected from three districts: from the neighboring two and from ours. But it is known that before the New Year it was decided to bring garbage to our landfill also from Sochi and Tuapse.

These are millions of cubic meters of garbage! This is five times more than currently imported. And from that moment began to panic among the population.

The realization that five times as much rubbish would be brought here overnight made people angry.

And we began to delve into the problem.

Today we have the facts. We, as the Public Council, took fragments of bottom sediments from irrigation canals for analysis, took water from irrigation canals for analysis. And we have identified a colossal excess of pollutants.

But Rosprirodnadzor does not believe our analyzes. We are told you are not licensed to take such tests.

And when we contact the company "TsLATI" (FGBU "Center for Laboratory Analysis and Technical Measurements in the Volga Federal District" - approx. "NI") , we ask you to come and do an analysis, we explain that we will pay for everything, just come, send your specialist, who will take and conserve the trial sample - we immediately receive a refusal with the wording "we do not leave."

You just come, we will pay for everything! But they don't come!

We even made a comparative table of these bottom sediments, which were sent for analysis, all the excesses are indicated there. Some pollutants are exceeded by 40 times, others by 90 times!

And I also have a court decision: Rosprirodnadzor did the analysis itself, the TsLATI company, and it says that according to their data, which has already been officially confirmed, mercury is exceeded 32 times on bordering agricultural lands! That is, they themselves confirmed it. I have a court order. Arsenic is twice as high. That is, the concentration limits are exceeded!

In addition, we have testimonies of witnesses that, in addition to the prescribed waste that can be buried under a license, unlicensed waste is buried at this landfill.

For example, they bury the remains of animals, mercury lamps, which they must take to Krasnodar, to specialized companies, but, in order to save money, they pour out whole "Gazelles", in a huge volume, these mercury lamps, and bury them, crush them - and into the ground !

And then they level everything with an excavator. That's where our mercury is exceeded!

And these excesses are just the beginning.

Intensified pollution of our landfill has been going on for the last two or three years.

And it's only getting bigger and bigger! One can imagine what will happen next: there is no prospect of a decrease in these indicators".