Waste production (unfortunately) is an integral part of people's lives. Oddly enough, but in some cases, landfills can also serve for the benefit of mankind. So, thousands and thousands of valuable archaeological discoveries were made precisely after researchers dug the oldest garbage pits.
From them one can judge the nature of the nutrition of people of that era, the level of development of their technologies, the beginning of the domestication of pets ... Unfortunately, modern landfills have no value. They are sources of infections and persistent pollution.
Considering that the lion's share of modern garbage is plastic and polyethylene, one cannot count on biodegradation either. But it is much more difficult to dispose of hazardous waste, especially from chemical and medical enterprises. To do this, it is necessary to create special training grounds for the equipment of which increased demands are made.
One of the most famous in our country is the Krasny Bor test site. Currently, he is led by Moiseev Alexander Yuryevich.
General characteristics
This is a landfill that was specially created for the disposal of highly hazardous industrial waste. This place is located some five (!) Kilometers from the border of St. Petersburg. In total, today there are already more than one and a half tons of highly hazardous materials in burial grounds, and their number is only increasing from year to year. Considering that initially such a rapid growth of the city was not planned, today the Krasny Bor test site is officially recognized as extremely dangerous for St. Petersburg, and therefore a decision must be made on its conservation.
It got its name from the village of Red Bor, which is a couple of kilometers from the landfill. The choice of location is simply explained: under the village there is a powerful vein of Cambrian clays, which provide excellent waterproofing of hazardous waste repositories. This dump began to work in 1970.
Design error
It was believed that a thick layer of clay would reliably prevent the entry of hazardous waste into groundwater. Alas, already in the 90s it was obvious that the containers did not retain their tightness. As a result, there is a dangerous pollution of rivers, lakes and fields that are adjacent to the landfill. In addition, there is significant
air pollution, although this is strictly prohibited for landfills of this class.
Almost all experts believe that the Krasny Bor test site has completely exhausted its resources. This confidence is fueled by constant fires, which have already become the hallmark of the landfill. The prosecutor's office has a fairly reasonable suspicion that the ignition of garbage is far from accidental. Perhaps, some people are trying to get rid of batches of especially hazardous waste.
Reasons for Claims
For a long time it was believed (according to the old Russian tradition) that all attacks on the landfill come only from a false fear of the waste that is stored there. Alas, all fears are fully justified.
So, already in May 2007, during a rather superficial inspection, gross violations of all possible environmental standards were revealed. It was carried out by the specialists of Rostekhnadzor. IN AND. Matvienko, who at that time held the post of mayor, supported the conclusions about the need to build a new burial ground, but suggested waiting until 2008, when the necessary funding appears.
We note right away that the Krasny Bor test site was closed in 2014. As much as seven years after the decision on the need for its conservation! Alas, the domestic bureaucratic machine has never been particularly speedy.
Some misadventures
Before closing, there was a fire almost every year at the training ground. Let's look at the most significant and famous. It is possible that many incidents were simply not reported to supervisory authorities.
Back in 2006, there was a major accident that occurred due to the explosion of barrels of toxic waste. What exactly caused the detonation was not fully understood. The fire was quickly localized and extinguished.
In 2008, the situation was much more dangerous. Several barrels of fuel oil caught fire (or some similar substance), after which the fire almost instantly spread over an area of 200 square meters. Within a couple of hours, the fire blazed on a site of almost two thousand square meters, spreading further.
As in the previous case, the causes of the incident were not fully established. The prosecutor's office suspected deliberate arson, but after the strong impact of the fire on the alleged sections of the evidence, nothing remained there.
In 2010, a fire broke out again. According to established tradition, barrels of fuel oil and other waste from the oil refining industry were blazing. This time the fire spread already over an area of five thousand square meters. Only at the cost of enormous efforts and through the use of almost all the special fire equipment collected from the free areas, in the evening they managed to put out the fire and prevent its spread in the direction of the city.
Only after this incident did the authorities seriously think about modernizing the landfill. For some reason, the question of closing it was no longer there.
How many different “why” ...
All of these incidents are united by several similar factors. Firstly, in no case have the authorities and commissions been able to figure out what specifically caused the fires, and barrels of fuel oil just do not ignite.
In addition, in the 2010 fire, the management of the landfill was convinced until the very end that the site with tires was on fire, although firefighters themselves quickly found out that the fire was spreading at an incredible speed due to oil products that were stored there instead of tires.
After that, Rostekhnadzor and the prosecutor's office had a lot of questions about the technical condition of an extremely dangerous facility, whose management did not even have technological maps of burials. It is safe to assume that today no one knows for sure which waste is buried and where.
Closed, but problems remained
In 2009, the license expired, according to which the Krasny Bor test site operated. The reception of waste was stopped, the storage seemed to have begun to be prepared for conservation. Citizens and residents of the village of Krasny Bor rejoiced. Still, the headache of the entire area was eliminated!
The joy did not last long. In the
rivers of the Leningrad region , the concentration of toxic substances increased sharply. After the trials, it turned out that many enterprises were not at all eager to take their waste to other landfills, and therefore their representatives simply buried hazardous materials in the territory of ordinary landfills for municipal solid waste. Of course, there was no question of any control over their burial and the integrity of the containers, and therefore the consequences were not long in coming.
After that, GUPP Krasny Bor test site was reopened, a license was issued for another five years, and this time its operation expired just in 2014.
New time
As you might have guessed, after the final (seemingly) exhaustion of the landfill resources, the question of its fate was, it seemed, finally resolved. Indeed, the Krasny Bor test site, the license of which has already expired, simply cannot be used due to a legal ban! But it was not there! This year, after the license, which was issued in 2009, expired, many organizations asked the city authorities to extend the life of the landfill.
No such decision was made. The leadership of the Leningrad region said that the notorious waste landfill was closed completely this time, and there would be no more talk about the possibility of continuing its operation.
From empty to empty
Despite the closure, lots of waste continue to be dumped. The reason is simple - there simply is no other place in the region where this kind of waste could be disposed of. The organization of a new training ground of this class will cost the city treasury almost four billion rubles! Naturally, such money is simply not there.
In addition, the site of the Krasny Bor landfill constantly reports on cases of environmental pollution that occur due to a violation of the integrity of the waste storage containers. Naturally, this problem must be solved in any case. How?
Prospects
There is no single answer to the question of the fate of the landfill to this day. It is assumed that some of the particularly toxic garbage will be buried in some kind of concrete sarcophagus, and the remaining volumes need to be burned. Of course, not in conventional recycling furnaces, but in a special factory equipped with the best air purification systems. Of course, the construction of such an object will be extremely expensive, but such a solution will destroy not only the accumulated waste volumes at the landfill, but also newly arriving materials.
When will the project be implemented? No one knows, but for the safety of the Northern capital it is advisable to sharply speed up the work, as more and more toxic waste flows from storage facilities every year.
These are the problems faced by the Leningrad Region. Red Bor is one of the most painful topics.