The Likhoborka River is located in Moscow, in the Northeast Administrative District. It is considered the right tributary of the Yauza River, it is the longest of the small rivers of the capital. Its total length is more than 30 kilometers, while only 10.5 flow in an open channel, 17.5 in an underground collector and a little more than two kilometers in a bypass channel. Thus, it is also the longest underground river in Moscow. Its basin area is 58 square kilometers.
It originates in the area of the village of Novo-Arkhangelskoe, its mouth is located near the metro station "Botanical Garden", near the Yauza River. Since 1991, the mouth of this river has been officially declared a natural monument.
Geographical position
The source of the Likhoborka River is in picturesque forests near the village of Novo-Arkhangelsk. Not far from Korovino, it takes the right tributary - Businka, and then flows through the underground collector. It returns to the surface only in the area of Likhoborskaya embankment, crossing the Savelovskoe and Oktyabrskoe directions of the capital railway.
After that, the path of the Likhoborka River runs right under the depot of the Serpukhov-Timiryazevskaya metro line. Flowing along the northeastern outskirts of the Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences , it flows into Yauza (in the vicinity of the Botanical Garden metro station).
The main use of the Likhoborka River is to irrigate the Moscow and Yauza rivers with Volga water, which is discharged from the Khimki reservoir through the Golovinsky ponds.
Title
Most likely, the name was given to the river by the forests surrounding it in the 16th century. The whole area was then covered with oak forests, hills and birch groves.
The Likhoborka River, the photo of which is in this article, could also get its name from Dashing Bor - the so-called road to Dmitrov, which was considered extremely dangerous because of the robbers hiding in these dense forests. According to another version, its name may be due to the villages of Upper and Lower Likhobory.
Under Emperor Peter I, along the riverbed, it was planned to organize part of the waterway to the Volga.
In 1765, an English merchant Franz Gardner built a porcelain factory in these places, which has survived to this day.
In Soviet times
During the Soviet era, the Likhoborka River in Moscow became shallow. On the map of 1952, we can only meet a stream at the site of the Khovrinsky hospital, then there was a swampy area.
During World War II, trenches were dug on the territory of the Botanical Garden, and artillery was on the banks of Likhoborka itself.
In the 50s of the last century, Moscow began work on uranium enrichment, which was carried out under the leadership of Beria. The goal was to create a nuclear shield and conduct research in the field of peaceful atom. In the area of the capital, then radioactive dumps began to form. According to historians, the waste from hazardous production was taken to the city, where it was covered with a meter layer of soil. The repository on the Likhoborka River is considered one of the most dangerous radiation dumps in Moscow.
Tributaries
The right tributary of Likhoborka is the Businka River, flowing in the north of the capital. Its length is only 4.5 kilometers, in addition, part is in the reservoir. The river begins at about two solid waste landfills, and under the Moscow Ring Road it goes into the collector, reaching the surface only in the industrial zone. After that, she returns to the collector again - up to the confluence with Likhoborka.
The Zhabenka River connects the Lower Likhobory and Petrovsko-Razumovskoye areas near Moscow. In floods, it spills heavily, flooding coastal villages. Deguninsky stream is also known as Spirkov is enemy. Nowadays, it is entirely in the underground collector.
The left tributary of Likhoborka is the Cow Enemy stream. Also to the tributaries of this river include Aksinyin, Beskudnikovsky, Epiphany streams, Golovinsky ponds.
Ecopark
In 2004, the city authorities created an ecological park called Likhoborka. It was declared a natural monument of regional importance. Soon, the banks of several Moscow rivers began to be put in order, and a plan for the improvement of the Likhoborka river embankment was drawn up. In addition, we cleaned the riverbed, removed parking lots and garages from the adjacent territories, and built sports and entertainment facilities and cultural and leisure facilities.
Since 2014, when the leadership of Moscow parks received the right to independently distribute money for the repair and improvement of territories, the Likhoborka River Valley park was taken over by Lianozovsky Park.
Now it is planned to create a specially protected natural area at this place. In the summer of 2017, work was carried out to deepen and cleanse the river bed from debris, and coastal zones were equipped. It was noted that the previous cleaning was carried out only in 1939. At the same time, the Architectural Supervision Office issued an order anyway, noting that the pond was cleaned without all the necessary approvals, and heavy tracked equipment was used, which damaged the entire ecosystem.
The metropolitan government plans to organize a green area with places for cycling and hiking. The Park "Likhoborka River Valley" is located on Altufevskoe highway, 8a.
In 2017, it was planned to erect the first Buddhist temple in the capital of almost three thousand square meters on the bank of Likhoborka.
Coastal development
In 2016, it became known that the banks of Likhoborka could be built up. The Moscow government decided to withdraw the experimental fields of the Timiryazev Academy, which were located just on the river bank, for these purposes.
The problem was that the groundwater located directly beneath these fields fed not only Likhobrok, but also the ponds of the Timiryazev Academy, water bodies at VDNH, connecting them with each other. It is assumed that the development and drainage of these territories will cause serious damage to the adjacent forest, which is home to many rare species of animals for the capital.
Now in these places is actively developing. The main disadvantages are the lack of a metro station in the area of Likhoborskaya embankment, metro lines do not pass even in close proximity to these places. The closest station is the Water Stadium, located on the Zamoskvoretskaya line. This is more than two kilometers from the embankment, so it is the closest to get from here by land public transport.
At the same time, do not go public transport on the embankment itself, and the nearest stops are in the area of Avtomotornaya and Onegskaya streets. Shuttle taxis and more than a dozen routes of large-capacity city buses go here.
Ecological state
Now the river valley is in critical ecological condition, it is simultaneously polluted by several dozens of enterprises unsuccessful from an environmental point of view, as well as snow-melting chambers of Mosvodokanal.
Since 2008, in the Khovrinsk industrial zone, just 50 meters from the river, an unauthorized landfill for solid household waste has appeared, the area of which has now reached one hectare. To prevent further dumping of garbage, 24-hour environmental police posts were even put up on the territory. And a few months later, another unauthorized landfill in the area of the scientific and production base of Decorative Plant Growing was placed at once by two enterprises organizing the removal of solid waste. Metropolitan utilities began work on clearing the banks of the river from garbage only in the autumn of the same year.
Fish resources
Fishing on the Likhoborka River has recently become very difficult. Especially after the mass death of fish was recorded here in the summer of 2008. Presumably, the cause was the release of hot water from one of the nearby thermal power plants. A study of water samples showed that the level of pollutants is not exceeded.
At the very end of 2014, the prosecutor's office established that the Mosvodostok state unitary enterprise for the operation of the capital’s drainage systems carried out wastewater discharges without preliminary treatment. Claims were sent to ensure the treatment and disposal of wastewater to the maximum permissible values of pollutants.
In January 2014, all news feeds reported that the waters of Likhoborka had turned orange. Environmentalists have suggested that the erosion of coastal clays after heavy rainfall and warming could be the cause.
At present, even despite the strong pollution by household garbage and the dumping of waste into the river, many diverse vegetation and animals are still preserved on the coastal territories. Now in the river there are four species of leeches, mollusks, crustaceans, dozens of species of fish. More than fifty birds nest on the shore. In 2017, many mallards were found in the Likhoborka basin.
Place in place names
You can find in Moscow a lot of toponymic objects named after this river, even several Moscow streets. So, at the end of the 19th century, the First and Third Likhoborsky Dead Ends existed, as well as Verkhnelikhoborskaya, First and Fourth Likhoborsky Streets.
And since 1950, Deforestation and Newly Designed Driveways have been renamed the First, Second, and Third Likhoborsk Passages. Nowadays, there is Likhoborsky Bugry Street, and there is also Likhoborskaya Embankment.