Caspian Sea 2011

2010

stock of 5,4 million tonnes of sulphur (as of March 2011), stored in solid blocks on specially designed pads. Depending on the end-use for these mate- rials, the sulphur blocks are melted and turned into granules or flakes and transported by rail. As the sulphur market is highly cyclical with a long- term demand, production has fallen behind in re- cent years. This has led to an increase of sulphur stocks. It is projected that the sulphur stocks of two major oil companies - AGIP and Tengizchevroil - will reach 35 million tonnes by 2020 (UNECE 2008). Russian Federation: In the Caspian region of Russia the cause of negative impact on the ma- rine environment and the Caspian coast is root- ed in activities of industrial enterprises (produc- tion, transportation, processing and utilization of oil hydrocarbons, mining and processing of mineral resources, fishing), agricultural activi- ties and municipal enterprises. The Astrakhan oblast is an important transport center, where the Caspian marine environment, the Volga River and railways and highways inter- sect. The main mineral resources in the oblast are hydrocarbons (oil, gas and gas condensate) and sodium chloride. The Baskunchak sodium chlo- ride deposit is one of the largest in the world, 98% high quality, supplying 80% of Russia’s total de- mand. The oblast also has construction materials - gypsum, limestone and others (CEP 2007a). According to the Baseline Inventory, there are four significant industrial waste pollution hot- spots. These include three of oily waste and one of phosphorous sludge, as well as two large mu- nicipal solid waste landfills in Mahachkala and Astrakhan and many scattered small industrial and municipal solid waste dump sites. There is an acute problem of municipal solid waste management in the Astrakhan oblast. In ear- ly 2007, the amount of waste collected was more than three million tonnes. In 2009 around 400 thousand tonnes of waste were accumulated, most of which were municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste of the same category (polymer-

waste, plastics, cardboard, paper and packaging materials). Solid waste of the city of Astrakhan and the surrounding territories is disposed in the city landfill, covering an area of 37 ha. Landfill capacity was estimated as 12.3 million m 3 . At the beginning of 2011 the volume of landfill was utilized by75%. The landfill operates since 1984 and is currently the object of high environmental risk due to pro- cesses of technogenesis and raise of water table, high emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere due to lack of protective layers of soil insulation. Frequent fires occur at the landfill. Enterprise “The Environmental Complex ECO+” is engaged in processing of liquid and solid wastes contaminated with oil products and has an organized storage area for recyclable waste. Simi- lar activities are performed by Astrakhan branch of “Lower Volga Product” JSC “Lukoil”, which has a capacity of processing and disposal of 40 tonnes of waste oil per annum. In 1970, special oil pits were constructed for storing fuel oil residues, but they have not been in use since the 1980s. They have accumulated a large amount of waste from drilling oil, oil containing waste waters, oil sludge, drilling bit cuttings, stratum contaminated with oil prod- ucts and other waste products. Concentrations of oil products in oil pits are currently between 30 – 400 g/kg. The subsoil in oil pits is described as being heavily polluted,(concentration of phe- nols is exceeding maximum persistent concen- tration). The oil products concentration in the ground water is also high. More than 4.2 million tonnes of waste of vari- ous hazard categories have accumulated in store- houses, dump sites, waste disposal ponds and on open ground in the Republic of Dagestan. Most of the solid waste polygons or landfills do not meet sanitary and ecological requirements (TACIS 2009). For example, the authorized landfill at Makhachkala, located 6 kms away from the city, is often set on fire.

The wastes include about four million tonnes

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