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Dzerzhinsk, Russia 
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Background
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Progress
Site Background
A once-secret manufacturing center of the Soviet Union's defense industry, Dzerzhinsk (population 300,000) has hosted many chemical factories, including production facilities for Sarin and VX nerve gas. Lead additives for gasoline, mustard gas, munitions, and other highly-polluting products have also had their birth in this city. While many of these factories are now shuttered, the chemical industry still employs over a quarter of local residents.
The groundwater and soil around the city, about 250 miles east of Moscow, remain severely polluted with phenol, arsenic, dioxins, heavy metals, and a host of other toxins. Indeed, a dominant ecological landmark in the area is the “White Sea”, a 100-acre-wide lake of toxic sludge discharged from nearby factories.
Clearly, Dzerzhinsk faces huge challenges in managing this legacy of toxic wastes. It holds the ignominious title of "The Most Chemically Polluted Town" in the world. Greenpeace claims that the average life expectancy of city residents may have shrunk to a mere 45 years. The city's annual death rate, 17 per 1,000 people, is much higher than Russia's national average of 14 per 1,000. And, according to researchers at the Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Hygene and Occupational Pathology, rates of reproductive health disturbances affecting women and fetuses, as well as rates of respiratory and pulmonary diseases in children, are dangerously high. In study after study, the health impacts of these chemicals continue to dampen enthusiasm and drain resources needed for economic and social recovery in Dzerzhinsk.
While there are many pollution-related issues that cry out for investment and remediation in the city, water quality is of paramount importance. The Dzerzhinsk Committee of Environmental Control, a local government agency dedicated to finding solutions for pollution-related problems, has highlighted the degree to which the quality of drinking water in some residential areas of the city, damaged by years of discharge of as many as 150 separate toxic chemicals, does not come close to meeting safety standards. Despite this assessment, the city still draws its drinking water from the same aquifers abused by toxic wastes and unused products over many years.
Three areas of the Dzerzhinsk region are of particular concern. The first is the residential sector of Gavrilovka (population 1,000), about 2 miles away from a former tetraethyl lead production facility. Environmental testing conducted in 2002 by a Russian laboratory identified elevated levels of metals (e.g., lead, arsenic) and toxic organic compounds in the groundwater that serves as the primary source for residents' drinking water. Industrial wastewater discharges and solid waste leaching were identified as primary sources of groundwater contamination.
The second area of concern is the residential sector of Piri (population 4,000) where groundwater is also used as a major source of drinking water. The town is surrounded by swamps and the old local water treatment facility does not provide even an adequate level of groundwater cleanup. Drinking water tested was found to have ferrous-organic and fecal bacteria levels well above accepted safety standards.
Compounding these problems, the aquifers that supply Gavrilovka and Piri also feed into groundwater that affects larger population centers as far away as St. Petersburg.
The third area of concern is the Volosyanikha Canal, a site where industrial waste water from various chemical enterprises has routinely been discharged since the 1930s. Located in the eastern part of Dzerzhinsk's industrial area, the canal has long been a collector of toxic effluent and chemicals. Its sediment is loaded with arsenic, mercury, lead, and chromium, as well as organic pollutants such as dioxins.
This canal now poses an even greater threat that extends beyond Dzerzhinsk itself. Due to reduced industrial activity and the closure of chemicals plants, the consumption of groundwater by industry has fallen significantly, resulting in a rising water table. The toxin-collecting canal is now in direct contact with the groundwater, causing the canal to overflow and release its toxins and pollutants. In addition to the problems this causes residents of Dzerzhinsk, groundwater from this territory feeds the Oka River Basin, which is the drinking water source for the metropolis of Nizhny Novgorod.
Blacksmith Institute has launched a project to identify effective solutions for improving the quality of drinking water in Gavrilovka and Piri and to prevent the further release of toxins from the Volosyanikha Canal into the Oka River Basin. Supervision and implementation of this project will be through the Dzerzhinsk Committee of Environmental Control.
During 2004, several options to improve drinking water quality will be evaluated by the committee. For example, in Gavrilovka, the construction of a six-mile-long extension of a successful drinking water distribution system located in a nearby town will be considered. In addition to review of existing data on water pollution and regular, updated testing of water quality using internationally accepted protocols, the committee will develop and publish specific plans of action to address water quality issues at each site.
