THE ENVIRONMENT: Pollution plagues large areas of Ukraine (02/07/93)

THE ENVIRONMENT: Pollution plagues large areas of Ukraine

by Volodymyr Boreyko
Special to IntelNews

KYYIV - Large areas of Ukraine suffer from water, soil and air pollution, and much of the country's territory is affected by radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident. That is the reality confronting the second most populous newly independent state located on the territory of the former USSR.

Areas suffering permanent environmental pollution are located in the oblasts of Zhytomyr, Kyyiv, Rivne, Volyn, Vinnytsia and Cherkasy.

This includes territory with permanent radiation pollution at above pre-Chornobyl accident levels and the irradiation of the population at over 0.1 ber per annum. In areas adjoining Chornobyl (Kyyiv and Zhytomyr provinces) 80 percent of the radiation derives from isotopes of cesium-134 and cesium-137. Outside the 30-kilometer zone there are areas where 100 percent of the radiation is derived from cesium isotopes.

The total area polluted with cesium-137 at levels above 1 curie per square kilometer is close to 37,000 square kilometers including 1,960 square kilometers that are contaminated at 5 to 15 curies per square kilometer, 820 square kilometers at 15 to 40 curies per square kilometer, and 640 square kilometers at above 40 curies per square kilometer. The polluted areas include 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) of agricultural land and 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of forests. Thirty-two districts in six provinces have suffered various degrees of radiation. In 150 populated areas the average density of cesium-137 in the soil is 5 curies per square kilometer, with 22 of these being 15 curies per square kilometer and higher.

Water

In 1990, 19.7 billion cubic meters of effluent were dumped into the country's rivers, of which 2.9 billion cubic meters were toxic. The volume of this effluent continues to grow. Principal sources of water pollution include housing, and the metallurgical, chemical and oil-refining industries.

The problem of small rivers, of which there are 22,500 in Ukraine, is especially acute. Almost 25,000 kilometers of their length needs cleaning. The cost of this work is estimated at 3 billion karbovantsi (about $3 million U.S.). Small rivers are being intensively polluted with pesticides, mineral fertilizer and effluent from animal-rearing complexes.

The average annual outflow of the Dnipro River is 52.4 cubic kilometers. The total volume of effluent in the river is estimated by scientists to be 22 cubic kilometers - almost half the river's water.

A total of 10 billion cubic meters of untreated water was emptied during the last five-year period into Ukraine's lakes, ponds, rivers and seas. The principal polluter (80 percent) was the metallurgical industry.

Soil

The principal source of soil pollution is the misuse of pesticides and mineral fertilizer. However, lately there has been a noticeable fall in the use of pesticides. Compared with 1986, amounts used in 1990 fell by 30 percent and totalled 130,000 tons.

Residual levels of pesticides in the soil are found in all provinces, often in concentrations exceeding permissible levels. One problem is the use of unsuitable and banned pesticides. Over 12,000 tons of these have now been stockpiled. Nitrate levels in fodder crops exceed permitted levels by 30 percent.

Especially badly polluted areas (61,000 square kilometers) are concentrated along the Dnipro and Dnister rivers, in the Donbas, on the eastern part of the Black Sea coast, in the vicinity of the Chornobyl power station and in many major cities. Close to 116,700 square kilometers are very polluted, and 121,000 square kilometers are lightly polluted. These are located in continuous bands concentrated in the vicinity of the Chornobyl power station and the southern parts of Ukraine.

The most favorable areas for habitation, work and recreation in Ukraine are the moderately (114,800 square kilometers) and lightly polluted (49,100 square kilometers) parts of the country. Nearly all of these are located in the central, western and eastern parts of the country.

Water storage facilities occupy approximately 2.1 percent of the total land mass in Ukraine, while industrial plants take up close to 250,000 hectares. The mining industry has destroyed 226,000 hectares or roughly half a percent of the country's land mass. In the last 30 years the area of farmed land has been reduced by more than 2 million hectares (of these, 1 million was considered arable land) - and not at the expense of reforestation schemes or the creation of national parks.

The annual rate of agricultural land attrition exceeds 100,000 hectares due to construction of housing and industrial plants. In addition, there are losses from erosion chiefly in the eastern provinces and from salination in the irrigated south.

Air

Each year, over 10 million tons of pollutants are emitted into Ukraine's atmosphere. The majority of these are from the following industries: ferrous metallurgy, power, coal, chemical, oil and construction material. Emissions by the ferrous metallurgy sector are to blame for the high level of atmospheric pollution in cities such as Dniprodzerzhynske, Donetske, Zaporizhzhia, Komunarske, Kryvyi Rih, Lysychanske, Makiyivka, Mariupil and Odesa.

The problem of automobile pollution has become very acute, accounting for one-third of all atmospheric pollution (though there are fewer cars per person in Ukraine than in the West, they lack the emission control systems required in cars abroad). In many large cities such as Kyyiv, Lviv and Poltava, automobiles now produce approximately 70 percent of the pollution.

Problem areas

In Kyyiv the average permissible concentrations of five of 13 major pollutants are exceeded each day. These include phenol, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, carbon disulphide and hydrogen chloride. High concentrations of nitrogen dioxide are registered throughout most of the city.

The main reason for the pollution is the large number of plants without filtration or purification equipment, and the low efficiency of existing gas and particle filters (these are fitted in only 30 percent of plants). The filters process only 80.4 percent of toxic emissions: the rest are pumped directly into the air.

Automobile transport is the principal polluter in the city, contributing to over 75 percent of its total pollution. An environmental study conducted in 1990 in the suburb of Pecherske showed the annual losses to the city caused by automobile pollution to be 35.3 million rubles.

In 1990 the city consumed 1.13 billion cubic meters of water, 36 million less than the previous year. A total of 2.06 million cubic meters of polluted effluent was produced in 1990, 69,000 cubic meters less than in 1989. Industrial use of fresh water dropped from 26 to 20 percent.

The city's industrial effluent contains a high concentration of biogenetic, chemical and especially microbial pollutants. The unsatisfactory maintenance of the majority of internal water storages, of which there are over 300 in Kyyiv, contributes to the Dnipro river's pollution level.
In Donetske there are over 200 enterprises, mining concerns, and metallurgical and chemical companies. The city has a population of 1.15 million living in an area of 358 square kilometers. Approximately 320 kilograms of pollutants per person are dumped into the atmosphere each year. Within the city limits there are 108 mine dumps covering an area of 522 hectares. The levels of such substances as phenol, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur anhydride continually exceed permissible limits.

Of 56 lakes in Donetske Oblast, only 30 are relatively safe for bathing. Twenty-six are used by companies as settlement ponds for effluent. Each day forty industrial plants pump more than 186,000 cubic meters of effluent into open waterways, of which 2,000 cubic meters do not conform to Ukrainian sanitation standards.

Each year, plants in Donetske produce 20 million tons of waste, and yet there is no toxic waste disposal plant in the city.

The sewerage network in the city was built in the 1940s and 1950s and is not in satisfactory condition. Mining makes the land in the area subside and this has resulted in 3,000 to 4,000 breaks in sewer lines. As a result raw sewage flows to the surface or into waterways.

The Donetske Metallurgical Plant is located in the center of the city, with eight working open-hearth furnaces, none of which have flue gas filters.

In 1989 the Donetske mines brought 17 million tons of tailings to the surface, of which only nine percent was returned underground. The tailings take up large areas of arable land, pollute the atmosphere and increase background radiation. In the Donbas region there are 13,000 hectares of dump sites.

Forty-three percent of water quality tests in the province fall below minimum sanitary standards; they show increased levels of phenol, heavy metals and other noxious substances. Thus, 50 percent of the population of Donetske Oblast consumes unfit water. In 90 villages throughout the region there is no water at all, and it must be transported by land.

Despite the shortage of water in the Donbas, it is used unproductively. To produce one ton of pig iron in the Kramatorske Metallurgical Plant, 66 cubic meters of water are used, as compared to the national standard of 7 cubic meters.
One of the largest enterprises in the Dnipropetrovske Oblast, the Petrovsky Metallurgical Plant, produces almost 100 million karbovantsi of damage to the environment each year as a result of noxious fumes from its blast furnaces and smelting works. The cost to human health is impossible to calculate.

Forty-one percent of gas scrubbing systems in the plant are ineffective. Noxious emissions constitute 54 percent of all atmospheric pollution from enterprises in the western industrial region of the city. The level of harmful chemicals exceeds permissible limits by 1.5 to 4 times for sulfurous gas, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and nitric oxide, 14 times for phenol.

The incidence of bronchial asthma has risen in the city 12 percent compared to 1981, while bronchitis and emphysema rose 77 percent and child mortality 9.3 percent for the same period. In the last decade, deaths have exceeded births in Dnipropetrovske.

To satisfy their needs, Dnipropetrovske city plants draw from and return to the Dnipro River 230 million cubic meters of water annually, of which 167.9 million cubic meters are polluted and 5 million cubic meters are highly toxic.

Enterprises of the Metallurgy Ministry each year dump 60 million cubic meters of waste water into Ukrainian rivers, including millions of cubic meters of polluted effluent.
In western Ukraine Lviv has the unenviable distinction of having the most polluted air. In 1989 the emission of noxious substances into the air reached 121,800 tons annually.

Out of total atmospheric pollution, automobile pollution constitutes 77.3 percent: 91.4 percent carbon monoxide, 61.6 percent nitric oxide and 87.8 percent hydrocarbons.

Industrial enterprises occupy one-third of the city's territory. The results of 10 tests showed that in six cases the levels of carbon monoxide exceeded permissible levels by 5 to 10 times. Almost 80 percent of city residents breath air with higher than permitted levels of noxious substances. Almost one-quarter of the water that reaches Lviv is used for industrial purposes, despite an intense shortage of water in the city.

Volodymyr Boreyko is one of Ukraine's leading experts on environmental issues.

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