Krasnyi Lyman Sloviansk


Kramatorsk Druzhkivka


Dobropillia Dymytrov Krasnoarmiisk Selydove a Kuakhove Marinka Vel. Novosilka


Dokuchaievsk Volnovakha


Amvrosiivka Komsomolske


Areas for future storage of waste


Unauthorized disposal sites


Mariupol Yalta Waste sites in Donetsk Oblast


Map produced for ENVSEC by ZOÏ Environment Network, September 2010 Source: The Land of our Concern, Ministery of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, Donetsk 2010


38 Novoazovsk


Domestic waste landfills, which are authorized for waste disposal for 2008


Domestic waste landfills, which are not


authorized for waste disposal for 2008


Industrial waste landfills Donetsk Novohrodivka Yenakiieve Avdiivka


Makiivka Yasynuvata


Zhdanivka Khartsyzk


Shakhtarsk Torez


Siversk Artemivsk Kostiantynivka Dzerzhynsk Horlivka Debaltseve


across Donbas annually release some 500,000 tonnes of these emissions in Ukraine, and about 120,000 tonnes in the Donetsk Oblast alone.


Tere is good reason to treat the dumps with extreme caution. One lo- cal expert described how they some- times look. “At night you can see a beautiful blue glow over the heaps. But do not be tempted to admire this romantic sight. Te glow is created by radiation from rare-earth metals at high temperatures inside the dumps.”


Snizhne


Tere are about 600 waste heaps in Donetsk Oblast leſt over from coal mining, mostly located in towns. Other mining waste, such as tailings, is also a source of concern, constituting a ma- jor source of heavy-metal pollution when acid drains from poorly man- aged or abandoned sites. Te high acidity of mine waters means heavy metals such as copper, zinc, cadmium, arsenic and lead can leach from the rock, severely contaminating surface and ground water, soil and vegetation. Tey can then enter and build up in the natural and human food chains, posing a serious risk to human health. In addition, mining and other indus- trial waste heaps generate about 10 million tonnes of dust in Ukrainian


cities and towns, again a significant health risk.


Te coal industry is not the sole source of abandoned and potentially harmful material. By 2002 about 10 bn tonnes of industrial waste had accu- mulated in Donbas, a total weight of 320,000 tonnes per sq km. Te waste comes from the mining, power and metallurgical industries. In some in- dustrial centres (Donetsk, Makeyev- ka, Gorlovka) the load reaches 3 m tonnes per sq km. Te Coal Minis- try is now closing 121 mining enter- prises and liquidating their assets. It says they contain 341 spoil dumps, of which at least 105 are burning. All the dumps need work to extinguish, re- shape, and/or replant them.


Over and above the dumps’ environ- mental impact growing industrial hazards fuel social tension, including pressure on workers to keep produc- tivity as high as they can whatever the risks, to themselves and to society. Despite the drop in production and the steps to improve safety, the num- ber of mine accidents is not falling.


Increasingly the obvious answer is to close a mine or other installation. But even that is not without risk. Con-


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