Residents in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia have been shaken by reports that more than 550 tons of metallic mercury have been released into the environment over the last 27 years. According to the Russian State National Committee on Ecology, most of the mercury was released directly into the Angara River and traveled several miles downstream where it now lies concentrated in the sediments of the huge Bratsk Reservoir. The Angara flows into the Yenisei, which empties into the Arctic Ocean, a thousand miles north. It seems likely that some of this water-soluble mercury will inevitably reach the Arctic Ocean in doses large enough to threaten the entire ocean ecosystem.
The principal culprits are the Usolye and Sayansk chemical plants, which have used mercury to produce caustic soda and other cleaning agents since the early 1970s. The Usolye Chemical Plant has admitted to discharging 2.5 tons of metallic mercury into the Angara each month.
Until recently, the Bratsk Reservoir - one of the world's largest - was a source of drinking water for many nearby cities. Last year, after tons of mercury were found at the bottom of the reservoir, warnings were posted urging local citizens to avoid the reservoir at all costs. However, owing to Russia's economic troubles, the reservoir still remains a source of fish and other food products for many hard-pressed local residents.
When they were ordered to stop mercury discharges, the mill operators replied that there were no funds for modernizing the plants. Shutting the mills, they argued, would leave thousands of people without jobs.
An official memorandum written by Yuri Udodov, head of the Federal Committee on Ecology (FCE) in the state of Irkutsk, noted that this region has "the highest rate of discharge of metallic mercury into the environment for all of Siberia." (If the FCE's figures are accurate, the discharge rate may be the highest in the world.)
The FCE enlisted the help of the Siberian Institute of GeoChemistry to conduct investigations on the Bratsk Reservoir and its biological resources. Some 934 samples were taken from 198 lake-bottom sites. Tests also were made on vegetation surrounding the chemical plants, as well as on fish, aquatic birds and 93 residents of the neighboring town of Komovalovo.
The studies found extreme mercury contamination in soil, water and living things. In some areas downstream from the plants, mercury levels measured 3,000 times higher than normal. Mercury continues to seep into the waterways, via the factories' waste heaps and drainage canals.
The Usolye and Sayansk companies continue to defend the use of mercury-cathode electrolysis in the production processes, despite the fact that the region's life expectancy continues to drop, and health statistics show high incidence of birth defects and other health problems.
Local activist groups, such as the Baikal Environmental Wave, are attempting to educate people about this urgent problem, while seeking to identify methods to end mercury use and clean up the pollution.
But the problem may be too immense for any clean-up plans. The extent of mercury pollution in the ground around Usolye is equal to half the total global production of mercury in 1992. As a result, 75 miles of the Angara River and the surrounding area have been transformed into the world's largest artificial mercury deposit.
- Baikal Environmental Wave
Mercury Pollution Threatens Siberia and the Arctic Ocean!