Kazakhstan Is Located in Central Asia

featureem Paul Randall leads engineering research in the development of mercury risk mitigation and containment strategies and water decontamination research for EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, OH. He also provides technical support to Kazakhstan scientists through the U.S. State Department. Mikhail Ilyushchenko, Evgeny Lapshin, and Larissa Kuzmenko are with Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Telecommunications, Almaty, Kazakhstan. E-mail: [email protected]. Another example and the subject of this article is the mercury pollution at a chemical facility near the city of Pavlodar. Pavlodar is located in the northeastern part of the republic of Kazakhstan (near Semey) and situated on the Irtysh River. It has a population of more than 330,000 people. The Pavlodar Chemical Plant is contaminated with mercury as a result of industrial activity that produced chlorine and alkali during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Studies have identified significant amounts of mercury pollution in the soil, water, and sediments. Organic mercury compounds, particularly methylmercury, are present in the sediments. Methylmercury rather than inorganic mercury is bioconcentrated because organisms at various levels of the food chain better retain it. In particular, high levels of this compound were found in fish from Lake Balkyldak, which is located adjacent to the Pavlodar Chemical Plant. The mercury enters Lake Balkyldak as a result of soluble The Pavlodar Plant is Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, contaminated with mercury bordered on the north by Russia; on the east by China; on as a result of industrial the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan; and activity during the 1970s, on the west by the Caspian Sea and Russia (see Figure 1). Kazakhstan is by far the largest republic in Central Asia and 1980s, and 1990s. the second largest republic of the former Soviet Union, after Russia. During the Soviet period, the environment of Kazakhstan suffered serious harm. For example, between 1949 and 1991, the Soviet government conducted approxi- mately 70% of its nuclear testing in Kazakhstan, mostly in mercury compounds in the groundwater and surface the northeastern area near the city of Semipalatinsk (now water as well as a wastewater accumulation pond next to Lake Semey). Nearly 500 nuclear explosions occurred both above Balkyldak. The main forms of mercury in groundwater and below ground near Semipalatinsk.1 are soluble compounds of inorganic mercury, such as Kazakhstan also faces the problem of industrial and chlorides, sulfates, and complexes of organic acids. This urban pollution. In its eastern and southern cities, mercury problem is a serious health risk to the people of Kazakhstan has received harmful emissions from lead and the region. zinc smelters, a uranium-processing mill, chemical plants, For many years, the U.S. State Department has provided and other industries. For example, a serious case of mer- technical and financial assistance for the civilian conver- cury pollution has occurred in the River Nura and its sion of former Soviet biological weapons facilities to peace- floodplain (located in north-central Kazakhstan near ful purposes. With assistance from the U. S. Environmental Karaganda) where mercury-rich wastewater from an ac- Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. State Department has etaldehyde plant was discharged largely without treatment engaged many engineers and scientists in cooperative for several decades.2-4 research on environmental projects and several mercury awma.org Copyright 2006 Air & Waste Management Association february 2006 em 19 Figure 1. Kazakhstan (Source: CIA World Factbook, 2000). projects. The projects are implemented through the Inter- Figure 3. Concentration of total mercury in the topsoils (0–10 cm) national Science and Technology Center (ISTC), an inter- around the former electrolysis factory of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant. governmental organization dedicated to the nonproliferation of weapons and technologies of mass de- Chemical Plant is a joint venture that includes the mu- struction. ISTC pursues this objective by funding peaceful nicipality of Pavlodar as one of the major stockholders. scientific and technical research to former weapons scien- The chlorine plant operated from 1975 until 1993. In tists in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent 1993, the plant had to close the antiquated, environmen- States countries, using their skills for nonweapons devel- tally harmful chlorine production line, which used the opment projects. The U.S. State Department is attempt- mercury electrolysis process. The current plant manage- ing to engage personnel at the Pavlodar Chemical Plant in ment intends to equip the plant with new chlorine pro- commercially sustainable activities. duction lines using membrane technology, but lack of funding has so far prevented this. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PAVLODAR PLANT Building 31 was the main chlorine building where the Construction of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant was started by electrolysis of sodium chloride brine in mercury cells was the Soviet Union in 1965 with the intention to manufacture taking place (see Figure 2). Building 31 contained 80 both civilian commercial chemicals and military chemical mercury electrolysis cells. In the electrolytic cells, metal- weapons, including nerve gas agents.5,6 While chemical weap- lic mercury is used as a flowing cathode. The design load ons were apparently never produced at the plant, it was of metallic mercury for one cell amounted to approxi- designed for the production of new-generation binary nerve mately 5280 lbs. Electrolysis of sodium chloride brine was agents and the manufacturing of precursor chemicals for prepared from common salt from Lake Baskunchak in chemical weapon agents. Furthermore, the chemical com- Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. Annual output for the chlor- plex contained specialized equipment and intellectual ex- alkali plant was estimated at 112,700 tons of caustic soda pertise that was required for large-scale chemical weapons and 100,000 tons of chlorine. production. The plant covered 10 square miles and in its prime employed 6500 people, including several hundred EXTENT OF MERCURY POLLUTION engineers. Research studies carried out at the Pavlodar Chemical Plant Since 1991, the revenues from plant operations have have provided evidence of extensive mercury pollution. One declined drastically, and the plant is currently in finan- study by the European Commission indicates that the Irtysh cial and physical disrepair. Ownership of the Pavlodar River is not under threat (at the present time) of mercury contamination from the groundwater. Sampling and drill- ing of 200 boreholes, as well as groundwater modeling (i.e., Groundwater Modeling System software, version 3.1), con- cluded that the mercury plume is moving from the plant to the north practically in parallel with the Irtysh River. Presi- dents of Kazakhstan and Russia discussed these results during their meeting in Omsk in April 2003. It was decided that mercury cleanup activities would be funded by the Kazakhstan government and limited to containment of principal sources of mercury contamination. Decisions concerning the excavation and removal of mercury-containing materials was postponed and geared to the world prices for mercury and results of long-term monitoring. The baseline monitoring study was initiated in Pavlodar in summer 2004. As a result of this study, a principal mer- Figure 2. Former mercury cell chlor-alkali plant, Building 31. cury hotspot (1 km2) was identified around Building 31. Also, 20 em february 2006 Copyright 2006 Air & Waste Management Association awma.org Figure 5. Mathematical model of mercury pollution for the northern part of Pavlodar industrial region. Figure 4. Mercury contamination in topsoils adjacent to Lake Balkyldak and in the vicinity of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant. reproducibility as compared with CVAAS for total mercury; mercury concentrations in the topsoil (0–50 cm) exceeded some localized hotspots were identified; CVAAS was a more Kazakhstan standards (2.1 mg/kg). Within this layer of soil, suitable method when the mercury concentration is high (ap- the quantity of materials contaminated above 10 mg/kg is proximately 1 wt % Hg); and methylmercury levels at these 20,000 m3. The soil samples collected are summarized be- locations were low (range was .1 to 13 ppb methylmercury). low and the results are illustrated in Figure 3. As part of the European Commission study, water and • More than 130 soil samples taken at factory site sediment samples were collected. The data generated (herringbone grid, sampling depth 0–10 cm, showed the distribution of mercury in the water and bot- 10–20 cm, 30–50 cm) tom sediments of Lake Balkyldak, in neighboring under- • More than 200 depth samples (0.5–4.0 m) ground and groundwaters, in snow water and also in surface • More than 390 soil samples taken between the water from the chemical plant’s effluent sludge collectors, factory and Lake Balkyldak (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and in nearby water bodies. These data confirmed high 30–50 cm) levels of mercury pollution. Mercury concentrations in the • 24 spot samples in Pavlodarskoye village (0–10 cm bottom sediments of Lake Balkyldak were reported to be and 10–20 cm) up to 1200 mg/kg, and the water of the sludge collectors On September 11, 2001, EPA visited the Pavlodar Chemi- at 25 mg/L, which exceeds the maximum permissible con- cal Plant and collected a limited data set of samples to com- centration by 50,000 times (see Figure 4 for mercury con- pare the results to those of the other Kazakh studies. Soil samples tamination near the waste lagoons and the lake). During were collected from selected locations at the mercury cell chlor- the years in which Lake Balkyldak was used to receive alkali plant in Pavlodar within a 100-m radius of the plant. The effluent from the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, a significant samples were received in Cincinnati, OH, and analyzed using quantity of mercury-containing effluent was discharged into two methods: EPA method 7473 and EPA method 7471A.

Load more