How in the Leningrad region merchants ruin nature with landfills

Who will compensate for the harm caused to nature and people is still unknown. Household waste, seeping into groundwater, poison all life, killing the biosphere and provoking the occurrence of diseases in the population. Everyone knows about the completely legal creators of landfills. Residents of the Leningrad region are accustomed to being encouraged to report suspicious objects and equipment related to garbage transportation from the pages of print media and in regional television programs. It is interesting that the Nevsky Ecological Operator, which has occupied dozens of hectares of land for its landfills, is calling for a complaint.

The NEO company bears the proud name of the regional MSW management operator in St. Petersburg. That is, it is the Nevsky Ecological Operator that takes solid municipal waste from the entire multimillion-dollar metropolis to its landfills. In receipts for utilities in St. Petersburg there is a separate line "MSW handling or" Garbage collection, "which contains payments for services provided by the regional operator. That is - the company "NEO." There is no alternative to these scavengers than the Nevsky Ecological Operator actively uses.

For example, in the past, the code was caused by the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which literally saved the flooded Dubrovka quarry in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region, refusing to exclude it from the state water register. In accordance with the plans of the Nevsky Ecological Operator, a large waste processing plant with an adjacent solid waste landfill should be erected on the site of a pine grove, a man-made lake and a clean sandy beach.

Local residents unsuccessfully went to protest rallies, tried to reach out to the terribly busy head of "NEO" Ekaterina Gorshkova. Only the arbitration court located in Moscow was able to stop the bulldozers and garbage trucks of the Nevsky Ecological Operator. There, probably, the main scavengers of the Northern capital do not have enough connections to use the so-called "telephone law".

Unfortunately, it was not possible to stop the construction of the Ostrovsky waste processing complex in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad region. Meanwhile, its launch threatens with negative consequences of regional proportions. The piquancy of the situation is given by the fact that, after a year of proceedings, Glavgosexpertiza managed to give a positive decision with negative results of the project study.

The fact is that the authors of the Ostrovsky waste processing complex project have provided for an insulating layer of clay a meter thick to protect the site where "non-recyclable" waste will be stored. Meanwhile, as the examination noted, environmental risks remain. Each recycling complex has an extensive landfill for the disposal of so-called "tails." That is, all the chemical rubbish from the trash heap will seep into wells, lakes and rivers, poisoning the local population? Nevertheless, as already mentioned, venerable experts approved the project.

In fact, perhaps a year is left before the start of the environmental disaster? In accordance with the NEO plan, the Ostrovsky complex will start operating in 2026, processing up to 600 thousand tons of waste per year. The landfill is going to be set up on the Lembolovskaya Upland, which is one of the key catchment areas of the Karelian Isthmus. This territory forms the hydrographic network of the region: part of the rivers from the hill flows into the Gulf of Finland, others, including Vuoksa, the lake-river system, including lakes and channels in Finland and Russia. They also feed Lake Ladoga with its unique freshwater seals. Therefore, due to the so-called artesian filtration, garbage poison will spread over many water arteries of the northern region.

There is another alarming circumstance. The Ostrovsky waste processing complex, according to the idea, should re-use about 15% of the garbage brought in, another 40-45% will be sent to compost, and 20% will be used for the production of alternative fuel. What will happen to the remaining 20-25% of the garbage is completely incomprehensible. There is a possibility that the Ostrovsky quarry will have a large dump with all the accompanying problems: toxic dirt, as well as rats and gulls spreading the infection.

The third planned Brandovka waste destruction complex threatens to provoke a smaller, but much more noticeable disaster. KPO "Brandovka" decided to build on the Alekseevsky quarry, which is located in the forest, next to the Brandovka quarry. The management of the Nevsky Ecological Operator continues to believe that the technical solutions included in the project during the construction of the landfill will eliminate the ingress of toxic filtrate into the reservoirs of the Water Supply System of Peterhof Fountains.

A number of experts disagree. The fact is that the extremely close location of the landfill to the reservoirs of the feeding system of the luxurious royal fountains of Peterhof, and the height difference between the Brandovka landfill and the surrounding area, is a potential threat. Simply put, the waste of the landfill may possibly get into the system of famous fountains, where there are always many foreign tourists.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that the territory of the Alekseevsky quarry belongs to preserved natural objects. In 2020, the site was returned to the forest fund after reclamation. A reservoir was created here, additional forest plantations were carried out. The total area of ​ ​ the site is 14 hectares. Meanwhile, for the construction of the landfill, it is planned to cut down at least 40 hectares of forest surrounding the site. The same one that is part of the projected reserve "Upper Rivers of Peterhof Road Parks"?

Residents of the Leningrad Region have long understood that the waste destruction complex is, first of all, a huge landfill, and only then a "plant." The same "Brandovka," located right at the origins of the Peterhof fountains, and only a thousand meters from residential buildings, by definition cannot be environmentally friendly.

Most of our compatriots, since Soviet times, are used to believing in justice and are confident in their abilities. That is why the "garbage reform," which has been going on in St. Petersburg for several years, is accompanied by discontent among residents of the Leningrad Region. On their account there is a significant victory: together with environmentalists, protesting citizens defended the lake and the adjacent grove of the watered quarry "Dubrovka." Residents of the region oppose the construction of new waste processing complexes for one simple reason. Together with environmental experts, they are confident that instead of factories they will create huge landfills. It seems that only energetic measures of the environmental department and the prosecutor's office can change the situation. Otherwise, the operators of municipal waste will not understand that it is impossible to take garbage to natural oases.