Press Release, 21.11.2022

Photo: Dmitry Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Dmitry Rybakov, a Yabloko deputy of the Petrozavodsk City Council, announced the results of geoecological studies of Petrozavodsk, Karelia, the standing Committee of the Council for Healthcare, Environment and Social Development. The study was conducted by the Institute of Geology of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the period from 2018 to 2022. According to the study, the urban area is contaminated with heavy metals. In particular, there was confirmed the presence of a technogenic geochemical anomaly in the central part of Petrozavodsk, where the former industrial site of the Onega Tractor Plant had been located.

On 16 November, 2022, an academic seminar was held at the Institute of Geology of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose senior researcher is Dmitry Rybakov, on the topic “Evolution of the Environment in the Anthropogen, GeochemicalAspects of the Dynamics of Modern Landscapes and Forecasting Environmental Risks in the South-Eastern Fennoscandia”.

For Petrozavodsk, the following research results were obtained:

– the urban area is polluted with heavy metals to a different extent. The presence of a man-made geochemical anomaly in the central part of Petrozavodsk, associated with a former industrial site, is confirmed;

– the waters of the Lososinka River in the area of ​​the former factory site are polluted with heavy metals, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations in fisheries from 2 – 7 times (copper, manganese, iron, and tungsten) to 70 times (mercury);

– alkaline and alkaline earth metals, including sodium, calcium, magnesium, strontium, potassium, barium, lithium, as well as arsenic, molybdenum, manganese and other elements get into the waters of the Lososinka River due to the filling of roads with reagents from the urban area and clogging with construction waste;

– biogeochemical studies jointly with the Institute of Water Problems of the North and the Institute of Biology in the Sainavolok area revealed heavy metal contamination of benthic organisms, and also obtained data on heavy metals in the ichthyofauna of Lake Chetyrekhverstnoe;

– methods have been developed for studying the territory of the city using Earth remote sensing data, including for obtaining information on the pollution of the territory, vegetation dynamics and other purposes;

– dangerous content of lead, cadmium, zinc and copper in macromycetes (higher fungi) was detected at the former factory site in the central part of Petrozavodsk, the issues of bioremediation of contaminated sites were examined;

– statistically significant relationships between the ecological condition of urban soils, weather factors and public health were identified, recommendations were made for organization of the work of emergency medical care in connection with cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases.

The relevant paper was handed over by Dmitry Rybakov, a deputy from Yabloko, to the Petrozavodsk City Council.

DMITRY RYBAKOV

is an ecologist, a Yabloko deputy of the City Council of Petrozavodsk, Karelia, and a member of the Yabloko Bureau.