A comprehensive project to recultivate polluted area in Russia's town of Usolye-Sibirskoye, which is located in the Irkutsk Region, will be completed by the end of 2021, the press service of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko said in a statement on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) A comprehensive project to recultivate polluted area in Russia's town of Usolye-Sibirskoye, which is located in the Irkutsk Region, will be completed by the end of 2021, the press service of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko said in a statement on Thursday.
The site was previously used for the production of chemicals by the Usoliekhimprom company, which ceased activities back in 2010. After that, a significant amount of waste was placed in underground tanks, as a result of which soil and underground waters have been saturated with hazardous chemicals. Earlier in August, Vitaly Lazarev, the head of the local civil defense and emergency department told Sputnik, that three out of 13 salt extraction wells located at the site contained a dangerously high amount of oil products.
"This and next year, within the framework of the priority measures, the most complex sites will be made safe. Meanwhile, by the end of the next year, the comprehensive project will be developed to recultivate the entire contaminated area," the statement reads.
The press service stated that a total of 400 million rubles ($5.5 million) would be allocated by the Russian government to launch the first stage of the recultivation project.
Moreover, the National Guard of Russia had started guarding the territory of the Usoliekhimprom enterprise, the statement said.
