Management of Contaminated Sites and Land in Central and Eastern Europe

Russia

Country Characterisation

In Russia, the state institutions in relation to the nature protection were organised just after the international programs nature protection had been adopted e.g. the program of UNESCO from 1968 (Paris) and the program of OON from 1972 (Stockholm).

In 1972 in the former USSR, the decisions of the Government about the foundation of a state national system of the monitoring of environment and control of environmental pollution was accepted. In 1978, the National Committee of the Environment Protection was organised.

A considerable part of the arable land is subject to degradation under the influence of wind and water erosion, dehumidification, loss of nutrition, desertification, and contamination. Erosion is the main factor leading to degradation of soil on large territories.

Contamination is playing an active role in smaller areas, but the ecological consequences of this type of soil degradation are more dangerous. The control of the main groups of contaminants in soil is performed according to the program of the soil monitoring. The results of the soil monitoring are presented in the annual national reports "the land status utilisation in Russia", which have been published regularly since 1993.

For military purposes approximately 12.8 million ha land are used by the Russian Ministry of Defence of which 5.1 million ha are forests. At approximately 7 million ha, military land use has been stopped because of the environmental impacts involved. Many military sites are located in heavy industrialised areas, i.e. the Ural region, the region of Moscow, the central Volga basin, and the Kama basin. For security reasons activities of the Soviet army at military sites were kept in secret. In general, military sites were not required to follow any specific environmental regulations up to the middle of the 1980ies.

Official publications refer to contaminated sites as spots or areas which pose a risk to the environment and which are not necessarily of the same size as the property.

In a decree of the Russian Federation, from December 1993, military sites and natural resources, which are used by the Ministry of Defence, are considered as "Natural Resources of the Russian Federation". Military research centres without shooting ranges and armament and production plants are considered as civil sites. The Ministry of Internal Affairs runs a variety of sites, which are very similar to military sites, i.e. sites with armed forces. These sites are not considered as military sites.

The protection of nature is a national problem in Russia according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The following acts form the legal basis for the management of contaminated sites and land:

	The law "about the protection of atmospheric air" from 1982.
	"The earth code" from 1991.
	The law "about the ecological expert evaluation" from 1995.
	The law "about soil melioration" from 1996.

Also important are the decisions of the Government of Russia and the working decisions of the Government of the former USSR:

	About soil monitoring from 1982.
	About standards for pollutants emitted to the atmosphere from 1981.
	About standards for pollutants emitted to the environment from 1992.
	About contaminated soil from 1992.
	About the monitoring of the environment from 1994.

There are a number of normative methodological instructions, which regulate different types of this activity. The National Committee of the Environment Protection has worked these out.

In 1993, a requirement to carry Environmental Audits at military sites on an annual basis was laid down per law in decree N406-1993.

Critical levels of e.g. heavy metals in soil are estimated on basis of a sanitary-hygiene approach. The aim of the approach is the protection of humans from the impact of contaminants. However, now it is clear, that the major aim of the estimation of critical contaminant levels in the environment (including soil) should be the protection of the ecosystems in general including humans as part of this.

The Ministry of the Environment and its corresponding regional departments are responsible for remediation targets. Clean-up criteria are in general defined according to the previewed land use.

The National Committee of the Environment Protection heads the protection of nature in Russia. Also involved in decisions on environmental and ecological problems, and realisation and control of environmental legislation are:

	The Council of the Russian Federation.
	The government of the Russian Federation.
	The Ministry of the Environment of the Russian Federation.
	The Land Resources National Committee.
	The National Committee on Hydrometeorology.
	The Ministry of Agriculture.
	The Ministry of Health Service.
	The Federal Service on Forestry.
	The Russian Committee for internal affairs.
	The Russian Committee for fishery.
	The Russian Committee for cartography.
	The Russian Committee for forestry.
	The Russian Committee for meteorology.

During the identification of potentially contaminated sites the tasks of the Environment Authorities are:

Detailed definition of the location of the potentially contaminated sites and estimation of the quantity of contamination and assessment of the risks involved.

	Definition of fines for environmental misdemeanours, issue a requirement to the polluter.
	Control of the remediation of the environmental damage and supervision of the remediation activities.
	To issue an environmental certificate after remediation.
	To implement measures for the protection of the environment.

The environmental authorities can force the polluter per law to comply with the clean-up requirements. It is noted that this also applies to the military.

The Environment Department of the Ministry of Defence is responsible for environmental issues at military sites. In general, only military staff deals with environmental issues at military sites. However, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Ministry of the Environment and their regional agencies deal with the management of contaminated sites at military sites. Remediation activities at military sites have to be carried out by external parties, which can be civil as well as military. The environmental authorities can support remediation measures at military sites with financial or technical support.

The scientific institutes of the academies of science and the academies of the agricultural science at the universities of Russia take an active part in working out strategies of nature protection and in preparing instructive documents dealing with soil protection.

The soil status in the industrial centres is monitored on local and regional levels. An overall ecological monitoring is also performed in Russia. The aim of the overall monitoring is the control of areas, which are far from local sources of pollution, and therefore receive pollution by long-distance transport (including transboundary pollution).

Registration

Up to now there are no inventories on contaminated sites.

However, the Ministry of Defence has made an inventory of military sites situated in sensitive environments. In total, 470 military sites have been included in the inventory.

MD = military district

The arable land is contaminated at the highest degree in areas surrounding the industrial centres. As a rule, the soil is contaminated in 5-km zones around these centres. The main sources of contamination are the enterprises dealing with energy production, metallurgy and transportation.

The soil is greatly affected by aerosols, and solid and liquid waste. In Russia, about 20% of the areas surrounding the industrial cities with a population of more than 1 million are contaminated.

Within the soil monitoring program, the selective control of 1997 showed that 3% of the total area of the arable land is contaminated by heavy metals. Due to reduced plant production in Russia, this area has not increased during the last years. However, at the same time the area of contaminated land did not decrease. Here, contaminated soil is defined as soil with contents of Pb, Cd, Cr or Sn exceeding the background levels 10 – 40 times. Furthermore in the industrial regions, the arable soil is contaminated by dioxins. Commercial fertilisers have been suspected as source of heavy metals in the arable soils, but no evidence of this has been found.

The soil of almost 3% of the arable land is also contaminated with pesticides. It is estimated that high levels of DDT, metaphos and trephlan are present in the soil in these areas.

The problem of soil contamination caused by the oil industry is very important for Russia. Due to the numerous accidents, this type of contamination is rather widespread within the oil production sector. E.g. the number of oil spill accidents in West Siberia during 1995-97 amounts to some thousands.

Concerning military sites, most of these were built in the 1950ies and 1960ies, very poorly maintained and far from today’s standards. Many environmental damages were caused along routine operations as described beneath:

	Total dust emissions deriving from military sites was about 700,000 tons, of which only 100,000 were filtered.
	The total amount of wastewater from military sites was about 500 million m³ in 1994, of which about 100 million m³ were not treated.
	The total annual waste volume deriving from military sites amounts to about 10 million tons of domestic waste and 850,000 tons industrial waste. About 90% of the domestic wastes are disposed, in many cases on unsafe waste sites.
	The total annual consumption of mineral fuels is about 10 million tons. It is estimated that about 0.2% of this amount is lost due to handling losses or leaking tanks. It is estimated that about half of the mineral oil stocks are in a very bad condition. As a result, soil, surface, and groundwater contamination with mineral oil products is increasing from year to year.
	Wastewater and solid wastes deriving from marine bases are usually dumped directly to the sea.

Areas at military sites where the potential for contamination is very high are described beneath:

Car parks, stocks for equipment, maintenance facilities, car wash facilities, and petrol stations: Contamination with hydrocarbons, solvents, acids, and heavy metals. Hydrocarbons are the most frequently occurring contaminants (in 50% of the investigated cases). It is estimated that approximately 3,100 ha of land are contamination with hydrocarbons and that several hundred thousand tons of hydrocarbons have been lost. Between 1992 and 1993 contamination profiles of 9 military sites were carried out: Chkalowski, Kresty, Solzy, Tver, Emgels, Mosdok, Jeisk, Kamensk-Uralski, and Yelizovo-5. At all military sites soil, groundwater, and surface water contamination was identified. In all cases, free oil phase of kerosene was found on top of the groundwater.

Waste disposals. Interim or final disposal and waste treatment facilities: Contamination by various, chemicals, PCBs, dioxins, and heavy metals. The total annual waste volume deriving from military sites amounts to about 10 million tons of domestic waste and 850,000 tons industrial waste. About 90% of the domestic wastes are disposed, in many cases on unsafe waste sites.

Missile launching sites / Space Technology: Contamination with 1,1-dimethylhydrazine and metal scrap. A special problem of contamination exists at missile launching sites, i.e. Plesetsk and Kapustin Jar. Affected are not only the launching sites themselves but also areas where discarded missile elements crash to the ground. The affected areas are estimated to have a total surface of 5 to 9 million hectare. It is estimated that about 10,000 metal residues are distributed all over the country. After the missile launching, carrier missiles are discarded and crash to the ground. Carrier missiles contain considerable amounts of unburned fuels especially 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, a highly toxic substance.

Nuclear waste disposal / Radioactive Wastes: The operation of nuclear powered submarines and marine ships produces nuclear wastes. Besides that, nuclear wastes were generated at military sites, where nuclear weapons were stocked. The annual amount of liquid radioactive waste ranges between 18,000 m³ and 20,000 m³. In 1994 the amount of radioactive solid waste amounted to 3,500 tons. Radioactive wastes are collected, treated, and disposed. Most of the nuclear waste sites have already reached the limit of their capacity. In addition, nuclear wastes are dumped into the sea.

Sewage systems: Hygienic problems due to untreated wastewater or leaking sewage systems.

Shooting and test ranges: Contamination by explosives, chemicals, hydrocarbons, and heavy metals.

There is no estimate on the number of contaminated sites.

Identification of Potentially Contaminated Sites and Areas

The Russian Federation has a standard procedure regarding environmental certification of the state of potentially contaminated soils. They concern the different types of soil resources: arable lands, pasture, forest lands and so on. The arable lands are investigated more detailed. There are some dozen of documents, which regulate the investigation methods of the identification of potentially contaminated soils. The list includes more than 50 normative acts of the Russian Federation, more than 40 documents of the State Committee of the Environmental Protection and Hydrometheorology, and the same number of documents of some other Ministries (Health service, Agricultural service, Transport, Statistics and so on), near 50 State Standard documents, and more than 500 Instructions, which conclude the description of the methods of soil samples selection and their laboratory analyses.

It is planned to determine the different types of the contaminants: heavy metals, pesticides, oil and oil-products, and radionuclides. The different demands are made to the soils of the different types of utilisation. Pesticides are controlled in the arable soils, and the points of soil sampling are usually distributed evenly. Heavy metals are determined in soils predominantly around the industrial sources of contamination and according to the distance from these. The analytical methods are standardised. The certification is made on the base of the critical standard levels of each type or pollutants.

Concerning military sites, identification of potentially contaminated sites and areas have been made by environmental audits carried out at a variety of military sites. The audits have been made since 1992, when the Ministry of Defence established the Environment Division and one-year later the Environment Centre. Objective of the environmental audits is to create a database for environmental information at military sites and to establish a standard procedure for the assessment of identified contamination. Environmental Audits are supposed to be carried out on an annual basis.

In 1994, environmental compliance controls for military sites started. Since then, pre-assessments have been carried out at 1,868 military sites and environmental inspections at 4 marine bases. Results revealed that most of the sites were contaminated and did not comply with the legal requirements. In view of the enormous number of sites, estimates on the extent of contamination were not possible. The Russian Federation has a standard procedure regarding environmental certification of industrial facilities (Union Standard 17.0.0.04-90). The procedure is valid for civil as well as military facilities. A first attempt to establish a standard procedure for the identification of contaminated areas at military sites has been made:

	The Russian Ministry of the Environment has drafted a guidance document "Guidance for the Assessment of Environmental Conditions at Military Sites". The procedure as described in the document has been tested along a variety of Environmental Audits.
	Framework guidance has been issued for the assessment of groundwater contamination. The guidance is based on a 2-tier procedure:

	Tier 1 describes the classification of military sites according to their environmental compliance.
	Tier2 involves geo-hydrological investigations and the carrying out of an Environmental Audit. Based on the obtained results, hot spots of contamination and the distribution of contaminants are assessed, and a remediation plan and cost calculation are set up.

Although a standard procedure for the investigation of military sites has not been established yet, the procedure as described below was more or less applied for most of the investigated military sites.

Preliminary Assessment: Collection of information concerning the general environmental condition of a site; i.e. storage of hazardous substances, existence of subsoil tanks, and vulnerability of ground and surface water resources. The activities of the preliminary assessment include:

	The collection of archive data.
	Visual inspections of the site (on-site visit).
	Qualitative and quantitative assessment of the vegetation.
	Identification of potential contamination sources.
	Geo-referencing (mapping) of potentially contaminated sites and potentially contaminated environments (soil, groundwater, vegetation, surface waters).
	Set-up of a sampling plan, with specification of the sampling depth.
	Mapping of already existing dwellings and groundwater wells.
	Investigation of hydro-geological conditions and assessment of the groundwater quality.
	In some cases application of remote investigation technologies such as radio spectrometry, radar and laser monitoring.

The preliminary assessment is completed with a report including the assessment of the contamination and the feasibility of conversion to agricultural land use, and furthermore a concept for a feasibility study on conversion to agricultural land use and detailed investigations.

Preliminary Classification: The site is subdivided in smaller areas, which are classified in different risk categories according to identified substances and the vulnerability of the environment.

Investigation of Contaminated Sites and Areas

Areas for detailed investigations are selected. Afterwards, specification of the distribution of contaminants, risk assessment, and drafting of remediation plan is made.

There is no standard procedure for the detailed investigation of contaminated sites.

Most frequently applied are quick methods for the identification of hydrocarbons, such as geophysical methods and drillings.

The differentiation of the technology methods of contaminated soil facilities depends on the type of pollutants, the type of polluted landscapes, and the size of the polluted area. They include mechanical, chemical, physical, biological, agrochemical, and agrotechnical methods.

Mechanical methods consist of the moving away of the contaminated soils and keeping it in special storehouses. The last are disposed in the types of landscape, in which this is safe from an ecological point of view. They include also the putting of the clean soil layers on top of the polluted soils, which protect the surrounding media from the pollution. The methods of burring of polluted soil and the mixing of polluted material with underlying layers concern the mechanical methods too. These methods are used as a rule to improve the lands polluted with the inorganic contaminants.

As far as the organic pollutants such as pesticides, oil and oil-products, the methods of microbiological destruction and thermal decomposition of pollutants are used. These methods are not very wide spread. Among the physical and chemical methods different sorbents such as zeolites, activated carbon, and some resins are used.

Agrochemical methods are the most widespread. They consist of the carrying in the polluted soils lime, organic and mineral fertilisers. Their action is based on the ability of the fertilisers to increase the stability of plants to contamination and to increase the rate of decomposition of organic pollutants.

Special attention has been paid to the development of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) decontamination methodologies (see also space technologies). However, a variety of specific clean-up technologies have been developed:

	A special adsorbent has been developed for DMH contaminated soil and microbiological technologies for the treatment of DMH contaminated wastewater.
	Furthermore, technologies for the decontamination of liquid radioactive waste.
	In the case of hydrocarbon contamination, conventional technologies are usually applied. Hydrocarbon contaminated soil is usually excavated and biologically treated on-site. For hydrocarbon contaminated groundwater, pump and treat technologies are usually applied.

The Environment Authorities (Ministry and regional agencies) retrieve some funding from fines for environmental misdemeanours. This money is partly used for remediation measures at military sites.

Remediation activities can also be covered from the normal budgets of military sites or from their research budgets. The Ministry of Defence has also the possibility to carry out investigations at contaminated military sites on its own.

Some states of the Russian Federation support the remediation of contaminated military sites; i.e. Astrachan, Archangelsk, and the Republic Nordossetien.

Furthermore, the interstate environmental council of the community of independent states (CIS) has established an interstate foundation for environmental protection measures.

The polluter pays principle is applied. Therefore, e.g. the Ministry of Defence is liable for remediation measures at military sites. However, it is noted that the Ministry of Defence has no separate budget for the remediation of contaminated sites.

The polluter has the possibility to pay compensation instead of taking care of the remediation himself. The liability is hence transferred to the recipient of the compensation.

Scale of the Problem and Handling Costs

During the last 10 years, the ecological state in Russia has not improved. The recession in the industry has more than twice provided a sufficient decrease of the pollution of the atmosphere and natural waters. For example, the level of oil pollution has decreased 4 times, and the level of different metals from 2 to 4 times. But at the same time, the soil pollution has practically remained at the same level. As far as Pb pollution, it has increased in the soils around the industrial centres due to the fact that the number of cars has increased almost twice at the same time.

During the last 10 years, the costs of the nature protection have changed. The relative quota of these resources has increased twice and become equal to 0,1 part of the total internal product. At the same time the absolute level of these expenses has decreased three times. The affairs of the Russian Federation to provide the environmental protection will be successful only when the investment in this business will increase may be from international resources too.

Some estimates on cost related to investigation and remedial activities at military sites have been made. In 1995, the annual costs to finance activities at priority cases and hence the most urgent safety measures were estimated to 39 million USD, corresponding to 0.26% of the budget of the Ministry of Defence.

Furthermore, a variety of regional departments of the Ministry of the Environment have calculated the costs for clean-up measures at some specific military sites.

Priority in Relation to Other Societal Problems

The main directions of the modern soil protection actions in Russia are the following:

1. The total stopping of the developing of new lands (now there are in Russia many nature reserves and some dozen national parks where any types of housekeeping are prohibited. They occupy almost 2,5% of the territory of Russia).
2. The recultivation of the polluted soils. This problem includes the working out of the methods of identification of the polluted soils, the modern express and correct methods of contaminated matter’s determination, and the perfection of the critical levels of the different pollutants in soils.

Illustrative Cases

No data available

Information provided by Larisa Janchik and Alexander Iakovlev at the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Environment Protection. April 28, 1999.

Ad Hoc International Working Group on Contaminated Land (1998). Ad Hoc CEE Forum on Contaminated Land. Report of the Warsaw Meeting, September 18, 1998. Report from the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape.

POPIN (Population Information Network) (1999). The Demography of Countries with Economies in Transition. At gopher://gopher.undp.org/00/ungophers/popin/wdtrends.

Schaefer, K.W., F. Bieren, et al. (1997). Internationale Erfahrungen der Herangehensweise an die Erfassung, Erkundung Bewertung und Sanierung Militärischer Altlasten. Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency), volume 1 and 2, Berlin, Germany.

UN/ECE Statistical Division (1998). Trends in Europe and North America. 1998 Statistical Yearbook of the UN/ECE. At http://www.unece.org/stats/trend/trend_h.htm. Based on figures from 1994 – 1997.