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Threats to water resources from hexachlorobenzene waste at Kalush City (Ukraine)—a review of the risks and the remediation options

  • 12th IHPA Forum and selected studies on POPs
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Abstract

The production of chlorinated solvents such as tetrachloroethylene and tetrachloromethane has resulted in large stockpiles of unintentionally produced persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including high content of hexachlorobenzene (HCB waste). HCB waste of 15,000 t arising from the production of chlorinated solvents at the Kalush factory in Ukraine was landfilled. In 2008, it was discovered that HCB and other pollutants were escaping from the landfill into local environment including the Sapogi–Limnytsia Rivers, tributaries of the Dniester River. This showed that the HCB waste was not appropriately contained and represented a threat to the Dniester River basin. A Presidential Decree of Ukraine was therefore issued requiring remediation of the site and excavation of the waste. Between 2010 and 2013, approximately 29,445 t of HCB waste and associated contaminated soil was excavated and exported to various EU countries for incineration. This excavation revealed that these wastes can corrode through their drums within a few decades with release of pollutants. Other sites at which chlorinated solvents were produced should therefore be assessed for possible similar pollution. Despite the remediation efforts and the excavation of the landfill, the Kalush area remains a POP-contaminated site requiring further assessment. A part of the waste was exported to Poland and is stored close to the Baltic Sea and is treated in an incinerator with small capacity over a time frame of years. This case and recent similar cases reveal that the control of POP waste for destruction even in EU countries needs to be improved.

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Notes

  1. The extraction procedure will be changed from the carcinogen benzene to toluene in future.

  2. See documentary film at http://uwaga.tvn.pl/reportaze,2671,n/the-carcinogenic-hcb-by-the-baltic-sea,135689.html

  3. The permit to import the HCB waste into Poland was given by Andrzej Jagusiewicz who was until recently the president of the Conference of the Parties of the Basel Convention for controlling transboundary movements of hazardous waste and their disposal http://uwaga.tvn.pl/reportaze,2671,n/the-carcinogenic-hcb-by-the-baltic-sea,135689.html.

  4. Small quantities of chlorinated solvents had been produced earlier. The production of chloroform for use as an anaesthetic, for example, started in the mid-nineteenth century, and carbon tetrachloride was produced from the 1890s to extract fats from vegetables (Rasmussen 1997).

  5. If, for example, the site has engineered containment but has not been adequately pumped to de-water it, then the leachate levels might be very high in the landfill and can cause corrosion of drums as well as transporting contamination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Institution Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 142, 03680, Ukraine

    Georgii Lysychenko, Valeria Kovach, Modest Gertsiuk & Iryna Krasnova

  2. POPs Environmental Consulting, 73527, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany

    Roland Weber

  3. Public Interest Consultants, Eaton Crescent, Uplands, Swansea, Wales, SA1 4QR, UK

    Alan Watson

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  1. Georgii Lysychenko
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  2. Roland Weber
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  3. Valeria Kovach
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  4. Modest Gertsiuk
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  5. Alan Watson
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  6. Iryna Krasnova
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Correspondence to Georgii Lysychenko or Roland Weber.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

This article is part of the series “Dioxin and POP contaminated sites” edited by Roland Weber, Mats Tysklind and Caroline Gaus (Weber et al. 2008).

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Lysychenko, G., Weber, R., Kovach, V. et al. Threats to water resources from hexachlorobenzene waste at Kalush City (Ukraine)—a review of the risks and the remediation options. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 14391–14404 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5184-1

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