Radioactive Waste Tanks Damaged - Chechnya

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Chechnya's Environment Said Damaged - Radioactive Waste 
Tanks Damaged

URUS-MARTAN, Russia (AP) - Huge pillars of greasy black smoke 
rise into the Chechen sky, towering over people who trudge past 
long-uncollected trash and fear drinking the water. After six months 
of war, Chechnya suffers environmental damage that makes it 
barely recognizable to its residents. 

Chechnya's environment was devastated in a 1994-96 war with 
Russia, and its soil, air and waterways still hadn't recovered when 
fighting resumed last fall. In some places, it is bare of all foliage - 
cut down by residents desperate for wood to heat their homes. 

In the southwestern city of Urus-Martan, residents say the sewage 
system stopped working long ago, and people who fled here to 
escape fighting between Russian forces and rebels elsewhere in 
the republic tell of land tainted by oil from destroyed wells and 
littered with animal cadavers. 

Snow sometimes falls in black flakes and a slick oil grime that 
covers streets and homes can be tasted in food and water, they 
say. 

``You wake up in the morning and if you breathe too deeply, you 
start coughing, said Asya Azimova, who recently fled the village of 
Oktyabrskoye. ``You drink the water and it feels like you're 
swallowing a rock.'' 

``You live in a place all your life and you leave for a few months. 
When you return, you can't recognize it because all the trees have 
been cut down,'' said Shakhid Arsamerzayev, a 32-year-old refugee 
from the town of Alkhan-Kala. 

Most damage has come from Chechnya's oil wells, many of which 
have been blasted by Russian warplanes. Refugees say scores of 
wells have been burning out of control for months, often turning the 
daytime sky black. 

One of the most damaged areas in the mountainous republic is the 
capital, Grozny, which is surrounded by oil refineries and was the 
target of massive Russian airstrikes for months. More than 2 
million tons of crude oil has leaked from the refineries, Gen. Boris 
Alexeyev, director of environmental safety for the Russian military, 
said recently. 

``The oil pollution is a colossal problem,'' said Alexei Yablokov, a 
prominent Russian environmentalist. ``The spills are huge and just 
sitting there, not being cleaned up, contaminating important 
waterways.'' 

Oil pollution was also a major problem after the first Chechen war, 
when bombs and sabotage from both sides burst open wells. 

After that conflict, hundreds of makeshift refineries sprouted up 
around the republic as enterprising Chechens siphoned off oil from 
a major pipeline for fuel. Those refineries were not built with 
ecological safety in mind and contributed to pollution even before 
the war damage. 

Yablokov also said that bombs had damaged storage facilities 
holding radioactive waste around Grozny. The dumps store used 
medical and research equipment that contain radioactive cesium 
and other elements, which could cause health risks to people living 
nearby, he said. 

Alevtin Yunak, the deputy chief for ecological safety in Russia's 
armed forces, told the ITAR-Tass news agency that a third of 
Chechnya's territory has become ecologically unsafe. 

Officials in Dagestan, which borders Chechnya to the east, say 
that the Terek River, Chechnya's largest waterway, is completely 
covered by a film of oil, in some places up to 2 inches thick. 

Refugees also said infection was spreading quickly in several areas 
of Chechnya because dead animals had been left to rot in the 
fields. They said some had been poisoned after grazing on ground 
spoiled by oil and bombs, while others were shot. 

``We go into a village and there are the bodies of dogs, chickens, 
cows, sheep, horses just rotting there. The snipers pick them off 
for pleasure,'' Azimova said. 

Many of the walnut trees and oaks that once lined the main 
highway leading west from Grozny have been whittled down to 
stumps by Chechens seeking firewood. The few farms that survived 
or revived after the last war again stand empty or ruined. 

Refugees described ruined forests and barren and burning fields 
where homes once stood. 

``The ecological situation in Chechnya is catastrophic,'' said Zalina 
Abiyev, a 57-year-old refugee who fled Grozny. ``We're all afraid to 
go back because we'll die like flies there, guaranteed.''
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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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