"Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances: Central and Northeast Asia Regional Report"
United Nations Environment Programme, December 2002
https://iwlearn.net/resolveuid/1946c1f28aed08b804427301ae5e0...
Kamchatka Oblast - Pesticide landfill built in 1979-1982 at foot of Kozelsky volcano. 102 t of various pesticides.
...
In the Central and North East Asia Region, the former Soviet Union has major hot spots for obsolete pesticides. A meeting held in Moscow on 7-8 February, 2001 by the Arctic Council for “The ecological reasonable management in field of stores of out-of-date pesticides“ project have identified priority Regions whereby the inventory of out-of-date pesticides should be documented. These Regions are the Kamchatka Peninsula, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and Tyumen Oblast of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, inventory for out-of-date pesticides in three sub-boreal Regions have been identified: Altai Krai, Kurgan and Omsk Oblast (Shekhovtsov, 2002). Members of the Commonwealth of Independent States have a large quantity of PTS which are obsolete and redundant. A conservative estimate suggests there is greater than 150000 t of obsolete pesticides. Much is in poor condition and not properly managed (PAN UK, 2000).
The "reasonable" rubs me the wrong way. Not "safe", not "holistic", but "reasonable". As in something that doesn't put a noticable dent in some bottom line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Krai
A person might start to wonder whether massive planetary poisoning is part of some plan ... a useful 'side-effect'.
According to local media, there have already been leaks from buried pesticides. Regional agronomist Anatoly Fedorchenko said in 2006 that “this amount [20 tons of arsenic] is enough to poison the entire northern Pacific Ocean.” Although the landfill was mothballed in 2010, additional checks are now due to be carried out.
edit: apparently I had too many filters on. Here's one with slightly more imagery: https://www.planet.com/stories/more-kamchatka-eco-disater-fr...
A few thoughts: seems to coincide with snowmelt... could be anything in the catchment area. Also, this is a volanic region so there's some possibility that there is some natural deposition of sulfuric acid. The latter also makes for great plausible deniability of course...
I wonder what kind of chemicals fit that profile?
It's nice to live in a country where doing that means lawsuits and jail time usually. I doubt there will be justice in this case.
You don't need a toxic to kill lots of animals.
I live in Canada where we take the environment more seriously still.
Unless a geothermal event were cutting through and releasing a natural hydrocarbon field (it's happened: Permian–Triassic mass extinction event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_...), organic chemicals would be unlikely.
My understanding is that Kamkatchka is too young geologically, as well as otherwise unsuitable, for there to be large petrochemical reserves.
when you are in Russia, especially outside of large cities, especially toward the East or North, the vastness of your surroundings doesn't let you feel that you can do anything that will make any sizable imprint on the surroundings, and that feeling has been ingrained into the psyche for generations (it also correlates, with some philosophers claiming a cause here, with the Russian approach to politics in particular and the whole worldview in general :). As result you do everything you need or want without thinking of consequences, kind of like a puppy behavior toward large dog (the issue of course is that the "puppy" has long since grown up and possesses a large nuclear and chemical industries among the other things) .
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2019/10/wreak-bar...
SURFERS in Kamchatka?! Err...Hardcore! Color me impressed!
The Russians have always been cavalier about pollution and, as much as it may be hard to believe for some Americans, even more cavalier than here in the US. Not the Russian people of course but their political systems whether Communist or post-Communist. Corruption, lack of accountability and so on. Then obviously Siberia is very large and very sparsely population and interested parties might think: big mess? No big deal.
Sort of like the intermontane west generally in the US. Wasteland, right?
Well the western US is generally considered to be a delicate arid ecosystems that is really easy to mess up permanently. A lot of it was really messed up from timber cutting, mining, and cattle ranching in the 1800's.
And it only looks like it's recovered because no one remembers what it was like before. There is a valley where the Mormons found a rich verdant prairie. And of course they plowed it under and grew the best crop of wheat they ever saw. And the next winter the winds blew the topsoil away.
What sort of nutters are Greenpeace to blame it on humans?
It's like they have no high school understanding of how the planet works.
