Modest GertsiukUkraine

The city of Kalush, located in Western Ukraine, was a major center of the chemical industry in the former Soviet Union. In particular, at the production association "Chlorvinyl" were produced perchloroethylene, carbon tetrachloride by direct chlorination of hydrocarbons. Hexachlorobenzene was formed as a by-product of this synthesis, the content of which in production waste was over 90%. According to the Stockholm Convention, this compound belongs to the persistent organic pollutants, and waste with hexachlorobenzene - to the first class of danger. As there were no such waste disposal plants in the Soviet Union at that time, it was decided to bury of hexachlorobenzene waste at a landfill near the city of Kalush. The waste was placed in iron barrels with a capacity of 200 liters and buried in the trench. As of 2001, there were 11,352.5 tons of hexachlorobenzene wastes at the landfill. Over time, the barrels corroded and hexachlorobenzene migrated into soils, groundwater and surface water. This posed a great danger to the health of the population of Kalush and other settlements located nearby. In view of this, it was decided to remove waste from the landfill. During the work on the removal of waste, the placement of waste and the state of contamination of soils, groundwater and surface water were monitored. Sampling was performed both from the surface and from wells located on the landfill. It was found by gas chromatography that the concentrations of hexachlorobenzene in the soil exceeded the maximum allowable concentrations by hundreds of thousands of times. Soil contamination reached a depth of 12 m and the maximum levels of contamination were at a depth of 2-3 meters, where waste barrels were placed. Significant exceeding of the maximum allowable concentrations of hexachlorobenzene was observed in groundwater and surface water in the area of the landfill. A map of waste location was compiled and used for their removal.