Residents of Tula described how the dust from KMZ sends them life

Residents of Kosoi Gora in Tula have been complaining about dust for more than a decade, which, according to them, flies from the territory of the Kosogorsk Metallurgical Plant. A family living near the enterprise claims that pollution settles in the yard, on window sills, garden paths and underwear. The history of the struggle with the problem told “Tula press”.

Tatiana Grigorievna spent most of her life in the north, and now lives in Yakutia. Twice a year she visits her son Michael in Tula. According to the woman, the contrast between the clean northern air and the situation near the house on Demeshkovskaya Street is especially noticeable.

The apartment in the house number 35 family bought about 15 years ago. The plot on three sides is fenced with a fence from a profile sheet, and the fourth side adjoins the wall of the Kosogorsk Metallurgical Plant. As Tatiana and Mikhail tell, at first the neighborhood with the enterprise did not cause problems: the plant worked quietly, and the cars were unloaded at a distance from residential buildings. Later, the unloading site was moved closer to their windows.

Michael claims that black dust regularly covers surfaces and is barely erased even by special means. Pollution settles on window sills, paths and underwear. According to the family, in the summer to be in the yard is especially difficult: the dust prevents you to relax in the gazebo and dry things outside.

The family has been trying to solve the problem for more than a decade. During this time, residents appealed to the administration, sanitary services and environmental agencies. Documents related to appeals are at the disposal of the editorial office of the Tula Press.

The first complaint Tatiana Grigorievna sent in 2013. In the summer of the same year, the Department of Rosprirodnadzor in the Tula region, together with the environmental prosecutor's office, checked the situation and took air samples near residential buildings.

The results showed an excess of the maximum permissible concentration of dust by 1.87 times, and sulfur dioxide by 1.68 times. Rosprirodnadzor and the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology also pointed to violations related to emissions and production control, including non-compliance with the frequency of measurements and the lack of necessary measures to reduce emissions in adverse weather conditions.

The inspection materials were transferred to the prosecutor's office. At the same time, the issue of the sanitary protection zone around the enterprise became one of the key in correspondence with departments: according to the publication, residential buildings were in the zone where accommodation is not allowed.

In the autumn of 2016, the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology reported different results: according to the agency, over the previous six months, excesses of the emission standards and the maximum permissible concentration at the border of the sanitary protection zone were not recorded.

The appearance of a red cloud over the plant officials explained the peculiarities of the technological process. According to the answer given in the publication, the particles of iron oxides settled on the territory of the enterprise and did not spread beyond its limits, and the emissions were within the permitted limits.

To complaints about accumulations of graphite near the house No. 35, the Tula administration replied that there were no chemicals or residues there, and the unloading of raw materials was carried out at the ore yard. The agency also reported a plan to reduce dust emissions by irrigating the material with water. However, as the Tula press notes, the response did not mention the transfer of the unloading place of cars away from residential buildings.

According to Mikhail, in recent years he lived and worked in Podolsk, and after returning to Tula again faced the same problem. The family believes that the situation could change the construction of a closed hangar for processing cars or the transfer of the point of unloading raw materials to a more remote place from residential buildings.

Now Mikhail is preparing new appeals to the authorities and does not exclude that he will send a letter to the president. In the meantime, according to the family, the dust continues to settle on the site and in the house, and long-term correspondence with departments has not led to the solution sought by residents.

Earlier, "MK in Tula" wrote that in Tula on the "KMZ" recorded three cases of dangerous stop blast furnace. The document is at the disposal of the publication.