DISASTER CITY
Former Soviet city classified as ecological disaster zone
Ballast water threatens coastline
WASHINGTON: Ballast water picked up in one port and dumped in another by ships on transoceanic voyages seriously threatens the ecological health of coastlines worldwide, a study released on Thursday said.
"As ships move marine life around the world, coastlines are increasingly invaded by non-indigenous species," said James Carl-ton, director of the Maritime Studies Programme at Williams College in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut.
"These invasions have spectacular ecological, economic and social consequences."
During a 1988-1991 research project in Coos Bay, Oregon, Carlton examined 159 cargo ships whose ballast water had originated in 25 Japanese ports.
He discovered that a vast array of marine life from Japanese waters, ranging from shrimps and crabs to worms and starfish, was alive and well in the ballast water arriving on the Pacific Coast.
When ballast water such as this is released on the other side of the world into waters where salinity, temperature and other variables are hospitable, these foreigners can thrive, pushing out native species and wreaking other environmental havoc.
Ships have used ocean water as ballast as a matter of course for the past century, with crews loading and unloading seawater without regard to where it was originally drawn.
As ships have gotten faster and bigger in size and number, scientists have begun to suspect strongly that the invasion rate is on the upswing.
Canton said that the number of invasions is probably underestimated because many species, such as jellyfish, worms, small clams and snails, are difficult to identify and may thrive unnoticed in foreign waters.
"Until we see marine management of ballast water on a global scale, these invasions will continue," said Canton. — Reuter
UST-KAMENOGORSK (Kazakhstan): Even by the appalling environmental standards of the former Soviet Union, Ust-Kamenogorsk is in a class of its own.
The scenic city of 300,000, lying at the confluence of two rivers in ,the lush low green hills of eastern Kazakhstan, has been so polluted by its heavy metal factories over the decades that it is classified as an ecological disaster zone.
The millions of tonnes of poison pumped into the environment have cut life expectancy by 10 years. The city tops the republic’s cancer league. Some local rivers contain 30 times more heavy metal than permitted.
"It’s very hard to find words to describe what has been done to this place," sighed Rishat Adamov, head of East Kazakhstan’s Environmental Protection Committee.
Decades of bad planning and carelessness left the city with more than 150 polluting enterprises, many of which date from the World War Two era when the emphasis was on high output rather than the population’s health.
The main offenders include a uranium and beryllium plant, a giant factory producing zinc and lead, a power station and a huge research Institute — all m the city centre.
The regional council is now clamping down, making each plant pay for emitting harmful substances and imposing harsh fines on those that exceed the limits.
"We know it isn’t fair to fine factories which were urged for decades to boost output, but it’s the only way we can solve this problem," said Amanbek Ramazanov, head of the region’s ecology department.
"We are not out to impose swingeing payments — we see how much each factory can afford."
The money brought in is used to improve crumbling sewers, build health clinics and improve outdated monitoring systems which are unable to cope with a flood of data.
Officials say Ust-Kamenogorsk has also been bathed in radioactivity from two nuclear test sites — at nearby Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and a Chinese range over the border 600km (375 miles) to the south.
Just to add the final element of torture, the air around the city is totally still for more than half the time. This ensures most of the annual pollution —400,000 tonnes at its peak 10 years ago — is dumped on and near it.
The population’s patience ended in September 1990 when an explosion tore through the beryllium plant.
Thousands flooded into central squares to protest, although an investigating commission later said none of the metal — poisonous in its gaseous form—had been released into the air.
Ramazanov acknowledges not all plant directors are keen to cooperate but says they will have no choice next year when the council buys a highly-sensitive Swiss monitoring system capable of telling in minutes who has released which substances.
The most dangerous plant is the giant Lead and Zinc Combine, which every year pumps out a deadly cocktail comprising 45,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, 4,000 tonnes of zinc, 160 tonnes of lead, 11 tonnes of arsenic and 10 tonnes of cadmium.
"We devised a plan in 1965 to clean up emissions but it has been put into action very slowly," said Svetlana Karabanova, head of the factory’s environmental protection department.
The plant is now spending more than US$200 (about RM500 million) on a new lead production line and a plant to turn some of the sulphur dioxide into sulphuric acid which she says should slash emissions in the next two years.
The council at first demanded the plant pay 17 billion roubles (about RM4O million) this year for the right to pollute but this was later cut to two billion (about RM47 million) on the understanding the rebuilding work was carried out on time. — Reuter
Source : The Malay Mail, July 3 1993
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