It is clear to everyone that in the course of human life various types of waste appear daily. If they are not disposed of for at least a couple of days, garbage mountains begin to accumulate. The trouble is not so much that every such spontaneous dump of household waste creates an unpleasant picture of urban courtyards. In addition, it exudes a stench, poisons the environment, attracts rats and mice - carriers of dangerous diseases. To avoid such situations, and the condition of the streets and courtyards of our cities always corresponded to sanitary standards, hundreds of employees of private and state organizations involved in the export of solid waste are selflessly working. So the townspeople do not need to worry about problems with garbage.
But what about people who, thanks to the same dedicated workers, have been forced to live near garbage dumps for years? An example is the Kulakovsky MSW landfill. Those who involuntarily turned out to be his neighbors have been fighting for the closure of the landfill for several years now. A huge landfill creates the same problems as small rubbish debris, only ten times grander. Everyone, including the authorities, understands this, but is inactive. Only people forced to endure this nightmare sound the alarm.
The emergence of the Kulakovo landfill
In the Kursk direction, about 50 km from the MKAD, the city of Chekhov, drowning in greenery, is spread. 4 km from its borders there is a village Manushkino. Now more than 1600 inhabitants live in it. In 1983, a modern school was built in the village. Its bright, with large windows building is surrounded by school grounds with an area of over 3 thousand square meters. m. A training and experimental site was organized here, on which the students broke the beds and planted flowers. A little less than 300 children study at this school.
To their misfortune, in 2005, not far from the school, enterprising businessmen organized a landfill known as the Kulakovsky MSW landfill. Residents of Manushkino at first did not pay much attention to the fact that literally a couple of hundred meters from the Geodesicheskaya Street they began to pick up garbage. Everyone considered this a misunderstanding, which should soon be resolved. But time passed, the village leadership did nothing, and the garbage mountain grew up and spread in breadth. Her stinking body was gradually destroying forest land and was approaching a picturesque pond, on the banks of which the Manushkins liked to rest. Now it’s impossible to make out a reservoir under layers of garbage. All that remains of him are old photographs and memories.
Landfill specifications at the moment
Kulakovsky solid waste landfill is a sad picture. This place looks as if the apocalypse has comprehended the Earth: on a vast area you can see all kinds of decaying debris, scraps, pieces of something thrown away as unnecessary, decomposing animal corpses, something in garbage bags of varying degrees of integrity and size. According to local residents, in heaps of rubbish they happened to see parts of human bodies, unsuitable medicines, used syringes and more. Mountains of garbage periodically flare up, and then smolder for a long time, spreading fetid smoke throughout the area.
They “work” in the landfill of the homeless, searching among the rubbish for what else can be sold. They live right there - in the shacks built from the wreckage. Nobody thinks how many of them die here, because these people are buried very simply - they are buried here, in a landfill. The height of the garbage mountain above sea level has exceeded the mark of 182 m with 170 m laid according to GOST, and its body occupied 13.6 hectares according to official data, and 27.6 hectares - according to unofficial ones. Every day about 300 cars arrive here, which as a whole add more than 7000 cubic meters to the existing solid waste. m new.
Norms and rules for waste management
The removal of solid waste is far from the simplest thing. On the one hand, waste must be disposed of somewhere, and on the other hand, wherever it is dumped, it will harm the environment to a greater or lesser extent. In order to simultaneously solve these two problems, there are legal acts and norms.
The Administrative Code of Russia has articles governing the activities of companies involved in the export and disposal of solid waste. So, Art. 8.2 prescribes a fine on legal entities. persons up to 250, 000 rubles for violation of environmental standards during the storage or disposal of solid waste, as a result of which the ozone layer is destroyed. Part two of Art. 8.6 prescribes a fine on legal entities. persons up to 40, 000 rubles for damage and destruction of fertile land. Part Five 8.13 prescribes a fine on legal entities. persons up to 50, 000 rubles for damage to water resources. Part 2.3 of the art. 8.31 prescribes a fine on legal entities. persons up to 100, 000 rubles for damage and pollution of forests with various types of waste.
There are relevant articles that spell out the rules for working with household waste. According to these rules, MSW must be sorted by hazard class (from 1 to 5) and, in accordance with the class, should be removed, stored, disposed of, or buried.
Compliance with the rule of law at the Kulakovsky training ground
The company PromEcoTech unloads garbage at a city landfill near Manushkino. According to the inhabitants of the village and according to acts of independent environmental assessments, she constantly violates the laws of the Russian Federation immediately under all the above articles. The company has destroyed the lake, polluted more than 7 hectares of forest, and the environment is poisoned daily. In fairness, I must say that PromEcoTech was fined 28 million rubles. However, the company continues to export solid waste, and here violates existing standards.
So, environmental assessment No. 45-9 in 2015 decided that only 17 machines a day should be disposed of at Kulakovsky landfill. At the same time, they should unload no more than 24 cubic meters of garbage to this landfill. Monitoring shows that about 300 units a day arrive at the landfill, and they unload more than 7000 cubic meters of garbage. But the main violation is that the Kulakovsky MSW landfill is located just 260 meters from residential buildings and 436 meters from the school with the existing norm of 500 meters.
The position of official ecologists
Kulakovsky MSW landfill in the city of Chekhov did not ignore environmentalists. Elmurod Rasulmukhamedov, who is the country's main ecologist, actively took steps to help the inhabitants of Manushkino restore justice and achieve the return of the ecology of the area of former purity. He conducted explanatory work with the local population, assuring that everything would be done for the benefit of the people, and at the same time helped to ensure that another 7 hectares of the Lesfond lands legally passed under MSW. Here is such a duality.
Igor Kolesnikov, the head of the Chekhov Environmental Inspectorate, behaved somewhat differently in this situation. This official directly and openly supported the range and activities of PromEcoTech. By the way, when official ecologists measured the distance from the training ground to the school, it miraculously lengthened from 436 to 501 m, that is, it fit exactly into the permissible norm.
The position of the authorities
The Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation contains article 5.59, according to which a decent (up to 30, 000 rubles) fine is imposed on officials if they do not react in any way to public signals about a violation of an environmental organization by any organization. Local authorities have nothing to hold accountable, because they did not remain indifferent to the problem of Manushkins.
Even Alexander Kogan, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow Region, visited the city landfill. After talking with the residents and listening to their complaints, he promised to sort it out. As a result, it turned out that PromEcoTech does not violate anything.
Andrei Vorobyov, who holds the post of governor of the Moscow region, was also interested in the issue of the training ground. All that he did for the Manushkins, he asked permission from the President of the Russian Federation to transfer another 7.2 hectares of forest land under MSW.
Residents of the village wrote complaints to the Rospotrebnadzor. Its representatives took samples of air, soil and issued a verdict that all pollution are within acceptable standards.
The position of local residents
Seeing such an incorrect attitude to the problem of officials, activists of Manushkino began the struggle to close the Kulakovsky MSW landfill. In their actions they followed the laws prescribed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. So, Art. 42 states that every Russian has a right to an environment favorable to life, and to truthful information about its condition. And Art. 68 Federal Law No. 7 states that any citizen has the right to control the state of his natural environment. The Federal Law No. 82 also enshrines the right to organize voluntary societies that monitor the state of the environment in their area and take measures to improve it.
An initiative group was created in Manushkino, led by Nikolai Dizhur. Activists carried out their own measurements, which showed that the school is still located 436 meters from the landfill, and the village hospital is 400 meters away. Water samples were also taken in the Sukhoi Lopasne river flowing near the village. In some places, the distance from the landfill to its bed does not exceed 100 m. All measurements and analyzes of water in which harmful chemicals were found in quantities exceeding the MPC were passed on to activists by the relevant authorities.
Stages of struggle: victories and defeats
Manushkins are doing their best to close the landfill. However, the disposal of landfills is an unusually complex matter, because household waste appears daily, and it needs to be disposed of somewhere. That is, instead of a closed polygon, another one will surely appear. The old landfill must undergo reclamation, which must be undertaken by the company owning the landfill. In this case, it is PromEcoTech. Before the reclamation begins, it is necessary to stop garbage disposal at the landfill, which PromEcoTech has not yet implemented. Therefore, the inhabitants of Manushkino have reasonless fears that the company is not going to produce other works that require significant funds.
Activists organized a picket, blocking the passage of cars to a landfill. Employees of PromEcoTech immediately accused them of creating a situation threatening the ecology of the Moscow Region, as garbage accumulates on city streets. The villagers filed a lawsuit against the company and lost. As a result, no one made the decision to close the landfill, and the plaintiffs were presented with an invoice of 450, 000 rubles for a number of examinations.
Drastic measures
Having not achieved the answer to the question of when they will close the Kulakovsky MSW landfill, the activists of Manushkino made a desperate decision to go on indefinite hunger strike. The brave five in the person of Nikolai Izmailovich Dizhur, Tatyana Nikolaevna Volovikova, Bella Borisovna Skazko, Yuri Alekseevich Burov and Mikhail Vasilievich Burdin officially began their action on June 1. On June 5, the state of their health was checked by a doctor Nadezhda Emelyanova. The action of the fighters-heroes was supported by the LDPR and Rodina parties.
