Soil Schemes
“Sin does not enter into human beings, it only comes out of them. That is similar to food: human beings eat good things and excrete bad things from themselves. There are no bad things in the world, only that which has passed through human beings can become bad.”DanillKharms[1]
What does a ski slope have in common with a garbage dump? It would seem that a downhill skiing complex is no place for mounds of trash. Apparently, the complex’s owners counted on people thinking that when creating this slope.They assumed thatno one would believe that amountain of trash could be buried in the city center. But the mound became so big that it wasimpossible to miss what it was made out of.
(Stand-up)
“At one time this mound of earth was supposed to be a ski slope. But while building up the slope, workers dumped more than justsoil from the closest construction sites. They began dumping construction materials and trash. They mixed the soiland trash throughout the entire territory. Even in a water conservation area. The municipal court ruled that the owners of the ‘Gorka’ ski complex must remove the trash-packed slope and ameliorate theirviolations to the environmental regulations.
Money had been found tobuild the complex, but how would they fund its removal? However, we’re interested in a different question—how was it possible to build an ecologically dangerous structure in the city center next to a water conservation area. It turns out that the removal and disposal of waste construction materials is happy hunting grounds for a portion of the shadow economy.
Dump trucks started appearingon StarayaKukkovka Street next to residential homes. The dump trucks carry soil, butlocal residents can’t understand why someone decided to dump itthere. Moreso, by law trucks must be covered when transporting loose materials.
Svetlana Georgievna, resident on Kamennoborskaya Street.
“We’re suffocating here. Dump trucks come and go, dust is thick in the air. You can barely breath.Don’t think about opening a window or anything. Oh, the racket and noise.I get the feeling that someone’s been paid off and purchased.”
It turns out that someone had simply asked to spread dirt for a building. One of the drivers admitted to this, but there wasn’t ever an officialorder. The drivers simply transported the soil from a construction site where they weredigging out the foundations. They had to transport the soilsomewhere.
Life[JV1]: Driver
“It was just about helping a certain individual. He asked to pour some dirt so his home wouldn’t float away.”
Soil is officially defined as waste with a danger rating 5 or ‘practically safe’.Nevertheless it is supposed to be tested.
This is also Kukkovka Street. About two kilometers from the construction site for the shopping center Lenta.An unsanctioned dump also formed here. It is apparent that at first trucks onlydropped off soil. Then someone decided to dump the waste from a building they were tearing down. Now boards, crumbling bricks and old furniture are scattered about. They didn’t make it to the landfill. Judging by the number of mounds, this was not a one-off event. Man made it, then simply tossed it back into the forest, hoping that nature would swallow it.
(Stand-up)
“At the end of June, we filmed this unsanctioned dump full of soil and waste construction material. In the course of a month, the dump wasn’t removed. In fact, it looks as if it grew even larger. Now there are more loads of soil, but for some reason they dumped it right on the road.”
The Petrozavodsk municipality knows about the dump, but they are unable to say who exactly left the waste. They couldn’t catch them in the act. And it is difficult to identify the culprit with any other means. The Orzegalandfill claims that there is a long list of potential perpetrators.Very few people legally dispose of construction materials. And the landfill is still waiting for waste materials from the Lenta construction site.
YuryOvchinnikov, acting director for the municipal sanitation service Avtospetstrans
(Subtitle — July 2016 )
“Time and again, we spoke and met with the developers. On our side, we signed all the documents that we could and are ready to taketheir waste materials, but for some reason, they keep finding more profitable means to resolve the situation.”
The municipal landfill in Orzega accepts waste materials at 142 rubles (2.20 USD)[2] per cubic meter. So each dump truck pays the city about 1700 to 3000 rubles (26.4 to 46.59 USD), depending on thesize of the truck. These revenues partially go to cover costs for ecological activities, but the money ends up in the pockets of some middle-man.
SergeiRufanov, landfill foreman
Question:Are there some schemes?
Answer:Well, yes, there probably are. If people aren’t bringing their waste here, then they are taking it somewhere. Unsanctioned, ha. Someone rents a plot of land, digs out a pit totake out soil or sand for example. They then need to fill the pit. And they turn the pit into a trash dump. While the local residents start making some noise or someone somewhere starts getting wind and the police come, a month has passed since anyone dumped anything in this landfill.
We found one of these unsanctioned landfills at the Sulazhgorskoye Cemetery where soil is dumped from construction sites across Petrozavodsk into this quarry. Trucks pull up one after another. And not because someone asked them to. Drivers just dump soil into this quarrybecause it is closer than driving to the landfill in Orzega, which is 14 kilometers along a bad road. Not every truck can make it there and as a result, this unsanctioned dump formed.
Deciding how to excavate, remove and reusesoil is key at the beginning of any construction project. For example trucks dump soil from the Lentaconstruction site on Kukkovka St. in the SulazhgorskoyeCemetery. After dumping the soil, the drivers set off for their next load. According to unofficial sources, anyone who sets up a fence could organize and earn money from reusing every cubic meter of soil.
We spoke with the company managing excavation for the Lenta supermarketconstruction site to understand why they dumped the soil in Sulazhgoskoye.
Mikhail Golubev, director,Siris
“A bunch of guys came and asked ‘Mikhail, can we take your soil?’ I told them ‘go ahead, please take it’.”
Question:Underwhat conditions?
Answer:They simply came and took the soil.
Question:All for free?
Answer:Yes, for free. I don’t have any trucks. I have different equipment. I know that they have an authorized area and it is enclosed. This means it is authorized, right?
Oleg Sheinovsky, acting director for Russia’s RosPrirodNadzor environmental watchdogin Karelia
“A quarry is municipal land. The city practically does not know who is managing it, how it is being managed and who allocated this plot for them to use. There should be a reclamation plan to develop the quarry and bury waste construction materials.”
The municipal administration responded to our request stating that they knew about the unsanctioned dump in Sulazhgorskoye Cemetery. They had appealedto the police to identify the organizers of the dump, but they had been unsuccessful in finding the perpetrators[JV2].
A license isn’t required to dispose of waste with a danger rating 5, that includes construction waste. As a result, RosPrirodNadzor, the body licensing companies, is not authorized to check how construction companies dispose of waste. The watchdog can only inspect or request information from sanitation sites, and for this case, that is the landfillin Orzega.
Oleg Sheinovsky, acting director for Russia’s RosPrirodNadzor environmental watchdogin Karelia
“The extent of our authority is clearly defined. For some reason we are not permitted to inspect construction firms. You see the issue? Soon a project for new regulation will be sent and if it goes into effect in a year or two, then we’ll supposedly be delegated the necessary authority. Otherwise we can’t do anything. That’s where the problem lies.”
(Infographic)
Text:How much do companies save when disposing soil and waste?
Voice:Let’s try and add it up.
Suppose a construction firm decides to build a five-story housing complex. A standard building is 100 meters by 12 meters.
Text: Length 100m
Width 12m
Voice:Multiply the length by the width, and you have a surface area of 1200 square meters. Multiply by3 meters for the depth of the foundation. This equals3600 cubic meters.
Text: 1200m^2 x 3 meters = 3600m^3
Voice: So,for the foundation of a standard five-story housing complex, 3600 cubic meters of soil is removed.
In 2015, 131 buildings were built in Petrozavodsk. Let’s assume that they are all standard five-story buildings. We’ll exclude large shopping centers. Without them, we can still understand the extent of the problem.
131 buildings were built.
Soil from each building equals 3600 cubic meters.
131 x 3600 cubic meters equals471,600 cubic meters of soil.
One cubic meter of soil has a mass of 1800 kilograms. Multiply our cubic meters by kilograms, turn this into tons and we can estimate that construction projects dug up 850,000 tons of soil from city projects last year. That is 850,000 tons dug up, and not transported to the municipal dump.
Text: 1m^3 (soil) = 1800kg
1800kg x 471,600m^3/1000
850,000 tons of soil
Voice: According to Avtospetstrans, last year 2580 tons of construction waste was transported to the landfill.
Text:
In 2015, dumped at the landfill
2580 tons
construction waste
Voice & text:
1295 tons of sorted trash and waste from building demolitions
560 tons of wood materials from building demolitions
197 tons of bricks from construction
Text: 850,000 tons of soil
528 tons of soil
Voice:Let’s remember that 850,000 tons of soil was removed
If we multiply the total soil dug up, 471,600 cubic meters by the cost of a single cubic meter at the landfill 142 rubles, then we reach massive sum of 67 million rubles (1.04 million USD). That’s how much construction companies could have paid the city of Petrazavodsk.
Municipal dirt is being transported across Petrozavodsk. The soil itself may not be dangerous, but there are more serious forms of waste dumped along with it.
Inspectors from RosPrirodNadzor take water and soil samples at unsanctioned dumps, including on the territory of the sovkhoz[3]Teplichny in Petrozavodsk. Previously, the stream Studenets flowed through the fertile soils of the SovKhoz, where now there is practically a dump. However, the Studenets still flows into the Onezhskoyelake where the city water intake structure is located. It is now up to an independent lab to determine the quality of the water. If waste materials from demolished buildings were dumped on the territory of the Studenets, then oil materials could find their way to the lake. The next step is to take samples of the soil. At first they test near the dump. They use an ‘envelope’ method, taking four samples on the edges, then one in the center. Then to verify the difference, they retrieve a baseline sample a half kilometer away. They will test the samples specifically for traces of oil products, heavy metals and phenols. According to the police, waste is being dropped off during the night. After all, it is municipal land and the perpetrators are afraid of being seen by the authorities. However, some trucks visit the site during the day. One such vehicle hurried away without dropping its cargo in our presence. According to RosPrirodNadzorthere is a fine-tuned system here. Trucks drop off waste on the outlying peat bed. But they dump more than soil. If the analysis of the probes will show that the water and soil have been contaminated, then the police will open a criminal case.
Oleg Sheinovsky, acting director for Russia’s RosPrirodNadzor environmental watchdogin Karelia
“Anything could fall under rating 5. Let’s say that the GIBDD[4] stopped a truck with waste from a construction site. Our specialists would take an analysis. This analysis could reveal a danger rating 4 or rating 3. There could be light bulbs along with the soil, which has a danger rating 1, or railroad ties maybe a 3 rating, or maybe even batteries. On a construction site, you can find anything. Especially if it is an old and decaying building.They are saturated with oil derivatives. But if the waste is designated as a rating 5, then it can be removed without any checks. So for rating 5 waste, you don’t need a license.”
After soil has left a construction site, it does not find its way to the municipal dump. This is de facto. But according to official documents, it is the opposite. The Republic’s ministry on construction responded in writing that“after work at a site is completed, the regional building inspector visits the site and verifies thatconstruction waste is removed from the territory. The developer also provides documentation indicating removal of the construction waste. The building inspector does not oversee whether the construction firm reuses the construction waste. For information on further use, you must inquire directly with the developer.”[JV3]
The ministry did not name any firms that did not have their documents in order.
The city administration provides building permits in Petrozavodsk; therefore all questions surrounding waste removal from construction sites falls under their authority.
The Republic’s ministry on construction told us that all questions must be addressed to the municipal authorities. It is the municipal administration that controls the movement of construction waste. However, their actual level of control ends with distributing building permits.
Andrei Ivanov, director for the department of architecture and municipal construction for the Petrozavodsk municipal district
“We assume that in this case, the building inspector has already verified everything, starting from the earthworks to concealed works and ending with the crown of the building.”
Before beginning work, construction firms present a document indicating the expected volume of waste and where they will be reused. The construction firms also record expenses for removing and burying waste. Once again this in practiceis only on paper.
YuliaMizinkova, director for the environmental protection department, Petrozavodsk municipal district
“This document exists and is called the limits on disposing waste. Construction firms must receive the permit from Karelia’sRosPrirodNadzorwhere they must indicate where and how much of the waste will be reused. Unfortunately we do not have any control over any stage of this process.”
The municipal administration admits that they are powerless and unable to influence the construction firms. The waste materials remain on city property somewhere between the construction site and the dump. They hurt the environment and as a consequence affect our health. City property is turned into a quarry like in Sulazhgoroye and becomes a source of dust. While waste construction materialsseep through the ground waterand could reach the Onezhskoyelake,thus penetrating the water intake structure.
Construction waste also finds it way into the municipal budget. In 2015, Petrozavodsk spent 908,000 rubles (14,101 USD) to clear unsanctioned dumps, including construction waste. The city administration accepts this situation as a given.
Andrei Ivanov, director for the department of architecture and municipal construction for the Petrozavodsk municipal district
“The urban planning legislation does not give usthe right to request additional documentation for building permits from construction firms. This additional documentation could help confirm that they did not deliver excess soil to the Avtospetstrans dump in Orzega. It expressly indicates that we cannot demand additional documents from the developer, and therefore everything relies upon the developer’sconscience. Accordingly, we have a gap in execution and no one is working on this issue.”
Currently, the Avtospetstrans sanitation service is awaiting soil at the dump in Orzega to sprinkle over the trash. Without it, a fire may start and a choking smell from the burning dump will spread all over Petrozavodsk. This has already happened multiple times. The sanitation service is ready to accept soil for free, but relying on the construction firms’ conscience has not caused themto bring it to the dump.
In the center of Petrozavodsk, the ski slope still rises up on the city’s soil and trash. The court has ruled to remove it, and their decision has gone into effect, but the owner still complainsthat there is no money to remove the structure.
Credits:
YuliaKucherenko
YevgenyEvdokimov
Ivan Medvedev
Nikita Lukin
YuryMokretsov
This investigative report was made possible by financial support from the Danish and Swedish Associations for Journalists as a part of the project Scoop Russia.