Federal government gives aid to Siberian region to deal with toxic waste
Kemerovo, 22 March: The Russian government has provided financial aid to Kemerovo Region to dispose of 250,000 t of
highly toxic industrial waste located in the flood lands of the a deep Siberian river, the Kiya. The federal reserve
fund for preventing emergencies allocated R150m (about 5m dollars) to the region for the purpose, the Kemerovo Region
administration told ITAR-TASS today.
Hazardous liquid and solid waste is located on the territory of the Berikulskiy gold mining plant. It accumulated
there for dozens of years and did not present any danger. However, starting in autumn last year the storage facility
began to fall apart through earthquake tremors caused by intensified seismic activity in Altay. Then the danger of toxic
waste finding its way to nearby rivers that supply drinking water to Kemerovo and Tomsk regions emerged.
It has been decided to complete an operation to bury the industrial waste far from the reservoirs before the onset of
spring floods in Siberia.
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