Открой Байкал!

Siberian scientists appeal to Putin not to allow the restart of Baikal Pulp Mill.

From: Russian Academy of Sciences  
Siberian Branch
Irkutsk Scientific Centre                        

Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Siberian Branch
Buryat Scientific Centre                       

To: Prime Minister
of Russian Federation
V.V.Putin

Dear Prime Minister,

In connection with the Decree of the Russian Federation of 13^th January 2010 #1 “On amendments to the list of activities banned in the Central Ecological Zone of the Lake Baikal Natural Territory” a situation has been created allowing for the renewal of pulp production with the discharge of waste waters into Lake Baikal and the accumulation of waste of all categories of danger on the shore of this unique lake. The Decree is aimed at the renewal of operations at the Baikalsk Pulp Mill and use of 40 year old production technology that fails to satisfy present day requirements and allows for the emission of ill-smelling and harmful substances into the atmosphere that can be detected at distances of up to 70 kilometres and are an obstacle to the development of tourism in the area.  

From the very beginning of its operation the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) has been a cause of discord between the government and society. It was the Baikalsk Mill that stimulated the development of the environmental movement in our country and today it remains a catastrophic threat not only to the lake but to the whole world.

The renewal of pulp production at the Baikalsk Pulp Mill with wastewater discharge violates Russia’s obligations concerning the protection of a common human value: the World Natural Heritage Site Lake Baikal, and also contravenes the requirements of the Russian Federal law “On the protection of  Lake Baikal”, and prevents the development of really economically sound and environmentally acceptable projects for the development of the town of Baikalsk on the basis of Lake Baikal’s natural potential: tourism and recreation, bottled water production and so on.  

It seems to us that the funds that are planned to subsidise the renewal of pulp production at BPPM would most likely be more wisely directed towards support for former mill personnel and on re-profiling production in the town of Baikalsk. More specifically, the transformation of the town into a tourist centre could solve many questions relating to local employment. Apart from that, it would be possible to develop the production of medicinal products from Siberian larch, manufacture of silicon solar panels and modules, and other kinds of production that are planned for Irkutsk Oblast in the near future.

Finally, the production of bottled Baikal water, so urgently required in Asia cannot be a profitable concern while the Mill continues to operate.

It should be remembered that when Baikal received the status of World Natural Heritage Site, Russia guaranteed that the BPPM would be converted. Now this promise has been forgotten and this has caused a negative reaction in the world community.

Prime Minister, we recall with gratitude your decision to remove the East-Siberian-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline from the shores of Baikal. For this reason we are addressing you with the request to be consistent in the matter of Baikal’s conservation: to ban pulp production in the Central Ecological Zone of Lake Baikal and preserve the “planet’s well” for the welfare of Russia.

Please find attached to this letter an analysis of the ecological consequences that could come about as a result of renewal of pulp production at BPPM with the discharge of waste waters into Baikal.

Signed:

B.V.Bazarov – Chairman of the Presidium of the Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Buryat Scientific Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding member of RAS.

I.V.Bychkov – Chairman of the Presidium, Irkutsk Scientific Centre SB RAS, corresponding member of RAS.

V.I.Voronin – Deputy Director of the Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry SB RAS, Ph.D.

M.I.Kuzmin – Chairman of the Scientific Council SB RAS on questions concerning Lake Baikal, Deputy Chair of the Presidium of the Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Irkutsk Scientific Centre SB RAS, Academician.

V.M.Pliusnin – Acting Director of the Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the V.B.Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS, Ph.D.

V.S.Rukavishnikov – Deputy Chair of the Presidium East Siberian Scientific Centre SB RA of Medical Sciences, Acting Director of the East Siberian Scientific Centre of Human Ecology SB RAMS, Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Occupational Medicine and Human Ecology, Corresponding member of RAMS.

G.I.Tatkov – Director of the Institute of Geology SB RAS, Ph.D.

B.A.Trofimov – Director of the Office of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk Favorskii Institute of Chemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician.

A.K.Tulokhonov – Director of the Baikal Institute of Natural Resource Use, SB RAS, corresponding member, RAS.

L.L.Ubugunov - Director of the Institute of General and Experimental Biology, SB RAS, PhD. Professor.