Remediation of soil contaminated with persistent organic pollutants in Sumgait, Azerbaijan

The Sumgait remediation project was implemented in 2015 as a partnership between Blacksmith Institute and the site owner Azerikimya Joint Stock Company (Azerikimya) in Sumgait City, Azerbaijan Republic, about 30 km northwest of Baku. The project was financed by European Commission and supported by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) and Sumgait Municipality. The site is a place on the Caspian Sea coast that was formerly an industrial area highly contaminated with various pollutants and particularly benzo(a)pyrene, benzene, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). As part of initial environmental assessment the project team took soil samples at 19 locations at the surface and at the depth of 0.5 m. The maximum topsoil benzo(a)pyrene concentration was 76.21 mg/kg, benzene – 121.5 mg/kg, and PCBs – 121.02 mg/kg. The remediation project involved the removal of 804 m3 of contaminated soil, and disposal of the contaminated soil at the MENR Hazardous Waste Polyqon (landfill). A comparison of pre- and post-excavation sampling shows that average contaminant levels in soils in the upper 0.5 m were reduced by an average of 97 percent. These actions were followed by bioremediation activities. More than 13,000 m3 of clean soil and organic fertilizer were placed and leveled over an area of two hectares. Approximately 1,200 locally grown native tree species were planted, and a drip-irrigation system was installed. The area is now a park close to the beach

Toxic Site Identification Program in Azerbaijan

The need to protect communities from hazardous waste is an important agenda for any nation. Although pollutant management and policy development are attempted in many developing countries, it is not always successful due to limited funds, project resources, and access to trained experts to conduct toxic site identification projects. For this reason, Pure Earth created the Toxic Site Identification Program (TSIP). The goal of the TSIP program is to provide reliable information and data that identifies location of toxic sites and the level of toxic severity. TSIP is significant because it provides developing countries a database of ranked toxic sites identified as hazardous risk to human health. For example, Azerbaijan is one of the most polluted post-Soviet nations, but has limited resources to address and manage its polluted sites. The Azerbaijani TSIP database is the first reliable data source that identifies hazardous pollutants in the country. Our study is significant because it discusses how the TSIP labels and ranks the level of toxic severity to human health. It is also the first data source in Azerbaijan that identifies which Soviet legacy toxic sites are affecting local communities. Although our study is specific to Azerbaijan, the TSIP method can be applied to nations with similar data limitations and the need for a database that identifies country specific environmental and hazardous locations. The data sampling method and results are mapped and accompanied by tables of the collected pollutant types to identify communities at greatest health-risk to legacy toxic sites

Quality of drinking water in rural areas: problems of legal environment

The article is devoted to the scientific and theoretical analysis of the current state of legal provision of drinking water quality in rural areas. It was stated that in recent years there has been a steady trend of deteriorating quality of water used for drinking in rural areas, including due to increasing levels of nitrate pollution. Proposals have been made for: further implementation of Council Directive 98/83 / EU on the quality of water intended for human consumption and Council Directive 91/676/ EEC on the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources in national legislation; elimination of substantive inconsistencies between State sanitary norms and rules 2.2.4-171-10 “Hygienic requirements for drinking water intended for human consumption” and National Standards of Ukraine 7525: 2014 “Drinking water. Requirements and methods of quality control “in terms of drinking water quality indicators; inclusion in the subjects of state water monitoring of the central executive body that implements the state policy in the field of health care (regarding the monitoring of drinking water); development of the Procedure for state monitoring of nitrate content in surface and groundwater as a component of state water monitoring; forecasting at the level of the National Target Program “Drinking Water of Ukraine” for 2021-2025 “development and operation of a single state information resource - Interactive map of drinking water quality in Ukraine