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Soviet
pollution
by Pete Dickenson
The Soviet Union is facing a rapidly growing environmental crisis. The catastrophic situation has been the trigger for mass movements in many republics. including Armenia, the Ukraine and the Baltic states. There is growing revulsion at the catalogue of disasters caused by bureaucratic bungling and mismanagement, from Chernobyl to the Siberian gas pipeline disaster.
In Latvia the environment is seen as a crucial political issue by the independent political movements. The first group to organise opposition to the bureaucracy after Gorbachev came to power was the VAK (Environment Protection Club), formed from several underground youth organisations. It has mobilised up to 100,000 on demonstrations and has 4000 members in Riga plus sections in the other towns.
In 1988 the Latvian Popular Front (LTF) was formed. Its programme, decided at the 2nd Congress in October 1989, had a major section on the environment (Atmoda 7 October 1989 ).
There is a huge gap between the protection theoretically provided by the law in health, safety and environmental questions, and the reality. The environmental situation in the Stalinist states is probably worse even than in the capitalist countries. This is a complete indictment of the role of the bureaucracy over decades. A healthy, democratic socialist society with genuine workers' control would ensure not only economic prosperity but a fully harmonious development of society and protection of the environment.
The Baltic states face a particularly bad situation. They are the most heavily industrialised
republics of the Soviet Union and development has taken place in very distorted way. Large sections of the economy are dominated by military production. Whole areas in the cities and the countryside are taken over by the military who operate in total secrecy and without any control over pollution and environmental damage. In Latvia there are plans to build a Chernobyl style nuclear power station, and to build a hydroelectric power scheme which will result in the flow of the river Daugava being reversed for much of the time, with great potential ecological damage.
The LTF programme on the environment demands an independent ecological assessment of new industrial projects and opposition to nuclear power and the transportation of radioactive and other toxic wastes. The defence of consumers' interests through the provision of information on foodstuffs and research into alternative energy sources.
Also, 'the LTF categorically demands that measures of environmental protection and restoration of environmental health should be taken in areas of military forces, it demands that the army should be deprived of ecologically vulnerable territories.'
Pollution and the environment are at bottom in priority for the Stalinists and it is utopian to expect them to implement an environmental programmme, especially when their vital military interests are involved.
The Moscow bureaucracy will tenaciously resist any genuine independence. The Baltic states have the most technically advanced arms factories and military research centres in the Soviet
Union. It would have been impossible to build the Soviet Space Shuttle without the technological input from the Baltic states. The military bureaucracy would never be reconciled to losing control of these resources, even it Gorbachev contemplated the idea.
And does the alternative of the LTF which is similar to that in the other Baltic states, based on independence and the 'principles of market economy', offer a way forward?
One of the worst polluters in Latvia is the Occidental Petroleum Company, the American multinational. This is the company responsible for the Piper Alpha disaster in Britain and numerous oil spillages polluting the coastline.
The 'market economy' in the capitalist countries is dominated by multinational corporations who operate under no democratic control in their quest for profit. This would be particularly true in the case of very small countries like Latvia. The multinationals play a despicable role in the underdeveloped world. The catastrophe at Bhopal in India in 1984, when tens of thousands were poisoned was due to the negligence of the American Union Carbide Corporation who owned the chemical plant involved. These companies would treat the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in a similar manner to the underdeveloped world if capitalism was restored.
Chernobyl was the worst environmental disaster in history. Scientists predicted that 100,000 would die as a result but the bureaucracy insisted that only a handful would be affected. Today rumours are rife throughout the affected areas of the Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltic states of an epidemic of cancer and of horribly deformed babies being born. It is impossible to verify the true situation.
The cloud of radioactive waste was no respecter of national boundaries. Similarly, a disaster at the nuclear power station a few miles from the Latvian border would devastate the country. Pollution in the Baltic Sea is caused by all the countries in the region from West Germany to Russia. Independence would not protect any of the Baltic states from environmental disaster
Science Notes
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Baltic Sea
Latvian
disaster
atspils
ESTONI
Gulf of Riga
iloka
Olaine
LATVIA
Riga
River River ( Leilupe Plavin
i Jekabpils
Daugava
A leading environmental activist in the Latvian Popular Front explains what is happening to the environment in the region.
The environmental situation in Latvia and the other Baltic states is catastrophic. This is linked to the social and economic crisis caused by Stalinist rule. Pollution and the environment are key political questions in Latvia. For decades it was impossible to discover the true depth of the crisis because of the monopoly of information of the bureaucracy. Even now the real picture is only beginning to emerge.
In Riga air pollution is 20 times above allowable levels, water pollution is also critical, with nitrates a particular problem. In January 1988 Riga suffered a hepatitis outbreak traced to drinking water contamination. Most of the sewerage (97% ) flowing into the river Daugava and the Bay of Riga is untreated.
The resort town of Jurmala throws 10,000 tons a year of pollutants into the atmosphere, nearly a third generated by the Sloka paper and pulp mill. Consequently only 28% of births are normal, in Latvia as a whole the figure is just 46%!
The river Lielupe has been closed to fishermen and swimmers for the past six years. The river has a number of dead zones due to excessive pollution and lack of
Mi:
LITHUANIA
oxygen. Bacteria in water is up to half a million parts per litre. The official maximum is 1000 parts per litre. The main polluter of Lielupe is the Sloka pulp and paper mill.
Olaine, an industrial area with several chemical plants, has the highest level of air pollution in Latvia. Industrial pollution is 1200 tons/sq.km annually. Only 12% is subject to any type of treatment. Ammonia levels in the air exceed allowable levels by by 2.7-3.5 times, formaldehyde by 8.4 to 9 times, hydrochloric acid by 12 times, piridine by 2.1 times, carbon dioxide by 2 to 3.7 times, acetone by 5 times, hydrogen bromide and hydrogen chloride by twice as much.
Industrial accidents, such as the accidental discharge of 43 tons of nitric acid on May 7, 1988, also threaten the population. Groundwater and river pollution are also severe. The Misa and Lecava tributaries of the Lielupe contain nitrates and other pollutants exceeding allowable levels by 11 times. Poisonous chemicals have leaked into the groundwater at chemical dumping sites near Olaine, exceeding allowable levels by 100 times, in some places even by a thousand. A 16 year study of Olaine residents shows an above average incidence of hemoblastosis and upper respiratory tract ailments.
The port city of Ventspils is the most dangerous environmental area in Latvia. The major polluters are ammonia and potash cargo transfer facilities. Gas masks have been provided for thousands of people in the city as a , security measure against ammonia leaks. Water pollution has also occured due to the petroleum transfer facilities. On the average 25,000 tons of petroleum products have flowed into the Baltic Sea each year.
The oil refinery in the centre of the city is run by the American oil company Occidental Petroléum, whose multi-millionaire owner, Armand Hammer, has close links with the Kremlin.
Medical studies completed in the last 10 years show a dramatic impact of the environmental situation on the population. In Ventspils allergies and skin rashes occur at three times the rate for all of Latvia; respiratory ailments, lung cancer and leukaemia at twice the rate. Birth defects among children have increased by 3.5 times. Statistics show a high incidence of Downs Syndrome.
Most of these facts are secret in Latvia, the true situation is almost certainly much worse. Please inform as many people as possible in your country of the situation, we want to build collaboration with people in other countries fighting the same problems.
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