First Russian Waterkeepers
Program Launched!
By Vera V. Minina
Environmental Program Coordinator, Waterkeepers Russia

The Russian Vyatka Riverkeepers program in Kirov was launched in April 2008. Program coordinator Grigori Poskrebyshev (environmentalist and author of several environmental programs to preserve the Vyatka) has been actively gathering and analyzing information about environmental problems on the Vyatka River.

In its better days, the Vyatka — which, along with the Kama, springs from the slopes of “Ageyevsky Log” in Udmurtiya — was one Russia’s most beautiful lowland rivers, abounding in boggy forests and marshes. But barbarous deforestation (forestry is the main source of income in Kirov Oblast) resulted in catastrophic declines in river and stream levels, which in turn impaired stream conditions and led to the complete disappearance of certain species of fish such as the grayling and Siberian lamprey.

Other once-common Vyatka inhabitants (sterlet, catfish, carp, Siberian white salmon, sneep, sheefish), which are very sensitive to water pollution, are dwindling in population because the river is contaminated by the toxic runoff of certain unprincipled wood processing, chemical and agricultural enterprises.
At the same time, the local inhabitants are doing great harm to the Vyatka River by poaching fish and polluting the river and its banks with trash.

There is no question that the main environmental problem, equally economic and social, is that the local population is uninformed and unaware of the finite nature of natural resources and of the genuine harm that certain hazardous industrial facilities pose to the environment and their health.

We therefore decided that our main efforts to protect the Vyatka River would focus on education and the popularization of the concept of environmental protection. We are now preparing lectures, campaigns, exhibits and contests for school children and students, who represent the future proponents of lofty environmental goals and advanced technologies.

We hope that, equipped with sufficient environmental knowledge, these young people will not follow the barbarous examples of their predecessors such as the destruction of the majority of the sources that replenish the Vyatka within the beautiful natural system of springs along the river bank by the construction of a skiing complex and the open sale in specialized fishing stores of fine-mesh nets that are dangerous to many species of fish. In addition, unauthorized trash dumping and car washing on the riverbanks have also long been contributing to the destruction of the splendid Vyatka River.

Of course, we are not just waiting for a future environmentally responsible generation. We intend to act now, to win more and more supporters with each passing day. Many scientists have responded to the Vyatka Riverkeepers challenges, like Andrei Vasilievich Glushkov MD, a researcher on the effect of drinking water quality in Kirov Oblast on public health, who joined our group as a consultant.

Vyatka “Riverkeeper” Grigori has already collected a database documenting how the Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Facility has surpassed the limit for radioactive contamination of the Vyatka’s tributaries with its wastewater. In the near future, we are planning with public support to submit his materials to the courts.

We are also researching the past operations of the plant, when it was a nuclear fuel cycle facility that processed huge amounts of radioactive substances to produce enriched uranium. The fact is that the wastes of that hazardous production facility were stockpiled in an underground storage facility in a complex geological area with portions of increased rock fissuring, through which toxic substances can migrate to upper rock strata that are used as water sources.

About 10 years ago local environmentalists began studying the problem of pollution of the soils, water and bottom sediments of Kirov Oblast with radioactive and other toxic waste near the Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Facility and declared it an environmental disaster.
At that time, Douglas Campbell, governor of Michigan, actively supported the efforts of environmental activists in Kirov on issues regarding toxic waste processing. Unfortunately, the activists ultimately failed because waste processing projects were not attractive to local businesses and authorities took no interest in these environmental projects.

We hope that now, through our joint efforts, we will finally help local residents defend their constitutional rights to a healthy environment, including clean water. w