Zaporizhzhya Iron Ore Plant denies information about the contamination of the territory of the Kirillovskaya OTG

In a number of media outlets there was information about the contamination of the territory of the Kirillovskaya OTG by the mine waters of Zaporizhzhya Iron Ore Combine. The press service of PrAT "ZZhRK" informed about the real situation with the diversion of mine waters of the enterprise, which, according to the press service of the company, is carried out in accordance with environmental standards enshrined in the current environmental legislation of Ukraine.

The process of extraction of iron ore "ZZHRK" is accompanied by systemic pumping of mine water entering mine workings at a depth of 300 to 1,140 meters.

From 1966 to 1980, mine water was discharged from the surface drainage system of the deposit through a cascade of ponds in the town of Bolshaya Belozerka. The mixed waters of the river and the surface drainage system of the mine field, after their accumulation in the Belozersky estuary, were pumped into the Kakhovskoye reservoir.

Water from the underground drainage system is discharged into the shallow stagnant zone of the Kakhovskoye reservoir, where there is practically no water exchange.

With the commissioning of the Kakhovka and Severo-Rogachinsky irrigation systems, there was a threat of contamination of 60,000 hectares of land. Therefore, in 1971, a project was approved for diverting the mine waters of the plant through a pipeline to an isolated evaporation pond, equipped in the upper reaches of the Utlyutsk estuary of the Azov Sea, located outside the settlements.

From 1974 to 1987, according to the project of the Institute "Ukrgiprovodgosp" (Kiev), a hydraulic complex was built and put into operation, which consists of a pumping station, a two-section clarifier-illuminator, a pipeline 84 km long, a bypass channel, a reservoir dam and an isolated pond dam - an evaporator with a volume of 52 million m³.

In 2007, the plant built additional underground facilities for lighting mine waters in underground workings at the horizons of 840, 940 and 1040 m.

The hydraulic engineering complex used by the enterprise to this day ensures that the impact of mine waters on the environment is minimized. Mine water undergoes three stages of purification: in underground conditions, in a two-section clarifier, and by evaporation in an insulated evaporator pond. The specified technology of evaporation of mine water in a natural way is one of the most efficient in the world.

The company conducts on an ongoing basis studies of the state of the evaporator pond waters, which confirm the maximum permissible concentration of heavy metals. According to the data of chemical analyzes, it was established that the mine water of the Zaporizhzhya Iron Ore Combine is close to the waters of the Azov and Black Seas in terms of salt composition and microcomponents. The radioecological situation of the area corresponds to the natural conditions of the Zaporozhye region.

In the environmental activities of ZZhR