Public hearings were held on the materials of the design documentation for the anti-filtration echeloned curtain around the Krasny Bor toxic industrial waste landfill. 34 people took part in the hearings.

The chairman of the public hearings was Igor Tsai, Deputy Head of the Administration of the Tosnensky District of the Leningrad Region, and Denis Pleshchenko, Head of the Communications Department of the Federal Ecological Operator Federal State Unitary Enterprise.

During the hearings, a number of reports were presented on the elimination of accumulated environmental damage at the Krasny Bor test site, the results of complex engineering surveys and surveys, hydrogeological modeling, scientific support of surveys and environmental impact assessment of design solutions to create an anti-filtration echeloned curtain.

An anti-filtration echeloned curtain is a wall with a depth of 5 to 9.9 meters and a width of more than 5 meters, equipped with a multi-level protection system, which includes a system of barriers (anti-filtration curtains), a control system, an injection control system and a filtrate collection system.

In case of a potential violation of the integrity of the anti-seepage protection, the control-injection system will automatically work, which will immediately eliminate the crack.

"The anti-seepage protection is aimed at eliminating the accumulated environmental damage and preventing the removal of contaminants from the landfill territory. The Institute of Geoecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is also involved in this work, which carried out mathematical and geoecological simulations that showed and proved the effectiveness of design solutions," project manager at FEO Alexander Tolmachev emphasized.

Based on the results of the environmental impact assessment, it was determined that the presence of layered anti-seepage protection will significantly reduce the risks of contamination being transported outside the landfill, thereby reducing the impact of the facility itself.

“We studied the structure of the groundwater flow, the geometry of the Cambrian clays roof to determine the depth of the impervious curtain, identified the contours of closed maps, considered the reliability of the Cambrian clays as a natural barrier. The planned anti-filtration curtain in combination with a horizontal map screen effectively restrains the removal of pollution from the landfill territory," said Anton Nikulenkov, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Geoecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The creation of an anti-seepage echeloned curtain is the first stage in the design of the remediation of the Krasny Bor landfill.

The second stage is the development of technologies for neutralizing the contents of open storage cards and reclamation of the landfill itself. Public discussions on it will take place approximately in a month.

Earlier, in the form of a survey, public discussions were held on the terms of reference for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the first stage of eliminating accumulated environmental damage at the Krasny Bor toxic industrial waste landfill - creating an anti-filtration echeloned curtain around the facility - started on March 27, 2021 and passed in the form of a survey.

The full range of work to eliminate the accumulated harm to the environment at the Krasny Bor landfill will be completed in stages: first, an anti-filtration echeloned curtain will be created around the landfill, then it is planned to create an infrastructure for processing the contents of open maps (including shelter) and reclamation of the site.

The priority of the device of the anti-filtration curtain will exclude the possibility of the ingress of pollutants into the environment. The least protected is the water environment, in this regard, the anti-seepage curtain will protect the soil, ground and surface water from the penetration of leachate from the landfill and will help to increase the level of environmental safety of the Leningrad region.

Work to eliminate the accumulated environmental damage at the Krasny Bor landfill is included in the Clean Country federal project of the Ecology national project and must be completed by 2024. The Federal State Unitary Enterprise Federal Ecological Operator, an enterprise of the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM, was appointed as the contractor. On June 5, 2020, the FSKI Directorate for the Elimination of the NVOS and OB GTS of the Krasny Bor landfill and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Federal Environmental Operator signed a state contract for the design of the elimination of accumulated environmental damage.