After the incident at "Rivneazot": is the next accident a matter of time?
Work is underway at the "Rivneazot" enterprise to eliminate the consequences of the depressurization of the pipeline in the nitric acid shop. Local authorities state that there is no threat to the environment or human life, but environmentalists are skeptical.
Residents of Rivne witnessed a reddish-brown cloud of smoke that rose into the air after the accident at the Rivneazot plant on Wednesday, July 20. The cause could have been corrosion of a section of the pipeline or non-compliance of the pipeline materials with the manufacturer's stated characteristics, said Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi later.
The enterprise itself reports a "one-time emission of nitrous gases in a small amount." Meanwhile, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the State Environmental Inspectorate assured that there is no threat to the population or the environment. The Rivne Regional State Administration also reported that after local hydrometeorological center measurements in four nearby villages, as well as in Rivne itself, no exceedance of the maximum permissible concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the air was detected. However, experts interviewed by DW and local residents do not share the reassuring conclusions at all.
Environmentalists to Rivne residents: close your windows
"In such situations, windows must be hermetically sealed," insists agronomist, candidate of agricultural sciences Serhiy Adamenko. The expert warns that the consequences of the last accident in Rivne region may still manifest themselves later. "From an agronomic point of view, if nitric acids get into the soil, I cannot guarantee that there will be no excess nitrates there. Everything depends on the concentration and dose," says Adamenko. He recalls the large-scale environmental disaster in Armiansk in 2018 at the Crimean Titan plant, where sulfur pollution of the environment occurred. "It is clear that these are harmful substances, especially if you breathe them. When interacting with water, acid rain can occur, leading to spots on plants," the scientist said in a comment to DW.
"This situation showed us that civil protection of the population does not work well, because Rivne residents learned about the accident from social networks and for a long time did not know whether to close our windows or leave the city," said Natalia Kholodova, head of the board of the Rivne public organization "Ecoclub," in an interview with DW.
Local eco-activists have a long-standing open score with "Rivneazot": according to the organization's estimates, the plant is the largest polluter in the entire region, responsible for a third of all carcinogenic emissions. But soon, a woodworking plant of another company is to be built next to it. Ecologists and local residents have already protested against its construction, fearing a worsening of the air pollution situation.
In the Rivne region, where nature has been suffering for years due to illegal amber mining, the issue of environmental safety is particularly acute for local residents. The regional center also has environmental problems - the ammonia content in the Usti River exceeds the norm several times, according to regular analyses by the State Environmental Inspectorate in the Rivne region.
However, demands for the closure or relocation of "Rivneazot" are rarely heard in the city, as the plant is practically city-forming and provides about half of the revenue to the Rivne budget. "If the enterprise stops, everyone will feel it - both I and you... Somewhere a playground will not be built, somewhere we will not asphalt the road," explained Volodymyr Khomko, the now former mayor of Rivne, a few years ago. Therefore, the demands of local activists are very modest - to install sensors that would transmit data from the city directly to the European Environment Agency's air quality index system, says Natalia Kholodova.
Not the first accident
Synthetic ammonia, mineral nitrogen fertilizers, and other chemical products have been produced at the plant in the village of Horodok near Rivne since Soviet times. The official launch date of the "chemical firstborn of Polissia," as the enterprise calls itself on its website, is considered to be 1969. Today, it is one of the largest chemical productions in Ukraine, which since 2011 has been part of the business empire of oligarch Dmytro Firtash - Group DF. Firtash himself has been busy with lawsuits abroad in recent years, and in June of this year, he was subjected to personal sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
Reports of accidents and leaks of hazardous substances from Firtash's "nitrogen" enterprises are quite regular: at Cherkasy "Azot" in 2018, there was a depressurization on the liquid ammonia discharge pipeline with a subsequent spill, as stated later in the city authorities' report, of "an insignificant amount of ammonia." 53 schoolchildren and two teachers from a school located near the plant were hospitalized with signs of poisoning. Firtash's press service then denied Azot's involvement in this incident.
Severodonetsk Association "Azot" also regularly appears in the chronicle of emergencies: in March of this year, a steam release occurred at a pipeline valve in the ammonia production shop - two workers were injured, one later died. And in 2019, an ammonia water leak occurred at the same plant. Inspectors of the State Environmental Inspectorate, who tried to enter the plant in August 2020, were not even allowed to conduct an inspection. But the largest man-made disaster with ammonia release into the air occurred at Firtash's Horlivka plant - the concern "Stirol" in 2013. Six people died then, and dozens were injured. After the Russian aggression in Donbas, this plant remained in the territory not controlled by Kyiv.
How to prevent the next disaster?
From the response of the Group DF press service to DW's request, it follows that a commission is currently working in Rivne to develop measures to reduce production risks in the future. 130 million hryvnias are allocated for the modernization of the enterprise this year, the press service notes. Additional technical safety checks are to be carried out at other enterprises of the group of companies in the near future.
By the way, carrying out systemic modernization and improving environmental safety is one of the key recommendations of the "Strategy for the Development of the Chemical Industry of Ukraine until 2030", developed by the Union of Chemists of Ukraine.
In 2017, Ukraine committed itself, within the framework of the association agreement with the EU, to implement the provisions of Directive 2010/75/EU "On industrial emissions", which, in particular, also refers to "the importance of preventing accidents and incidents and limiting their consequences." While the implementation of these provisions is only taking place in Ukraine, environmental activists warn against new emergencies.