Residents of Novorossiysk complained about the smoke and stench from the smoldering landfill

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Another fire at a landfill in Novorossiysk, according to the authorities, has been extinguished, but the garbage continues to smolder, and the wind carries the soot and stench to residential areas. Environmentalists are alarmed by the constant smoldering of garbage, which puts the health of local residents at risk.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, on the morning of September 6, a fire broke out at a landfill in Novorossiysk, the area of the fire was 900 square meters. The fire is accompanied by heavy smoke, gusts of wind complicate the fight against the fire, the mayor of the city reported. By September 7, the fire area had shrunk to 800 square meters.

Against the backdrop of the gubernatorial elections, as well as the elections of city council deputies and City Day in Krasnodar Krai, Novorossiysk residents continue to complain about the suffocating smell that the wind is bringing from the solid municipal waste landfill near Mount Shchelba. The authorities reported that the open fire at the dump had been extinguished, but local residents told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on September 14 that smoldering continued, and an unpleasant smell literally covered entire areas, especially when the wind blows toward residential areas.

"The dump continues to smolder. It is especially noticeable when the wind starts blowing toward residential buildings. The dump burned very badly during the week. "The wind blew the soot all over the city," said Irina Bolshakova, a resident of the SNT Svyazist.

"There is no strong and unbearable stench, only when the wind blows in the other direction. Now, most likely, it is smoldering from the inside, but there is no smoke visible. The stench was unbearable a couple of days ago, but it is still noticeable. Even your appetite is gone. There are headaches. Everyone I spoke to notes it. In our area there are Borisovka, Zolotaya Rybka, SNT Rodnichok, SNT Svyazist (closest to the garbage dump), SNT Golubaya Dal," said Elena Kuzmenko, a resident of the village of Borisovka.

The external fire was extinguished, but it continues to burn from the inside

According to her, last week, when there was a strong fire at the dump, the smoke was blown by the winds towards residential areas and further behind the mountain, into the forest, where there are no settlements. "When the wind stopped, the stench was stable in the area in Zolotoy Rybka, but I think that all the SNT everywhere felt the same. The stench started again at night and was felt during the day. Especially closer to night, around 10 p.m., it was strong. You can't see the smoke, since it was already dark, so it's hard to say whether it's burning or not. The external fire was extinguished, but it continues to burn from the inside," she added.

"In the Tsemdolina area, which is closest to the dump, more than 20 thousand people live at a distance of 200-500 meters. So we are all suffering. We keep all the windows and doors closed. In the summer, it is impossible to ventilate anything for this reason, regardless of whether the dump is burning or not. We live almost on a dump," said Fedor, a resident of Tsemdolina from the Golubaya Dal SNT.

According to him, local residents cannot even move. "Firstly, who will buy our houses now, and secondly, this dump stinks up the whole of Novorossiysk," the local resident complained. According to him, this dump has almost become the "main attraction" of Novorossiysk. "Somewhere the attractions are parks, squares, forests, beaches, but in Novorossiysk we have a garbage dump," he added.

Ecologists call for landfill reclamation

Ecologist Valery Brinikh believes that the landfill is burning from the inside, and despite the fact that the authorities say that it has been extinguished, fires will continue to break out from the inside until it is reclaimed. "There is no waste separation at the landfill. Hazardous and flammable substances are dumped in a heap, which creates ideal conditions for subsurface combustion. Covering it with soil only temporarily extinguishes the flames, but smoldering and gasification processes occur inside. This is typical for all such landfills, not just this one. Until the landfill is reclaimed and a gas removal system is installed, fires will break out again and again,” he explained to a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

When open burning started again, they finally heard us and covered everything with sand

“The landfill in Novorossiysk has existed for many years, but no one is talking about its reclamation and closure. When open burning started again, they finally heard us and covered everything with sand. Now there is no open flame, but rotting processes continue inside, gas formation, which inevitably leads to new fires. The landfill does not have a gas removal system,” the leader of the “Public Control” movement, Zhanna Mingelevich, told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to her, the authorities intend to expand the landfill. "The authorities are planning to expand the landfill by another 20 hectares of forest land. This "cancerous tumor" is located right on the riverbed, practically in the area of the water intake. Rospotrebnadzor took measurements and said that everything was within the norm, they say, it is unpleasant, but "you will not die." Now half of the shares belong to the state [...] A new regional operator has been operating since June, but the system is the same: recyclable materials continue to be taken to the landfill, there is no sorting. It is simply a "garbage taxi." As long as recyclable and hazardous waste is mixed with household waste, the landfill will burn," Mingelevich is sure.

She spoke with officials personally, asking them to stop taking to the landfill what can be recycled. "Create recycling collection points in the city, launch government programs. As long as recyclables are mixed with household waste, the landfill will only have a huge pile of waste, not a resource for recycling. The landfill's turnover last year was more than two billion rubles. This is a lot of money and, obviously, the current owners have completely different goals. They are going to raise garbage collection rates again, citing rising fuel prices. And the saddest thing is that the landfill itself was initially approved within the city limits. We know the names of those who signed. These were corrupt officials who were only interested in money, and not in how people would live later," she added.

Residents complain of shortness of breath, coughing, sore throat, chemical taste in the mouth

Member of the Environmental Council under the Head of Novorossiysk Sergey Stryapukhin emphasized the health hazard of a burning and smoldering landfill. “Over the past two years, we have seen the largest fires at the landfill. The first ones started back in 2020, and last year there were two major fires - in June and at the end of summer. This year, in March, there was a major fire that was extinguished for more than a month, until April. And now there is a new outbreak again. The older the landfill, the more fires. This is due to the accumulation of methane, which is formed during the rotting of waste. This gas must be removed and burned through special pipelines, but this is not done. In addition, the landfill is overflowing and is not covered with earth. In the photographs that firefighters send me, you can see cardboard, bags, piled garbage without soil spilled on it. All this ignites like a match. The flames spread along vertical slopes, which should not be there at all: the slopes should be gentle so that the inert material can hold the soil. In its current form the landfill cannot be used - it needs to be reclaimed immediately. As for human health, burning plastic is one of the most harmful phenomena. Such fires release substances that cause cancer and many other serious pathologies. Residents complain of shortness of breath, coughing, sore throat, and a chemical taste in the mouth. These are terrible things. It’s one thing if someone burns a small pile of garbage in their yard, even with plastic. But here, hundreds and thousands of tons of waste are burning. This smoke settles on residential buildings, penetrates apartments, soaks furniture and curtains. Toxic particles get into the soil, vegetable gardens, reservoirs, and then into food products. Long-term consequences can be even more dangerous,” he told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Ecologist Tatyana Tribrat keeps a diary of fires, she listed the ones recorded her cases. "The first major fire occurred on August 10, 2020. In 2022, the landfill burned on April 29, September 30 and October 21. In 2023 - March 17, May 18 and May 29. In 2024 - June 9, August 23 and September 6. This year - January 26, March 13 and August 29. And now the September open fire from September 6 and internal combustion to this day," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her, the residents of Novorossiysk live "on an artificial man-made volcano" that regularly brings trouble to local residents in favor of the interests of those for whom this landfill has become a way to make easy money.

According to the Operational Headquarters of the Krasnodar Territory, 16 units of special equipment were used to extinguish the fire, more than 655 trips were made with soil, over 6.7 thousand cubic meters were filled. Rospotrebnadzor, in turn, reported a fire at the solid waste landfill of Terra-N LLC in Novorossiysk and that “no excess of pollutant standards in the air was detected.”

The landfill, according to Rosprirodnadzor, is under the control of the service. Previously, the enterprise was obliged to compensate more than 3.2 million rubles for soil pollution with leachate. Inspectors also repeatedly recorded violations in the operation of the landfill and cases of fires. Based on the results of the latest inspection, the materials were sent to the prosecutor's office to coordinate an unscheduled inspection.

However, local residents believe that official reports do not reflect reality. Novorossiysk resident Elena commented on the department's publication about the landfill, stating that “the very existence of this landfill in the tract of Mount Shchelba is a violation.” "A long-standing battle of active defenders nature/ecologists/residents does not bring the desired results, several land plots were submitted to the commissions for consideration, which better meet the requirements for the placement of such objects, but you do not want to see and solve the problem, it is easier to write a review that you have everything under control. Meanwhile, we live here and have been breathing carbon monoxide and combustion waste for three days. Oh yeah - your laboratory showed that there is no excess of the maximum permissible concentration of harmful substances in the air. The amazing is nearby! " - she wrote.

We live nearby, and the authorities report on the "norm". But it is impossible to live within this norm

"The smell is unbearable, it is impossible to open the windows. We live nearby, and the authorities report on the "norm". But it is impossible to live within this norm,” said Irina Bolshakova.

“The situation with the landfill has become aggravated precisely during the days when Novorossiysk is holding elections for city council members and a large-scale celebration of City Day. Against the backdrop of concert venues and official speeches, the landfill continues to smoke, and residents complain about the careless attitude of officials. This is an indicator of the incompetence of the leaders. Holidays are holidays, but it is impossible to live next to a landfill,” summed up Zhanna Mingelevich.

The landfill in the village of Borisovka was organized in 2013, it is the only legalized facility for the disposal of waste from Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik. The capacity of the facility is 160 thousand tons of waste per year, however, according to the territorial scheme for handling solid municipal waste, about 230 thousand tons of waste are generated in Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik annually. In fact, the landfill accepts a significantly larger volume of garbage, and under such conditions, the landfill has prematurely "exhausted itself" , said the head of the working group on ecology at the Council for the Development of Civil Society under the Governor of Kuban, Yevgeny Vitishko, in January 2024.