In 2019, authorities in Kemerovo were investigating the cause of the black snow that fell on three cities in Kuzbass, one of the world’s largest coal mining areas.
The cities of Prokopyevsk, Kiselyovsk and Leninsk-Kuznetsky, have a population of 2.6 million people.
Images shared by local residents show alarming scenes of a dark winter. One commented: “Is this what snow looks like in hell?”
Others say there is beauty in the snowy desolate landscapes. Local media blamed the crisis on local coal processing plants.
The general director of the Prokopyevskaya plant, Anatoly Volkov, told Vesti-KUzbass TV channel that a filter had stopped working at his plant, causing coal dust to be released at air.
At the time, the deputy governor of the Kemerovo region, Andrei Panov, who is responsible for ecology, met with local environmentalists 😂 to discuss the issue. He suggested that the plant was not the only cause of the problem.
Coal-fired boilers, car exhausts and other coal-fired plants were also to blame.
On social media, residents also complained about other plants, claiming that there was a long-term lack of environmental protection in a region whose lifeblood is coal.
'Without cleaning systems, all the garbage, dust and dirt, coal remains in the area. Our children and we are breathing this. It's a nightmare,' said one local resident.
A RECURRING PHENOMENON
The phenomenon, however, is not unprecedented; quite the opposite. Toxic black snow is already common in the area and is not necessarily linked to a single source.
“It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter”, Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the non-profit environmental action group, Ecodefense, told the Guardian.
“There’s a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When the snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it’s still there”.
Kuzbass (short for Kuznetsk Basin) is one of the world’s largest coal mines, covering more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers).
A 2015 report, by Ecodefense, found that citizens of Kuzbass have an average life expectancy three to four years shorter than the Russian national average and are almost twice as likely to contract tuberculosis and mental disorders in childhood.
RED RAIN
At Siberia, which would be the largest country in the world by size if it were a sovereign nation, bizarre environmental disasters are not uncommon.
In July 2018, a Siberian industrial city was drenched in a red “blood rain” when improperly stored industrial waste was dispersed into the environment by a storm.
Later, that month, a mysterious barrier of dust obscured the sun for 3 hours in Yakutia, a region that contains some of the coldest cities in the world.
2024: NOTHING HAS CHANGED
Aerial view of Krasnoyarsk
At Krasnoyarsk, an industrial powerhouse more than 2,000 miles east of Moscow, these “black sky” alerts—officially called “unfavorable weather conditions” warnings—are common.
Between the first alert in 2012 and the end of 2023, Krasnoyarsk’s 1 million residents endured 460 of these smog-filled days.
More than two weeks have been under such an alert so far in 2024, with the latest occurring earlier this month (February 2024).
On smoggy days, residents are advised to keep their windows closed and avoid being outdoors.
“I’ve lived in Krasnoyarsk since I was born, and I’m generally used to life here. But lately, even I can’t stand it,” one Krasnoyarsk resident told The Moscow Times.
"I have developed a dry cough that does not respond to any treatment, and it comes and goes intermittently. And I do not smoke or drink", said the resident, who did not want to reveal her name due to the backlash she faces as a public activist.
USELESS ECOLOGISTS
In 2017, more than 1,000 people gone to the streets to protest the never-ending succession of dark skies.
Skovorodnikov-Erlikh, a borned of Krasnoyarsk who organized these rallies, became a leader of the Za Chistoe Nebo (“For Clear Skies”) movement.
“Around 2015 to 2017, it became more noticeable, especially in winter, how everything in our city is shrouded in chemical pollution”, he said.
“This led to the formation of our public movement because certified ecologists, so to speak, only gathered for round tables and talked, but did nothing. Authorities also only made promises".
Having been prejudiced by this environmental problem for decades, Krasnoyarsk is often classified as one of the most environmentally problematic cities in Russia. Official data indicate a "very high" level of air pollution with several toxic substances present.
The most days in January, independent monitoring of air quality, carried out by citizens recorded high levels of PM2.5 — fine particles produced by the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass — far exceeding the limits considered safe.
The fact is that the cause of the situation in the region is well known to everyone, authorities and the population, but the solution never arrives due to a lack of real interest from the political powers, closely linked to those who hold the economic power of local industries, who are not interested in investing in the modernization of facilities, which date back to the Soviet era.
SOURCES
Eerie black snow falls over Siberian region triggering acute pollution concerns from locals
SIBERIAN TIMES, 15 February 2019
https://web.archive.org/web/20190215181319/https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/eerie-black-snow-falls-over-siberian-region-triggering-acute-pollution-concerns-from-locals/
Black snow falls from the sky in Siberia, and it's toxic
CBS NEWS, February 18, 2019
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-snow-falls-from-the-sky-in-siberia-and-its-toxic/
KORALOVA, Lana. Black Sky, Gray Snow: Decades of Air Pollution Leave Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Struggling to Breathe
THE MOSCOW TIMES, Feb 26, 2024
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/02/26/black-sky-gray-snow-decades-of-air-pollution-leave-siberias-krasnoyarsk-struggling-to-breathe-a84081
