PROTECTION-DESTRUCTION SPIRAL: A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO FROM LAKE GUSINOE VIA SELENGA DELTA TO LAKE BAIKAL

Hidetoshi Naganawa, Naganawa Memorial Institute of Environmental Science (NMIE), Japan

Abstract

The area of the Gusinoozersk (the center is Gusinoozersk City) includes the district of Lake Gusinoe (meaning “goose-ful” lake) in the central part of the Selenginsk district of the Buryat Republic. Lake Gusinoe is the largest water body in the republic, and still the only source of both drinking water supply for the neighboring populated areas and industrial water supply for the Gusinoozersk industrial complex (the major industries are coal mining and thermal power energy). All the wastewaters are thrown away the same lake. Lake Gusinoe is characterized by the weak nature of its running waters (with a coefficient of relative water exchange of 0.0025). Most of the tributaries, concentrated on the western lakeshore, disappear into the coarse deposits of alluvial fans soon after they emerge from the mountains. Anthropogenic impacts on the lake ecosystem increased during the 20th century. The biggest environmental polluters are the Gusinoozersk coal mine, the Kholboldzhinsky opencut coal mine, and the Gusinoozersk State Regional Power Plant (Gusinoozersk SRPP). The Gusinoozersk SRPP takes a large amount of freshwater from the Zagustai River, the longest influent of Lake Gusinoe, to produce hot water and steam for the turbines. The warm wastewater is discharged back into the lake via cooling ponds and purification plants. As a result of this, an unfrozen patch of water measuring about 2 km2 is formed on the lake in winter, and the water temperature in the upper layer is 13–14°C higher than the lower ones. Systematic observations and analyses show that some chemical components (e.g., sulfate, phenol, iron ions) of both the lake water and surface/groundwater of the Gusinoozersk Basin are with constant excess of the maximum allowable concentration (MAC). The Gusinoozersk SRPP is also the main air polluter. Around the power plant and the enterprises supplying it with coal there is a territory of destroyed lands, of harmful effect on the atmosphere and the lake itself. Only a part of the destroyed lands are recultivated, but the greater parts of them are still occupied by heaps of coal waste. Now Lake Gusinoe is constantly polluted and in the state of degradation. Lake Gusinoe might be possible one of the largest pollution sources of the Baikal region, because the connecting transboundary Selenga River is the main inflow of Lake Baikal.