Olympic dump in Loo pollute the air and the Black Sea

Rest between towns Loo and Dagomys in Sochi is health hazard. Yesterday, August 25, 2011., Activists of Environmental Watch on North Caucasus inspected the landfill waste in the village of Loo in Lazarevsky district of Sochi. The inspection identified serious violations of environmental laws, threatening the health of citizens.

In particular, at the time of the inspection there took place in the landfill burning of garbage, leading to air pollution.
The smell of burning garbage was felt between the villages Dagomys and Loo.

In addition, it was found that the filtrate from the dump goes to the river Bitha and then to the Black Sea. Collector carrying brown water contaminated with leachate flowing into the sea just 100 meters from the beach hotel "White Nights", which is now used extensively. There are no treatment facilities on the river there.

Visual inspection showed that the contaminated water moving toward the beach village of Loo, where daily bathing several
thousands of holidaymakers. Loo Beach begins at about 1 km from the confluence of the polluted river Bitha in the Black Sea.

August 19 2011. Sochi hosted a meeting of so-called "public council for the preparation of the Olympic Winter Games of 2014" on "Ecology and the sea." Environmental Watch and the Sochi branch of Russian Geographic Society have applied for participation, but at the meeting of this Council, despite the fact that it was devoted to environmental issues, public representatives of environmentalists were not allowed. At a meeting of the Board of the Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, he gave a speech where he said about a major victory over the most dangerous in terms of environmental remediation on the landfills of Loo (valid until 2012.) and Adler.

Inspect which was held on August 25, showed that mayor’s Sochi statement is untrue. Landfill in Loo not reclaimed and continues to serve as a source of air and water pollution in the Black Sea. At the same time the citizens, tourists are in immediate vicinity of the landfill, not warned about the possible health hazards flowing into the sea that contaminated with sewage.

Environmental Watch sent a letter to the Office of the Krasnodar Territory "Rosprirodnadzor" to take action to stop the water and air pollution caused by the operation of dumps in Loo.

According to the Environmental Watch, it is now advisable to refrain from recreational coastal area between the villages Dagomys and Loo, as well as from swimming at the beach village of Loo.

Suren Ghazarian
(Environmental Watch on North Caucasus)