General concepts of ecology, ecosystems, environmental factors and environmental pollution.
As an independent science, ecology was formed in the 20th century, although the facts that make up its content have attracted human attention since ancient times. In its modern form, ecology covers an extremely wide range of issues and is closely intertwined with a number of related sciences: biology, geology, physics, chemistry, genetics, etc.
Ecology- is the science of the relationship of plant and animal organisms or their communities with each other and with the environment.
The term "ecology", formed from two Greek words: oikos - home, dwelling, homeland and logos - science, was proposed by the German biologist E. Haeckel in 1869 and literally means "the study of one's own home", or "the science of the habitat."
Ecology is closely related to other biological sciences - zoology and botany. During the formation of these sciences, the main attention of researchers was focused on the systematics and structure of living organisms. But already in the first works on flora, the description of each type of plant began to be accompanied by an indication of the places of its growth. In the course of fauna research, scientists also came to the conclusion that the lifestyle of an animal and its habitat are interconnected. It is obvious that most of the information from these areas is simultaneously the subject of study of ecology.
Environmental factors
The habitat of organisms is characterized by conditions and resources.
The concept of "environmental conditions" in ecology is replaced and defined by the concept of "environmental factors". Environmental factors have a decisive influence on life activity and geographical distribution.
understanding of living organisms.
Environmental factor- this is any element of the environment that is not further divided and capable of exerting a direct or indirect effect on a living organism at least during one of the stages of its individual development, or, in other words, from the environmental conditions to which the organism responds with adaptive reactions.
Environmental factors are very diverse both in nature and in their impact on living organisms. They can be roughly divided into three main groups:
- abiotic,
- biotic
- anthropogenic.
Environmental pollution can be physical and chemical. Physical (energy) pollution includes noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields, ionizing radiation of radioactive substances, thermal radiation resulting from anthropogenic activity.
The continuing increase in the number and variety of new industrial enterprises, chemical production, various vehicles, chemicalization of agriculture lead to increasing environmental pollution with all kinds of chemicals (xenobiotics) that enter it with gaseous, liquid and solid emissions and waste.
The ecological situation that has been created today is extraordinary and dangerous. Currently, the annual emissions of industrial enterprises and transport in Russia amount to about 25 million tons. Currently, there are more than 24 thousand enterprises that pollute the environment in the country. According to official data, more than 65 million people living in 187 cities are exposed to pollutants whose average annual concentrations exceed the maximum allowable limits. Every tenth city in Russia has a high level of environmental pollution.
Significant air pollution in them is caused by stationary sources. Most of the pollutants are gaseous and liquid substances, and a much smaller part - solid impurities. The total emission of harmful gaseous substances into the atmosphere is significantly increased by vehicles. The share of road transport in total emissions is on average 35–40% in the Russian Federation, and in large cities it reaches 80–90%. Exhaust gases emitted by vehicles contain more than 200 harmful substances and compounds. The most well-known air pollutants are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and dioxide, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, lead, etc. Some air pollutants have carcinogenic properties (benzpyrene).
Environmental Compliance
natural environment
Atmospheric air is one of the most important components of the environment. The main sources of air pollution are thermal power plants and heating plants burning fossil fuels; motor transport; ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy; mechanical engineering; chemical production; extraction and processing of mineral raw materials; open sources (extraction of agricultural production, construction).
In modern conditions, more than 400 million tons of particles of ash, soot, dust and various kinds of waste and building materials enter the atmosphere. In addition to the above substances, other, more toxic substances are emitted into the atmosphere: vapors of mineral acids (sulfuric, chromic, etc.), organic solvents, etc. At present, there are more than 500 harmful substances polluting the atmosphere.
| Sources of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere | |||
| impurities | main sources | Average concentration in the air mg / m 3 | |
| Natural | Angropogenic | ||
| Dust | Volcanic eruptions, dust storms, forest fires | Combustion of fuel in industrial and domestic conditions | in cities 0.04 - 0.4 |
| sulphur dioxide | Volcanic eruptions, oxidation of sulfur and sulfates dispersed into the sea | Combustion of fuel in industrial and domestic installations | in cities up to 1.0 |
| nitrogen oxides | Forest fires | Industry, transport, thermal power plants | In areas with developed industry up to 0.2 |
| Oxides of carbon | |||
| Volatile hydrocarbons | Forest fires, natural methane | Motor transport, evaporation of oil products | In areas with developed industry up to 0.3 |
| Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons | - | Motor transport, chemical and oil refineries | In areas with developed industry up to 0.01 |
Many branches of energy and industry generate not only the maximum amount of harmful emissions, but also create environmentally unfavorable living conditions for residents of both large and medium-sized cities. Emissions of toxic substances lead, as a rule, to an increase in the current concentrations of substances above maximum allowable concentrations(MPC).
MPC of harmful substances in the atmospheric air of populated areas- these are the maximum concentrations related to a certain averaging period (30 minutes, 24 hours, 1 month, 1 year) and not having, with a regulated probability of their occurrence, either direct or indirect harmful effects on the human body, including long-term consequences for the present and subsequent generations that do not reduce the working capacity of a person and do not worsen his well-being.
Hydrosphere pollution
Water, like air, is a vital source for all known organisms. Russia is one of the countries most provided with water. However, the state of its reservoirs cannot be called satisfactory. Anthropogenic activity leads to pollution of both surface and underground water sources.
The main sources of pollution of the hydrosphere are discharged wastewater generated during the operation of energy, industrial, chemical, medical, defense, housing and communal and other enterprises and facilities; disposal of radioactive waste in containers and tanks that lose their tightness after a certain period of time; accidents and catastrophes occurring on land and in water spaces; atmospheric air polluted by various substances and others.
Surface sources of drinking water are annually and increasingly polluted by xenobiotics of various nature, so the supply of drinking water to the population from surface sources is an increasing danger. About 50% of Russians are forced to use drinking water that does not meet sanitary and hygienic requirements for a number of indicators. The water quality of 75% of water bodies in Russia does not meet regulatory requirements.
More than 600 billion tons of energy, industrial, household and other waste waters are annually discharged into the hydrosphere. More than 20–30 million tons of oil and products of its processing, phenols, easily oxidizable organic substances, copper and zinc compounds enter the water spaces. Unsustainable agriculture also contributes to the pollution of water sources. Residues of fertilizers and pesticides washed out of the soil enter water bodies and pollute them. Many pollutants of the hydrosphere are able to enter into chemical reactions and form more harmful complexes.
Water pollution leads to the suppression of ecosystem functions, slows down natural processes of biological purification of fresh water, and also contributes to a change in the chemical composition of food and the human body.
Hygienic and technical requirements for water supply sources and the rules for their selection in the interests of public health are regulated by GOST 2761-84 “Sources of centralized domestic and drinking water supply. Hygienic, technical requirements and selection rules”; SanPiN 2.1.4.544-96 “Requirements for water quality of non-centralized water supply. Sanitary protection of springs”; GN 2.1.5.689-98 “Maximum Permissible Concentrations (MPC) of Chemical Substances in the Water of Water Bodies of Domestic Drinking and Cultural Water Supply”, etc.
Hygienic requirements for the quality of drinking water of centralized drinking water supply systems are specified in sanitary rules and regulations. The norms are established for the following water parameters of reservoirs: the content of impurities and suspended particles, taste, color, turbidity and water temperature, pH, composition and concentration of mineral impurities and oxygen dissolved in water, MPCs of chemicals and pathogenic bacteria. MPCv is the maximum allowable pollution of water in reservoirs, at which safety for human health and normal conditions for water use are maintained. For example, for benzene MPCv is 0.5 mg/l.
With an abstract approach, all environmental problems can be reduced to a person, to say that any negative impact on the environment comes from a person - a business entity, producer, consumer, carrier of technical progress, and simply an inhabitant of the planet. In this regard, it is necessary to analyze some aspects of human activity that have a particularly harmful impact on the environment, including production, transport, consumption, the use of modern technology, urbanization, etc., as the main sources of pollution and environmental degradation. This approach makes it possible to single out those areas of human activity that harm or pose a threat to the environment, to outline ways to correct or prevent them.
Basic rules for preventing the occurrence of emergencies with environmental consequences
The main tasks in environmental protection are pollution prevention its harmful products of human activity and cleaning environment-forming natural components from emissions and discharges, if pollution has already taken place.
Priority must certainly be given to the fulfillment of the first task: to prevent pollution of one's own habitat.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction of the material needs of society, at least at the present time, cannot be carried out without causing some damage to the environment. However, this damage should be as minimal as possible, since the existence of man as a biological species depends on the preservation of the habitat. Each of us should try to find such opportunities to satisfy our needs that would not harm nature, but, on the contrary, would help maintain ecological balance and help its sustainable development.
The Armed Forces cannot stand aside from solving such a complex and urgent task, especially since it is they who have a colossal nature-destroying potential capable of destroying the Earth's existing ecosystems in the event of armed conflicts.
Prevention (warning) pollution of the environment is necessary both in emergency situations at military facilities and during their normal operation, when for one reason or another the values of established permissible emissions, discharges and waste disposal limits are exceeded.
Prevention (prevention) of environmental pollution due to the activities of military installations can be carried out to a large extent by measures of both an organizational and technical nature.
To technical measures include engineering methods and methods for cleaning emissions and discharges from operating energy, industrial, municipal facilities and systems from harmful components before they enter the environment.
To clean them, mechanical, physicochemical, chemical, biochemical, thermal methods and various means are used.
A variety of technical devices and installations are used to clean and neutralize exhaust gases: “dry” and “wet” mechanical dust collectors, filtration plants, dust settling chambers, centrifugal structures, foam gas cleaners, dust collectors of shock-flush action, ultrasonic devices, inertial dust collectors.
In order to treat waste and sewer water, the following technical devices are used: water settling tanks, grate-filtering plants, sand traps, oil traps, drum-vacuum filtering plants, centrifugal structures, dispersed plants, foam separators, ultraviolet plants, degassers for removing dissolved gases, oxidizing plants.
Prevention of pollution of soils and lands at military facilities is carried out in the following areas:
destruction, neutralization and utilization of solid and liquid household waste;
destruction, neutralization and utilization of waste from agricultural enterprises;
land reclamation.
For the destruction of solid waste mechanical and thermal methods are used. The main technical means in this case are mechanical crushers and special furnaces. Liquid waste is usually disposed of in so-called plowing fields.
Land reclamation provides for leveling of damaged soil and sowing it with plant crops, laying productive new soil on the damaged areas.
The nature of the impact on the environment of various military installations, which differ in their purpose, the type of tasks performed and other characteristics, is not the same.
The most environmentally hazardous are potentially dangerous military installations.
These objects include:
radiation hazardous - power nuclear installations; warehouses and bases with elements of nuclear weapons; nuclear research reactors; storage facilities for liquid radioactive waste; storage facilities for solid radioactive waste; spent nuclear fuel storage facilities; radioactive waste disposal sites;
chemically hazardous - storage facilities and warehouses for chemicals, including chemical ammunition (cassettes) with chemical warfare agents; storage facilities and warehouses for military chemicals; places of destruction and burial of chemical warfare agents; storage facilities and warehouses for rocket fuel components;
explosive and flammable - bases, arsenals, storages and warehouses of various types of ammunition, weapons and military equipment; storages, warehouses and bases of fuel and lubricants, aggressive liquids, volumes of compressed air.
Soil pollution
The soil- the habitat of numerous lower animals and microorganisms, including bacteria, mold fungi, viruses, etc.
The soil is a source of infection with anthrax, gas gangrene, tetanus, botulism.
Along with the natural uneven distribution of certain chemical elements in modern conditions, their artificial redistribution takes place on a huge scale. Emissions from industrial enterprises and agricultural facilities, dispersing over considerable distances and getting into the soil, create new combinations of chemical elements. From the soil, these substances, as a result of various migration processes, can enter the human body (soil - plants - man, soil - atmospheric air - man, soil - water - man, etc.). All kinds of metals (iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc) and other chemical pollutants enter the soil with industrial solid waste.
The soil has the ability to store radioactive substances entering it with radioactive waste and atmospheric radioactive fallout after nuclear tests. Radioactive substances are included in food chains and affect living organisms.
Soil polluting chemicals include carcinogens - carcinogens that play a significant role in the occurrence of tumor diseases. The main sources of soil pollution with carcinogenic substances are vehicle exhaust gases, emissions from industrial enterprises, thermal power plants, etc. Carcinogens enter the soil from the atmosphere together with coarse and medium-dispersed dust particles, when oil or its products leak, etc. The main danger of pollution soil is linked to global air pollution.
Rationing of chemical contamination of soils is carried out according to the maximum allowable concentrations of MPC in accordance with GN 6229-91 “List of maximum allowable concentrations (MPC) and approximate allowable amounts of chemicals in the soil”.
POLLUTION FROM MILITARY ACTIVITIES
Any military formation - from a separate unit to an operational-strategic association - can be considered as a specific ecological system, the main elements of which are the personnel (with weapons and military equipment) and the environment of the points (areas) of deployment. A distinctive feature of the activity of such an ecological system is the clear priority of combat training and combat operations, which is quite difficult to combine with environmental protection measures. And at the same time, there are ways to solve this difficult problem.
3.1. MILITARY FACILITY AND MILITARY ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
military facility- these are troops located in areas of deployment, concentration, on the march, at initial firing and launching positions, airfields, naval bases, warships and transports, command posts, communication centers, radio-technical systems for detecting guidance and controlling weapons, rear services, enterprises, institutions, and organizations of the Armed Forces and other troops, as well as other facilities that are the place of their military activities.
military ecological system- this is a natural-anthropogenic (disturbed) system, including personnel, weapons and military equipment, military installations of troops and forces and their environment in areas and points of permanent or temporary deployment and the performance of training, combat and other tasks.
The military ecological system also includes the territory on which military installations are located, troops operate, natural objects are located and the local population lives.
When organizing and implementing environmental measures in the troops, as a ground unit (initial element) for ensuring environmental safety, they take military City- as a stationary military facility or any military formation - as a moving (mobile) object.
Military City- this is a certain territory with buildings and structures located on it, designed to accommodate one or more military units, one or more institutions, military educational institutions, enterprises of the Armed Forces.
Usually a military camp consists of service barracks, technical and residential zones. Headquarters, barracks, classrooms, guard rooms, soldiers' canteens, clubs, first-aid posts are located in the service-barracks zone. In the technical zone there are parks with military and special equipment, warehouses, workshops and other special facilities. In the residential area - houses for officers, ensigns, civilian personnel and members of their families, as well as consumer services. Training fields, shooting ranges, ranges, tankodromes, autodromes, as a rule, are located outside the territory of a military camp.
Thus, the residential and working areas are quite clearly distinguished in the military camp. Both of them pollute the environment in one way or another. The first is a source of domestic pollution, and the second is a source of environmental pollution of all types. But it is in the working zone that most of the day the personnel of military facilities are located and operate. And since the preservation of people's health is a priority task of ensuring environmental safety, then, therefore, the main efforts should be directed to creating normal living conditions for them within the framework of military facilities (while eliminating or reducing their own harmful effects of a military facility on the environment), as well as to protect both man and nature from harmful technogenic loads.
3.2. SOURCES OF POLLUTION AT MILITARY FACILITIES
A source of environmental pollution is an object that emits (discharges) pollutants, energy emissions and information into the environment.
Sources of pollution at military facilities in the general case are:
pollutant release point (pipe, building skylight, ventilation device, etc.);
economic or natural object that produces a pollutant;
the region from which the pollutants originate.
Sources of environmental pollution at military facilities are usually:
public utility facilities;
life support facilities;
areas and places of combat training;
weapons and military equipment.
The objects of the first two of these types refer to sources of pollution common to all military units. The next two types of objects may have significant specifics - depending on their belonging to different branches of the Armed Forces and combat arms.
Sources of pollution common to all military units (regardless of belonging to a particular type of Armed Forces and branch of service) can be named:
barracks and housing stock;
boiler rooms, catering units, first-aid posts, bath and laundry facilities;
sewerage systems, treatment facilities;
subsidiary farms;
general purpose vehicles;
points of maintenance and repair of vehicles and special equipment;
gas stations, battery charging points, compressor stations;
warehouses of fuel and lubricants;
places for collection of household waste and garbage.
These are sources that operate constantly and are not associated with the belonging of a military unit (military facility). Therefore, they can be conditionally named military household sources. They differ little from similar sources of civilian departments. At the same time, these sources should be classified as the most unfavorable in terms of the frequency of their violations of environmental legislation.
The reason for this phenomenon lies in the low ecological culture of the service personnel and all military personnel, which is manifested in the lack of proper attention of the leadership to the creation and maintenance of environmental and environmental protection structures at military facilities - on the one hand, and in violations of environmental requirements by subordinates in everyday life, during the operation and maintenance of equipment, in field exercises and exercises - on the other hand.
It should be noted that violations of the requirements of environmental legislation can be eliminated to a large extent by educational measures. They are mainly allowed not out of malicious intent, but due to the lack of relevant knowledge, skills and habits. Undoubtedly, the purification of exhaust gases, waste water, recycling water supply, etc., require certain financial and material costs, without which, in principle, environmental protection structures cannot be created during the construction and modernization of military facilities.
It will be much more difficult to solve the problem with specific impact factors (by environmental impact factors here we mean any abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic impact that affects processes, phenomena or the state of this environment), characteristic only of military facilities.
3.3. SOURCES OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AT A MILITARY FACILITY DURING THE DAILY ACTIVITIES OF THE TROOPS
Let us consider in more detail the impact of military installations on the environment on the example of the functioning of one of them. The most typical object can be a motorized rifle regiment, in which, to one degree or another, almost all branches of the Ground Forces and special forces are represented.
The motorized rifle regiment (MSR) in its daily activities continuously has an impact on the environment, and, unfortunately, mostly negative. To identify and consider this impact, it is advisable to single out two groups of measures that together make up the content of the regiment's activities: household activities and combat training measures.
Activities of household activities associated with the creation and maintenance of the necessary conditions for the life and life of military personnel, providing them with all types of allowances, maintaining the military-technical means and communications of the regiment in good condition. These activities include:
equipment and operation of the barracks, administrative and residential funds of the military camp, structures, systems and devices for communal, household, economic, medical, material and technical and environmental purposes;
providing the necessary conditions for the life of the personnel of the regiment and the population of the military camp;
carrying out maintenance and repair of weapons and military equipment (WME);
creation and maintenance of objects of educational and material base.
An analysis of household activities in SMEs shows that this activity in units of motorized rifle troops has practically the same content as in units of any other military branches.
Combat training activities constitute the main content of the daily activities of a motorized rifle regiment in peacetime. Combat training is organized and conducted for the purpose of training servicemen, subunits and units to successfully carry out combat missions in any situation. Carrying out such activities as field exercises, firing, driving combat vehicles, combat coordination of subunits, tactical exercises, requires the advancement of troops to training centers, placement in them and the performance of specific combat training tasks. During these activities, the units of the regiment have a harmful impact on the environment.
Sources of harmful effects on the environment are weapons, military equipment and personnel of units.
The range of weapons and military equipment in a motorized rifle regiment is quite diverse and is divided into groups according to various criteria:
according to the transport base - for wheeled vehicles and tracked vehicles;
by type of weapon - for small arms, artillery, tank, anti-aircraft and engineering weapons;
according to the nature of environmental pollution - on weapons and military equipment generating electromagnetic pollution (communications and radar stations), creating acoustic pollution (tanks, artillery pieces, mortars and other equipment) and causing chemical pollution (special processing machines and devices, tankers, etc.);
according to the purpose of technical means - for smoke masking means, air regeneration means, etc.
The transport base of weapons and military equipment is the main source of environmental pollution. There is a connection here with such forms of pollution as chemical pollution of the atmosphere (due to emissions of exhaust toxic gases), damage and destruction of vegetation, destruction of the soil cover, noise and vibration. Pollution levels depend on the intensity, on the spatio-temporal scale of the use of tracked vehicles (tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled guns, anti-aircraft guns) and wheeled vehicles (armored personnel carriers, special and transport vehicles). Therefore, combat training plans should be drawn up taking into account the provision of a uniform load on the environment during the academic year. It should also take into account the time and availability of permanent breeding sites for wild animals, birds, for the young of which the total impact of anthropogenic factors due to harmful emissions, radiation and destruction of vegetation and soil cover is detrimental.
When conducting field exercises and exercises, there is significant pollution of vegetation, soil, water bodies with oil products and oils during refueling, maintenance, washing and operation of equipment - as a result of leaks and spills of fuel and lubricants.
The use of flamethrowing and incendiary ammunition, degassing, decontaminating substances and solutions, other chemicals and air regeneration agents has an extremely harmful effect on the flora and fauna. Regenerative cartridges of insulating gas masks are explosive, flammable, and their contents, falling into water or soil, destroy all life. It is strictly forbidden to throw away used air regeneration products, destroy them by flooding or use them for washing floors and processing products, since all these harmful substances eventually end up in wastewater and pollute water sources and water bodies.
As already mentioned, the sources and types of pollution for military units of all types of the Armed Forces and branches of the military during their daily activities are almost identical. On the example of a motorized rifle regiment under consideration, objects that are sources of pollution and the most common pollutants (pollutants) are summarized in Table. 3.1.
Table 3.1
Sources of pollution and typical pollutants generated during the daily activities of the troops
Sources | pollutants |
Parks of military, special and transport equipment | Waste fuel and lubricants; special fluids and electrolytes; exhaust gases of engines; heavy metals; scrap metal; wastewater; filter elements of fuel systems that have worked out their service life; used rags |
Energy and radio engineering systems | Electromagnetic fields and radiation; electrolytes; transformer oils; heavy metals; exhaust gases |
Warehouse area | Paint and varnish products; toxic and aggressive chemicals; detergents (detergents); means of air regeneration; freons; ammonia; bombed cans; rotten vegetables and fruits; containers and packaging materials |
Gas stations and fuel depots | couples; petroleum products and oils; slimes; commercial water; fire extinguishing agents |
Workshops | Raw sewage; waste oil products; paints and varnishes; waste of rubber products and products made of synthetic materials; scrap metal; used rags; acid and alkali waste |
Boiler houses | flue gases; ash; boiler fuel; water treatment reagents; coal dust; slag |
Water supply systems | Water purification and disinfection reagents |
Sewerage and treatment facilities | solid waste; silt; heavy metals; oil products; detergents (detergents); chemical substances; wastewater disinfection reagents; raw sewage |
Living sector | Household waste; wastewater; construction garbage; unsuitable household appliances and products made of synthetic materials; used oils; paint and solvents; electrolytes; fluorescent (mercury) lamps; surfactants; worn shoes and clothes |
Subsidiary farm | Manure and slurry; food waste; rotten vegetables and fruits; dead animals; waste from the slaughter of animals; mineral fertilizers; phytotoxicants |
construction sites | Construction garbage; fuel and lubricants; exhaust gases; cement dust; couples; varnishes, paints, solvents and containers from them; packaging materials |
Smoke and soot; toxic chemical compounds (dioxin, peroxynitrates, etc.); appliances; devices and waste containing toxic substances |
|
training fields | Recipes of imitation means; incendiary and smoke substances and means; degassing, deactivating and disinfecting agents; fragments of ammunition; practical projectiles; scrap metal; fuels and lubricants; waste from field kitchens; used cleaning materials; destroyed vegetation and soil cover |
3.4. POLLUTION PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENT CLEANING
The main tasks in environmental protection are pollution prevention its harmful products of human activity and cleaning environment-forming natural components from emissions and discharges, if pollution has already taken place.
Priority must certainly be given to the fulfillment of the first task: to prevent pollution of one's own habitat.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction of the material needs of society, at least at the present time, cannot be carried out without causing some damage to the environment. However, this damage should be as minimal as possible, since the existence of man as a biological species depends on the preservation of the habitat. Each of us should try to find such opportunities to satisfy our needs that would not harm nature, but, on the contrary, would help maintain ecological balance and help its sustainable development.
The Armed Forces cannot stand aside from solving such a complex and urgent task, especially since it is they who have a colossal nature-destroying potential capable of destroying the Earth's existing ecosystems in the event of armed conflicts.
Prevention (warning) pollution of the environment is necessary both in emergency situations at military facilities and during their normal operation, when for one reason or another the values of established permissible emissions, discharges and waste disposal limits are exceeded.
Prevention (prevention) of environmental pollution due to the activities of military installations can be carried out to a large extent by measures of both an organizational and technical nature.
Organizational measures include the following activities:
planning measures to reduce the harmful effects on the environment in the course of military activities;
planning measures to maintain technical means of preventing pollution in good condition;
observance of the operating modes of the specified technical means;
compliance with the rules for working with potential pollutants in accordance with current instructions;
exclusion of spills and leakages of oil products;
collection and disposal of oils, acids, alkalis and other technical liquids;
collection, sorting and disposal of industrial and household waste;
exclusion of violations of the vegetation and soil cover and pollution of water sources during the movements and actions of troops on the ground;
minimizing the idle time of the engines of combat, special and transport vehicles;
establishment of modes and directions of radiation during the operation of radio engineering systems, communication and navigation systems;
termination of the operation of sources of electromagnetic, laser, radiation radiation and the exclusion of emissions of hazardous chemicals that exceed the established limits.
To technical measures include engineering methods and methods for cleaning emissions and discharges from operating energy, industrial, municipal facilities and systems from harmful components before they enter the environment.
To clean them, mechanical, physicochemical, chemical, biochemical, thermal methods and various means are used.
A variety of technical devices and installations are used to clean and neutralize exhaust gases: “dry” and “wet” mechanical dust collectors, filtration plants, dust settling chambers, centrifugal structures, foam gas cleaners, dust collectors of shock-flush action, ultrasonic devices, inertial dust collectors.
In order to treat waste and sewer water, the following technical devices are used: water settling tanks, grate-filtering plants, sand traps, oil traps, drum-vacuum filtering plants, centrifugal structures, dispersed plants, foam separators, ultraviolet plants, degassers for removing dissolved gases, oxidizing plants.
Prevention of soil and land pollution at military facilities is carried out in the following areas:
destruction, neutralization and utilization of solid and liquid household waste;
destruction, neutralization and utilization of waste from agricultural enterprises;
land reclamation.
Mechanical and thermal methods are used to destroy solid waste. The main technical means in this case are mechanical crushers and special furnaces. Liquid waste is usually disposed of in so-called plowing fields.
Land reclamation provides for leveling of damaged soil and sowing it with plant crops, laying productive new soil on the damaged areas.
The nature of the impact on the environment of various military installations, which differ in their purpose, the type of tasks performed and other characteristics, is not the same.
The most environmentally hazardous are potentially dangerous military installations. These objects include:
radiation hazardous - power nuclear installations; warehouses and bases with elements of nuclear weapons; nuclear research reactors; storage facilities for liquid radioactive waste; storage facilities for solid radioactive waste; spent nuclear fuel storage facilities; radioactive waste disposal sites;
chemically hazardous- storages and warehouses of chemicals, including chemical ammunition (cassettes) with chemical warfare agents; storage facilities and warehouses for military chemicals; places of destruction and burial of chemical warfare agents; storage facilities and warehouses for rocket fuel components;
explosive and flammable - bases, arsenals, storages and warehouses of various types of ammunition, weapons and military equipment; storages, warehouses and bases of fuel and lubricants, aggressive liquids, volumes of compressed air.
Negative impacts on the environment are associated with the functioning of these facilities, violations of technological processes and accidents.
The activities of the nuclear fleet, for example, are characterized by the accumulation and storage of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste at coastal technical bases and special watercraft. It is typical for nuclear installations that even in the accident-free mode of their operation, fission products (gaseous and volatile isotopes of krypton, xenon, iodine) enter the external environment through microscopic leaks and defects in pipelines.
Nuclear weapons tests carried out in the atmosphere, space, under water lead to global radioactive contamination of the atmosphere and the earth's surface.
At such facilities as warehouses and bases of fuels and lubricants and other special liquids, with an annual turnover of materials and substances exceeding 50 thousand tons, the corresponding leakage is 5-6 percent, that is, at least 2.5-3.0 thousand tons. As a result, this leads to significant pollution of soils and groundwater.
Question cleaning and restoration of the natural environment is of particular importance in conditions when an emergency situation arises at the facility associated with a violation of technological processes or their release from control.
To the complex general events for the restoration of the natural environment in case of accidents at radiation and chemically dangerous military facilities include:
assessment of the type, nature and source of the accident;
determination of the scale of the accident and damage to the natural environment;
determination of a set of measures to eliminate the consequences of the accident and restore the natural environment.
The set of measures to restore the natural environment in case of accidents at radiation-hazardous military facilities also directly includes localization of the source of the accident and treatment of the contaminated area.
Environmental impact assessment and environmental certification of military installations
EIA requirements (environmental impact assessment) were developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 1990 and are currently being implemented when developing a feasibility study for newly created weapons facilities and complexes. The EIA of military facilities provides for scientific and practical substantiation of the degree of impact of physical, chemical, biological and social factors on the natural environment. At the same time, an assessment is made of the impact of the objects being created on the health and performance (combat capability) of military personnel, as well as the population.
An environmental passport is a regulatory and technical document that contains data obtained as a result of an environmental assessment of the environmental impact of existing military facilities (as opposed to the EIA requirements of facilities being developed or under construction). It contains information on the use of natural resources by a military facility and a set of tables with specific information (calculations) on the influence of various factors in the functioning of a military facility on the OS. The development of an environmental passport and its approval in the prescribed manner is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the directive of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation of 1995 № D-23 and other regulatory documents. The environmental passport is developed as of January 1 of the current year and is valid for 5 years. If necessary, it is adjusted and supplemented monthly, but reviewed and re-approved again for a period of 5 years. The passport is stored at the facility, in the environmental service of the types (arms) of the troops, fleets and, if necessary, in the territorial bodies of nature protection.
Environmental passportization is a set of organizational, scientific and technical measures aimed at identifying the actual parameters of military and other facilities that adversely affect the natural environment and ensure the quality design of the main regulatory and technical environmental document of the facility. The environmental passport reflects:
Details of the object and general information about it;
Brief natural and climatic characteristics of the area of deployment;
Information on the state of the environment (background indicators);
Information on the use of land resources and their reclamation;
Characteristics of the use of material and energy resources;
Characteristics of permissible emissions and discharges of harmful substances;
Characteristics of water consumption and water disposal;
Characteristics of sanitary protection zones;
Characteristics of the waste generated as a result of the facility's activities.
In addition to the environmental passport, a qualitative confirmation of the safety of OBT for the environment is the presence of an environmental safety certificate, as well as the conclusion of an expert commission that conducts an environmental review of OBT (WHT).
Environmental certification is provided for by Article 31 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Environmental Protection". This is an activity to confirm the compliance, for example, of weapons and military equipment with established environmental requirements. Environmental certification is carried out
in order to ensure the environmentally safe implementation of economic and other (military) activities in the given territory (water area).
Ecological expertise and ecological certification are two new directions in nature protection and rational nature management that pursue the same goal, namely: to determine the compliance of an object with environmental requirements. The difference between them lies in the fact that the object is considered at different stages of its creation and operation. When conducting an environmental review, experts from among the specialists of the medical service may (if necessary) be involved in the work in accordance with the established procedure. In this case, we are talking about medical and environmental expertise. Environmental expertise, like hygienic expertise, is an organizational and legal form of preventive control or supervision and has much in common in its organizational activities. Ecological expertise is regulated by the Law of the Russian Federation “On Ecological Expertise” (1995). It can be carried out in the following forms: state, departmental and public. The latter form is widely used in the development of EIA. This work provides for a mandatory assessment of the morbidity status of the adult and child population in the main and adjacent territories, which is the prerogative of the medical service and contributes to the achievement of the goal of EBD VS. Ecological expertise is a form of preventive control, which contributes to the prevention of environmental pollution in areas of military nature management. This takes into account:
Possibilities of potential environmental hazards of military activities;
Availability of substantiated materials on the EIA of military or military medical facilities;
Reliability and completeness of information submitted for environmental review, independence of experts, publicity, participation of public organizations and consideration of their opinion;
Responsibility of participants in environmental expertise and interested parties for its organization, conduct and quality.
When carrying out studies necessary to substantiate the EIA materials and the relevant requirements of the environmental passport, one should comply with the requirements of metrology (on the unity and accuracy of measurements), using equipment and laboratory equipment entered in the State Register of Measuring Instruments of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for sampling and measuring environmental factors on standardization, metrology and certification, provided by the environmental security service of the Ministry of Defense. Measuring laboratories must be accredited and have the necessary licenses.
The commander of a military unit is obliged to timely ensure the development, coordination with the relevant authorities in the field of environmental protection and approval of standards for permissible emissions, discharges and waste disposal limits. Draft standards can be developed by military units, taking into account the proposals of local governments in the field of relations related to environmental protection. The commander of a military unit can also conclude an agreement with an organization licensed to carry out these works in accordance with the current procedure in the RF Ministry of Defense. When choosing a contractor, it is advisable to give preference to the organization that not only develops project documentation, but also coordinates it, that is, receives the appropriate permission. Responsibility for the environmental certification of a military facility rests with the commander (chief).
Any military formation - from a separate unit to an operational-strategic association - can be considered as a specific ecological system, the main elements of which are the personnel (with weapons and military equipment) and the environment of the points (areas) of deployment. A distinctive feature of the activity of such an ecological system is the clear priority of combat training and combat operations, which is quite difficult to combine with environmental protection measures. And at the same time, there are ways to solve this difficult problem.
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3.1. MILITARY FACILITY AND MILITARY ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
military facility- these are troops located in areas of deployment, concentration, on the march, at initial firing and launching positions, airfields, naval bases, warships and transports, command posts, communication centers, radio-technical systems for detecting guidance and controlling weapons, rear services, enterprises, institutions, and organizations of the Armed Forces and other troops, as well as other facilities that are the place of their military activities.
^ military ecological system - this is a natural-anthropogenic (disturbed) system, including personnel, weapons and military equipment, military installations of troops and forces and their environment in areas and points of permanent or temporary deployment and the performance of training, combat and other tasks.
The military ecological system also includes the territory on which military installations are located, troops operate, natural objects are located and the local population lives.
When organizing and implementing environmental measures in the troops, as a ground unit (initial element) for ensuring environmental safety, they take military City- as a stationary military facility or any military formation - as a moving (mobile) object.
^ Military town- this is a certain territory with buildings and structures located on it, designed to accommodate one or more military units, one or more institutions, military educational institutions, enterprises of the Armed Forces.
Usually a military camp consists of service barracks, technical and residential zones. Headquarters, barracks, classrooms, guard rooms, soldiers' canteens, clubs, first-aid posts are located in the service-barracks zone. In the technical zone there are parks with military and special equipment, warehouses, workshops and other special facilities. In the residential area - houses for officers, ensigns, civilian personnel and members of their families, as well as consumer services. Training fields, shooting ranges, ranges, tankodromes, autodromes, as a rule, are located outside the territory of a military camp.
Thus, the residential and working areas are quite clearly distinguished in the military camp. Both of them pollute the environment in one way or another. The first is a source of domestic pollution, and the second is a source of environmental pollution of all types. But it is in the working zone that most of the day the personnel of military facilities are located and operate. And since the preservation of people's health is a priority task of ensuring environmental safety, then, therefore, the main efforts should be directed to creating normal living conditions for them within the framework of military facilities (while eliminating or reducing their own harmful effects of a military facility on the environment), as well as to protect both man and nature from harmful technogenic loads.
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3.2. SOURCES OF POLLUTION AT MILITARY FACILITIES
A source of environmental pollution is an object that emits (discharges) pollutants, energy emissions and information into the environment.
Sources of pollution at military facilities in the general case are:
pollutant release point (pipe, building skylight, ventilation device, etc.);
economic or natural object that produces a pollutant;
the region from which the pollutants originate.
public utility facilities;
life support facilities;
areas and places of combat training;
weapons and military equipment.
Sources of pollution common to all military units (regardless of belonging to a particular type of Armed Forces and branch of service) can be named:
barracks and housing stock;
boiler rooms, catering units, first-aid posts, bath and laundry facilities;
sewerage systems, treatment facilities;
subsidiary farms;
general purpose vehicles;
points of maintenance and repair of vehicles and special equipment;
gas stations, battery charging points, compressor stations;
warehouses of fuel and lubricants;
places for collection of household waste and garbage.
The reason for this phenomenon lies in the low ecological culture of the service personnel and all military personnel, which is manifested in the lack of proper attention of the leadership to the creation and maintenance of environmental and environmental protection structures at military facilities - on the one hand, and in violations of environmental requirements by subordinates in everyday life, during the operation and maintenance of equipment, in field exercises and exercises - on the other hand.
It should be noted that violations of the requirements of environmental legislation can be eliminated to a large extent by educational measures. They are mainly allowed not out of malicious intent, but due to the lack of relevant knowledge, skills and habits. Undoubtedly, the purification of exhaust gases, waste water, recycling water supply, etc., require certain financial and material costs, without which, in principle, environmental protection structures cannot be created during the construction and modernization of military facilities.
It will be much more difficult to solve the problem with specific impact factors (by environmental impact factors here we mean any abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic impact that affects processes, phenomena or the state of this environment), characteristic only of military facilities.
