Principal directions of engineering protection of the natural environment

The main directions of engineering protection of the natural environment from pollution and other types of anthropogenic impacts are the introduction of resource-saving, waste-free and low-waste technology, biotechnology, waste disposal and detoxification, and most importantly, the greening of all production, which would ensure the inclusion of all types of interaction with the environment in natural cycles circulation of matter.

These fundamental directions are based on the cyclic nature of material resources and are borrowed from nature, where, as is known, closed cyclic processes prevail. Technological processes, in which all interactions with the environment are fully taken into account and measures are taken to prevent negative consequences, are called eco-friendly.

Like any ecological system, where matter and energy are spent economically and the waste products of some organisms serve as an important condition for the existence of others, an environmentally friendly production process controlled by a person should follow biospheric laws and, first of all, the law of the circulation of substances.

Another way, for example, the creation of all kinds, even the most advanced treatment facilities, does not solve the problem, since this is a struggle with the effect, and not with the cause. The main cause of biosphere pollution is resource-intensive and polluting technologies for processing and using raw materials. It is these so-called traditional technologies that lead to a huge accumulation of waste and the need for wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal. Suffice it to say that the annual accumulation on the territory of the former USSR in the 1980s was 12-15 billion tons of solid waste, about 160 billion tons of liquid and over 100 million tons of gaseous waste.

Low-waste and zero-waste technologies and their role in protecting the environment

A fundamentally new approach to the development of all industrial and agricultural production is the creation of low-waste and waste-free technology.

The concept of non-waste technology, in accordance with the Declaration of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (1979), means the practical application of knowledge, methods and means in order to ensure the most rational use of natural resources and protect the environment within the framework of human needs.

In 1984, the same UN commission adopted a more specific definition of this concept: “Waste-free technology is a way of producing products (process, enterprise, territorial production complex), in which raw materials and energy are used most rationally and comprehensively in the cycle of raw materials - production - consumer - secondary resources - in such a way that any impact on the environment does not disrupt its normal functioning.

Waste-free technology is also understood as such a production method that ensures the fullest possible use of processed raw materials and waste products formed during this waste. The term “low-waste technology” should be considered more accurate than “waste-free technology”, since in principle “waste-free technology” is impossible, because any human technology cannot but produce waste, at least in the form of energy. Achieving complete wastelessness is unrealistic (Reimers, 1990), because it contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, so the term "wasteless technology" is conditional (metaphorical). The technology that allows to obtain a minimum of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes is called low-waste and at the present stage of development of scientific and technological progress it is the most realistic.

Of great importance for reducing the level of environmental pollution, saving raw materials and energy is the reuse of material resources, i.e. recycling. Thus, the production of aluminum from scrap metal requires only 5% of the energy consumption of smelting from bauxite, and the remelting of 1 ton of secondary raw materials saves 4 tons of bauxite and 700 kg of coke, while simultaneously reducing emissions of fluoride compounds into the atmosphere by 35 kg (Vronsky, 1996).

The set of measures to minimize the amount of hazardous waste and reduce their impact on the environment, on the recommendation of various authors, includes:

Development of various types of drainless technological systems and water circulation cycles based on wastewater treatment;

Development of systems for processing production waste into secondary material resources;

Creation and release of new types of products, taking into account the requirements of its reuse;

Creation of fundamentally new production processes that allow eliminating or reducing the technological stages at which waste is generated.

The initial stage of these complex measures aimed at creating waste-free technologies in the future is the introduction of circulating, up to completely closed, water use systems.

Recycled water supply is a technical system that provides for multiple use in the production of waste water (after cleaning and processing) with a very limited discharge (up to 3%) into water bodies.

A closed water cycle is a system of industrial water supply and sanitation, in which the repeated use of water in the same production process is carried out without the discharge of sewage and other waters into natural reservoirs.

One of the most important directions in the field of creating waste-free and low-waste industries is the transition to a new environmental technology with the replacement of water-intensive processes with anhydrous or low-water ones.

The progressiveness of new technological schemes of water supply is determined by the extent to which, in comparison with the previously existing ones, water consumption and the amount of wastewater and their pollution have decreased. The presence of a large amount of wastewater at an industrial facility is considered an objective indicator of the imperfection of the technological schemes used.

The development of waste-free and water-free technological processes is the most rational way to protect the natural environment from pollution, which can significantly reduce the anthropogenic load. However, research in this direction is just beginning, therefore, in various areas of industry and agriculture, the level of greening of production is far from the same.

At present, certain successes have been achieved in your country in the development and implementation of elements of environmentally friendly technology in a number of branches of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, heat and power engineering, mechanical engineering, and the chemical industry. However, the complete transfer of industrial and agricultural production to waste-free and water-free technologies and the creation of completely eco-friendly industries are associated with very complex problems of a different nature - organizational, scientific, technical, financial, etc., and therefore modern production will consume a huge amount of water, have waste and harmful emissions.

Biotechnology in environmental protection

In recent years, in environmental science, there has been an increasing interest in biotechnological processes based on on the creation of products, phenomena and effects necessary for humans with the help of microorganisms.

With regard to the protection of the human environment, biotechnology can be considered as the development and creation of biological objects, microbial cultures, communities, their metabolites and drugs, by including them in the natural cycles of substances, elements, energy and information.

Biotechnology has found wide application in the protection of the natural environment, in particular, in solving the following applied issues:

Utilization of the solid phase of sewage and municipal solid waste through anaerobic digestion;

Biological purification of natural and waste water from organic and inorganic compounds;

Microbial restoration of contaminated soils, obtaining microorganisms capable of neutralizing heavy metals in sewage sludge;

Composting (biological oxidation) of vegetation waste (leaf litter, straw, etc.);

Creation of a biologically active sorbent material for purification of polluted air.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF HYDROSPHERE POLLUTION. EXHAUSTATION OF GROUND AND SURFACE WATER

Ecological consequences of hydrosphere pollution

Pollution of aquatic ecosystems is a great danger to all living organisms and, in particular, to humans.

freshwater ecosystems. It has been established that under the influence of pollutants in freshwater ecosystems, there is a drop in their stability due to disruption of the food pyramid and breakdown of signaling links in the biocenosis, microbiological pollution, eutrophication and other extremely unfavorable processes. They reduce the growth rate of hydrobionts, their fertility, and in some cases lead to their death.

The process of eutrophication of water bodies is the most studied. This natural process, characteristic of the entire geological past of the planet, usually proceeds very slowly and gradually, but in recent decades, due to the increased anthropogenic impact, the rate of its development has increased dramatically.

Accelerated, or the so-called anthropogenic eutrophication, is associated with the entry into water bodies of a significant amount of biogenic substances - nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements in the form of fertilizers, detergents, animal waste, atmospheric aerosols, etc. Under modern conditions, eutrophication of water bodies occurs in much shorter periods. terms - a few decades or less.

Anthropogenic eutrophication has a very negative effect on freshwater ecosystems, leading to a restructuring of the structure of trophic relationships of hydrobionts, a sharp increase in phytoplankton biomass due to the mass reproduction of blue-green algae, causing "blooming" of water, worsening its quality and living conditions of hydrobionts (besides, releasing dangerous not only for hydrobionts , but also toxins for humans). An increase in the mass of phytoplankton is accompanied by a decrease in the diversity of species, which leads to an irreplaceable loss of the gene pool, a decrease in the ability of ecosystems to homeostasis and self-regulation.

The processes of anthropogenic eutrophication cover many large lakes of the world - the Great American Lakes, Balaton, Ladoga, Geneva, etc., as well as reservoirs and river ecosystems, primarily small rivers. On these rivers, in addition to the catastrophically growing biomass of blue-green algae, their banks are overgrown with higher vegetation. The blue-green algae themselves, as a result of their vital activity, produce the strongest toxins that are dangerous for hydrobionts and humans.

In addition to an excess of biogenic substances, other pollutants also have a detrimental effect on freshwater ecosystems: heavy metals (lead, cadmium, nickel, etc.), phenols, surfactants, etc. chemical compounds of the tributaries of the lake, turned out to be incapable of processing chemical compounds alien to natural waters (petroleum products, heavy metals, salts, etc.). As a result, depletion of hydrobionts, a decrease in zooplankton biomass, the death of a significant part of the Baikal seal population, etc.

marine ecosystems. The rate at which pollutants enter the oceans has increased dramatically in recent years. Up to 300 billion m 3 of wastewater is discharged into the ocean annually, 90% of which is not subjected to preliminary treatment. Marine ecosystems are exposed to increasing anthropogenic impact through chemical toxicants, which, accumulating by hydrobionts along the trophic chain, lead to the death of consumers of even high orders, including terrestrial animals - seabirds, for example. Among chemical toxicants, petroleum hydrocarbons (especially benzo(a)pyrene), pesticides, and heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, etc.) pose the greatest danger to marine biota and humans.

The environmental consequences of pollution of marine ecosystems are expressed in the following processes and phenomena:

Violation of the stability of ecosystems;

Progressive eutrophication;

The appearance of "red tides";

Accumulation of chemical toxicants in biota;

Decreased biological productivity;

The emergence of mutagenesis and carcinogenesis in the marine environment;

Microbiological pollution of coastal areas of the sea.

To a certain extent, marine ecosystems can withstand the harmful effects of chemical toxicants using the accumulative, oxidizing and mineralizing functions of aquatic organisms. For example, bivalve mollusks are able to accumulate one of the most toxic pesticides - DDT and, under favorable conditions, remove it from the body. (DDT is known to be banned in Russia, the United States and some other countries; nevertheless, it enters the World Ocean in significant quantities.) Scientists have also proved the existence of intensive processes of biotransformation of a dangerous pollutant, benzo (a) pyrene, in the waters of the World Ocean, thanks to the presence of heterotrophic microflora in open and semi-enclosed water areas. It has also been established that the microorganisms of reservoirs and bottom sediments have a sufficiently developed mechanism of resistance to heavy metals, in particular, they are able to produce hydrogen sulfide, extracellular exopolymers and other substances that, interacting with heavy metals, convert them into less toxic forms.

At the same time, more and more toxic pollutants continue to enter the ocean. The problems of eutrophication and microbiological pollution of coastal zones of the ocean are becoming more and more acute. In this regard, it is important to determine the allowable anthropogenic pressure on marine ecosystems, to study their assimilation capacity as an integral characteristic of the ability of biogeocenosis to dynamically accumulate and remove pollutants.

For human health, the adverse effects of using polluted water, as well as contact with it (bathing, washing, fishing, etc.) are manifested either directly when drinking, or as a result of biological accumulation along long food chains such as: water - plankton - fish - man or water - soil - plants - animals - man, etc.

Depletion of ground and surface waters

Water depletion should be understood as an unacceptable reduction in their reserves within a certain territory (for groundwater) or a decrease in the minimum allowable flow (for surface waters). Both lead to unfavorable environmental consequences, violate the established ecological ties in the human-biosphere system.

Practically in all large industrial cities of the world, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Kharkov, Donetsk and other cities, where groundwater was exploited for a long time by powerful water intakes, significant depression funnels (depressions) with radii of up to 20 km or more . For example, increased groundwater abstraction in Moscow led to the formation of a huge regional depression with a depth of up to 70-80 m, and in some areas of the city - up to 110 m or more. All this ultimately leads to a significant depletion of groundwater.

According to the State Water Cadastre, in the 1990s in our country, over 125 million m3 of water was withdrawn during the operation of underground water intakes. As a result, in large areas, the conditions for the relationship of groundwater with other components of the natural environment have changed dramatically, and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems has been disrupted. Intensive exploitation of groundwater in water intake areas and powerful drainage from mines and quarries lead to a change in the relationship between surface and groundwater, to significant damage to river flow, to the cessation of the activity of thousands of springs, many dozens of streams and small rivers. In addition, due to a significant decrease in groundwater levels, other negative changes in the environmental situation are also observed: wetlands with a large species diversity of vegetation are being drained, forests are drying up, moisture-loving vegetation is dying - hygrophytes, etc.

So, for example, at the Aidos water intake in Central Kazakhstan, a decrease in groundwater occurred, which caused the drying and death of vegetation, as well as a sharp reduction in transpiration flow. Hygrophytes (willow, reed, cattail, chievik) died out rather quickly, even plants with a deeply penetrating root system (wormwood, wild rose, Tatar honeysuckle, etc.) partially died; tugai thickets have grown. The artificial lowering of the groundwater level, caused by intensive pumping, also affected the ecological state of the parts of the river valley adjacent to the water intake. The same anthropogenic factor leads to an acceleration of the succession series change time, as well as to the loss of its individual stages.

Long-term intensification of underground water intakes in certain geological and hydrogeological conditions can cause slow subsidence and deformation of the earth's surface. The latter negatively affects the state of ecosystems, especially coastal areas, where low areas are flooded and the normal functioning of natural communities of organisms and the entire human habitat is disrupted. The depletion of groundwater is also facilitated by the long-term uncontrolled self-discharge of artesian water from wells.

The depletion of surface waters is manifested in a progressive decrease in their minimum allowable flow. On the territory of Russia, the surface runoff of water is distributed extremely unevenly. About 90% of the total annual runoff from the territory

Russia is carried out to the Arctic and Pacific oceans, and the internal runoff basins (Caspian and Azov Seas), where over 65% of the Russian population lives, account for less than 8% of the total annual runoff.

It is in these areas that the depletion of surface water resources is observed and the shortage of fresh water continues to grow. This is due not only to unfavorable climatic and hydrological conditions, but also to the intensification of human economic activity, which leads to ever-increasing water pollution, a decrease in the ability of water bodies to self-purify, depletion of groundwater reserves, and, consequently, to a decrease in spring flow that feeds watercourses and reservoirs.

The most serious environmental problem is the restoration of water content and cleanliness of small rivers (that is, rivers no longer than 100 km), the most vulnerable link in river ecosystems. They were the most susceptible to anthropogenic impact. The ill-conceived economic use of water resources and adjacent land has caused their depletion (and often disappearance), shallowing and pollution.

At present, the state of small rivers and lakes, especially in the European part of Russia, as a result of a sharply increased anthropogenic load on them, is catastrophic. The flow of small rivers has decreased by more than half, the water quality is unsatisfactory. Many of them have completely ceased to exist.

The withdrawal of a large amount of water from rivers flowing into reservoirs for economic purposes also leads to very serious negative environmental consequences. So, the level of the once abundant Aral Sea since the 60s. catastrophically decreases due to the unacceptably high water withdrawal from the Amudarya and Syrdarya. The data presented indicate a violation of the law of the integrity of the biosphere (Chapter 7), when a change in one link entails a conjugated change in all the others. As a result, the volume of the Aral Sea has decreased by more than half, the sea level has decreased by 13 m, and the salinity of the water (mineralization) has increased by 2.5 times.

Academician B. N. Laskarin spoke about the tragedy of the Aral Sea as follows: “We stopped at the very edge of the abyss ... The Aral Sea was destroyed, one might say, purposefully. There was even a certain anti-scientific hypothesis, according to which the Aral Sea was considered a mistake of nature. Allegedly, he interfered with the development of the water resources of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya (they said that taking their water, the Aral evaporates it into the air). The supporters of this idea did not think about fish or that the Aral Sea is the center of an oasis.”

The drained bottom of the Aral Sea is becoming the largest source of dust and salts today. In the delta of the Amudarya and Syrdarya, in place of dying tugai forests and reed beds, barren solonchaks appear. The transformation of phytocenoses on the shores of the Aral Sea and in the deltas of the Amudarya and Syrdarya occurs against the backdrop of the drying up of lakes, channels, swamps and a widespread decrease in the level of groundwater due to a drop in sea level. In general, water re-absorption from the Amudarya and Syrdarya and the drop in sea level caused such ecological changes in the Aral landscape, which can be characterized as desertification.

Other very significant types of human impact on the hydrosphere, in addition to the depletion of ground and surface waters, include the creation of large reservoirs that radically transform the natural environment in the adjacent territories.

The creation of large reservoirs, especially of the flat type, for the accumulation and regulation of surface runoff leads to multidirectional consequences in the natural environment. It should be taken into account that the creation of reservoirs by blocking the channel of watercourses by dams is fraught with serious negative consequences for most hydrobionts. Due to the fact that many fish spawning grounds are cut off by dams, the natural reproduction of many salmon, sturgeon and other anadromous fish is drastically worsened or stopped.

What is this specialty?
What problems does an environmental engineer deal with?

It has long been known that human activity has a negative impact on the environment and its self-healing mechanisms. In essence, the main purpose of everything that a person does is to satisfy his own material and non-material needs for food, shelter, clothing, and so on. All this is connected with the continuous exchange of matter, information and energy between nature and man's man-made environment. Thus, each production uses natural resources and returns waste to the environment. Even manufactured products are essentially waste, only delayed in time.

Throughout the globe, the state of the environment leaves much to be desired, and in some places it can be called critical. This is typical for large cities, industrial complexes and large enterprises.

The current unfavorable state of the environment is the result of human activity, with its inherent irrational use of natural resources, the destruction of ecosystems and the continuous accumulation of waste and pollution.

Today, the problem of environmental pollution is becoming global. Both the atmosphere and the hydrosphere are polluted with toxic substances created by man. Millions of species of living beings, mostly protozoa, have already disappeared from the face of the Earth. Thousands are on the verge of extinction. The reserves of natural resources are depleted, the ecological mechanisms of the planet are unbalanced. The life of our civilization depends on the ability of people to find a way out of this situation. That is why environmental protection is relevant today more than ever. People must realize that they are an integral part of the biosphere, inextricably linked with it, they are completely dependent on its favorable state.

To overcome the ecological catastrophe, we need the appropriate knowledge. The profession of environmental engineer is designed to make our development more harmonized with the environment, solve existing environmental problems and avoid future ones.

State educational standard higher professional education.

Qualification

– environmental engineer

Study period - 5 years

Qualification characteristics of the graduate:

The areas of professional activity of the graduate are the development, design, adjustment, operation and improvement of environmental protection equipment and technology, organization and management of environmental protection work at enterprises and territorial-industrial complexes, examination of projects, technologies and industries, certification of products in order to achieve maximum environmental safety of human economic activity , reducing the risk of anthropogenic impact on the environment.

Objects of professional activity of the graduate

The objects of professional activity of a graduate in this specialty are the sources of emission of pollutants, energy and other factors affecting the environment (technological devices, individual processes, production and territories as a whole), flows of pollutants, wastewater, waste gases, solid, liquid and gaseous waste, systems for regulating discharges and emissions of pollutants, systems for the placement, processing or disposal of waste, including means and methods for monitoring and controlling environmental impacts, equipment and technology for the treatment of harmful industrial emissions into the atmosphere and waste water, energy saving and reduction of energy impacts on environment, recycling and processing of waste from industrial enterprises, organizational and technical measures to improve the environmental safety of industrial production.

Tasks of the professional activity of the graduate

An environmental engineer for environmental protection is prepared to solve the following types of tasks by type of professional activity. a) production and technological activities:

Organization and effective implementation of monitoring and control of input and output flows for technological processes, individual production units and the enterprise as a whole;

Participation in the development, operation and improvement of equipment, relevant algorithms and programs for calculating the parameters of environmental protection technological processes;

b) organizational and managerial activities:

Work in the management structures of environmental authorities and in environmental safety supervision bodies;

Assessment of production and non-production costs associated with environmental protection;

Implementation of industrial environmental control and management.

c) research activities:

Analysis of the characteristics and changes of objects of activity (sources of pollutant emissions and waste generation, sources of pollutant emissions and discharges, environmental equipment, environmental management systems) using the necessary methods and analysis tools;

Creation of theoretical models to predict the impact of production on the environment;

Development of plans, programs and methods for conducting scientific research in the field of environmental protection.

d) project activities:

Formulating the goals of the project (program), developing criteria and indicators for achieving goals, building the structure of their relationships, identifying priorities for solving problems, taking into account the moral aspects of activity;

Development of generalized options for solving a design problem and their analysis, assessment of environmental impact and environmental changes, finding compromise solutions in conditions of multi-criteria and uncertainty, project management;

Development of projects for regulating the impact of production on the environment;

Development of sections "Protection of the natural environment" in the justifications for investments and projects;

The use of information technology in design;

Development of draft specifications, standards and technical descriptions.

Opportunities for Continuing Graduate Education

An environmental engineer who has mastered the main educational program of higher professional education in the direction of training "Environmental Protection" is prepared for postgraduate studies.

Graduate qualification requirements

The environmental engineer must:

On the main scientific and technical problems of environmental safety;

On the prospects for the development of technology and technology for environmental protection;

On the relationship of environmental problems with the technical, organizational and economic problems of a particular production;

The mechanism of the impact of production on the components of the biosphere;

Methods for determining the permissible environmental load on the environment;

Principles of organization and management of environmental activities, taking into account industry specifics;

Carrying out environmental reviews of design solutions, technological processes and industries, certification of products on the basis of environmental safety;

Organizational bases for the implementation of measures to prevent and eliminate the consequences of accidents and disasters of a natural and man-made nature at the enterprises of the industry;

be able to apply:

Methods and techniques for limiting anthropogenic impact on the environment;

Modern methods and means of engineering environmental protection;

Methods of analysis and assessment of the degree of danger of anthropogenic impact on the environment;

Legal and normative-technical documentation on issues of environmental safety and rational nature management;

Methods of selection, development and operation of engineering methods and means of environmental protection;

Modern developments of effective environmental protection measures, taking into account the environmental, social and economic interests of society;

Computer technologies in the analysis and assessment of the state of the environment, the creation and operation of environmental protection equipment and technology, the management of environmental activities.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal state budget educational

institution of higher professional education

"South Ural State University"

(national research university)

Faculty of Economics and Management

Department of Economics, Management and Investments

Report on the discipline: "Ecology"

On the topic: "Engineering environmental protection"

E&U group student - 434

M.A. Selezneva

Chelyabinsk 2015

Introduction

Environmental protection is understood as a set of international, state and regional legal acts, instructions and standards that bring general legal requirements to each specific polluter and ensure its interest in meeting these requirements, specific environmental measures to implement these requirements.

Only if all these components correspond to each other in terms of content and pace of development, i.e., they form a single system of environmental protection, can one count on success.

Since the problem of protecting nature from the negative impact of man was not solved in time, now the task of protecting man from the influence of the changed natural environment is increasingly becoming. Both of these concepts are integrated in the term "protection of the (human) natural environment".

Environmental protection consists of:

Legal protection, formulating scientific environmental principles in the form of legal laws that are binding;

Material incentives for environmental activities, seeking to make it economically beneficial for enterprises;

Engineering protection, developing environmental and resource-saving technology and equipment.

In accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation "On Environmental Protection", the following objects are subject to protection:

Natural ecological systems, the ozone layer of the atmosphere;

The earth, its subsoil, surface and underground waters, atmospheric air, forests and other vegetation, fauna, microorganisms, genetic fund, natural landscapes.

State natural reserves, natural reserves, national natural parks, natural monuments, rare or endangered species of plants and animals and their habitats are specially protected.

The main principles of environmental protection should be:

Priority to ensure favorable environmental conditions for life, work and recreation of the population;

Scientifically substantiated combination of environmental and economic interests of society;

Taking into account the laws of nature and the possibilities of self-healing and self-purification of its resources;

Prevention of irreversible consequences for the protection of the natural environment and human health;

The right of the population and public organizations to timely and reliable information about the state of the environment and the negative impact on it and on people's health of various production facilities;

The inevitability of liability for violation of the requirements of environmental legislation.

1. Engineering protection of the environment

Environmental activities of enterprises. Nature protection is any activity aimed at maintaining the quality of the environment at a level that ensures the sustainability of the biosphere. It includes both large-scale activities carried out at the national level to preserve reference samples of untouched nature and preserve the diversity of species on Earth, organize scientific research, train ecologists and educate the population, as well as the activities of individual enterprises for the treatment of harmful substances from wastewater and waste gases, lowering the norms for the use of natural resources, etc. Such activities are carried out mainly by engineering methods.

There are two main areas of environmental protection activities of enterprises. The first is the purification of harmful emissions. This path "in its pure form" is ineffective, since it does not always succeed in completely stopping the flow of harmful substances into the biosphere. In addition, reducing the level of pollution of one component of the environment leads to increased pollution of another.

And For example, the installation of wet filters in gas cleaning reduces air pollution, but leads to even more water pollution. Substances captured from waste gases and drain waters often poison large areas of land.

The use of treatment facilities, even the most efficient ones, drastically reduces the level of environmental pollution, but does not completely solve this problem, since the operation of these plants also produces waste, although in a smaller volume, but, as a rule, with an increased concentration of harmful substances. Finally, the operation of most of the treatment facilities requires significant energy costs, which, in turn, is also unsafe for the environment.

In addition, pollutants, for the neutralization of which huge funds are spent, are substances for which labor has already been spent and which, with rare exceptions, could be used in the national economy.

To achieve high environmental and economic results, it is necessary to combine the process of cleaning harmful emissions with the process of recycling trapped substances, which will make it possible to combine the first direction with the second.

The second direction is the elimination of the very causes of pollution, which requires the development of low-waste, and in the future, non-waste production technologies that would make it possible to comprehensively use the raw materials and utilize the maximum of substances harmful to the biosphere.

However, not all industries have found acceptable technical and economic solutions for a sharp reduction in the amount of waste generated and their disposal, therefore, at present, it is necessary to work in both of these areas.

Taking care of improving the engineering protection of the natural environment, it must be remembered that no treatment facilities and waste-free technologies will be able to restore the stability of the biosphere if the permissible (threshold) values ​​​​of the reduction of natural, untransformed by man natural systems are exceeded, which manifests the effect of the law of indispensability of the biosphere.

Such a threshold may be the use of more than 1% of the energy of the biosphere and the deep transformation of more than 10% of natural areas (rules of one and ten percent). Therefore, technical achievements do not remove the need to solve the problems of changing the priorities of social development, stabilizing the population, creating a sufficient number of protected areas and others discussed earlier.

Types and principles of operation of treatment equipment and facilities. Many modern technological processes are associated with crushing and grinding of substances, transportation of bulk materials. At the same time, part of the material turns into dust, which is harmful to health and causes significant material damage to the national economy due to the loss of valuable products.

For cleaning, various designs of apparatuses are used. According to the method of dust capture, they are divided into mechanical (dry and wet) and electrical gas cleaning devices. Dry apparatuses (cyclones, filters) use gravitational settling under the action of gravity, settling under the action of centrifugal force, inertial settling, and filtration. In wet apparatuses (scrubbers), this is achieved by washing the dusty gas with a liquid. In electrostatic precipitators, deposition on the electrodes occurs as a result of the electrical charge being imparted to the dust particles. The choice of devices depends on the size of dust particles, humidity, speed and volume of gas supplied for purification, the required degree of purification.

To purify gases from harmful gaseous impurities, two groups of methods are used - non-catalytic and catalytic. Methods of the first group are based on the removal of impurities from a gaseous mixture using liquid (absorbers) and solid (adsorbers) absorbers. Methods of the second group consist in the fact that harmful impurities enter into a chemical reaction and turn into harmless substances on the surface of the catalysts. An even more complex and multi-stage process is wastewater treatment (Fig. 18).

Waste water is water used by industrial and municipal enterprises and the population and subject to purification from various impurities. Depending on the conditions of formation, wastewater is divided into domestic, atmospheric (stormwater, flowing down after rains from the territories of enterprises) and industrial. All of them contain mineral and organic substances in varying proportions.

Wastewater is purified from impurities by mechanical, chemical, physicochemical, biological and thermal methods, which, in turn, are divided into recuperative and destructive. Recovery methods provide for the extraction from wastewater and further processing of valuable substances. In destructive methods, water pollutants are destroyed by oxidation or reduction. Destruction products are removed from the water in the form of gases or precipitation.

Mechanical cleaning is used to remove solid insoluble impurities, using the methods of settling and filtering using gratings, sand traps, settling tanks. Chemical cleaning methods are used to remove soluble impurities using various reagents that enter into chemical reactions with harmful impurities, resulting in the formation of low-toxic substances. Physical and chemical methods include flotation, ion exchange, adsorption, crystallization, deodorization, etc. Biological methods are considered the main methods for neutralizing wastewater from organic impurities that are oxidized by microorganisms, which implies a sufficient amount of oxygen in the water. These aerobic processes can take place both in natural conditions - in irrigation fields during filtration, and in artificial structures - aerotanks and biofilters.

Industrial wastewater that cannot be treated by the above methods is subjected to thermal neutralization, i.e. burning, or pumping into deep wells (resulting in a risk of groundwater pollution). These methods are carried out in local (workshop), plant-wide, district or city cleaning systems.

To disinfect wastewater from microbes contained in household, especially fecal, effluents, chlorination is used in special sedimentation tanks.

After the grates and other devices have freed the water from mineral impurities, the microorganisms contained in the so-called activated sludge “eat up” organic contaminants, that is, the purification process usually goes through several stages. However, even after this, the degree of purification does not exceed 95%, i.e., it is not possible to completely eliminate the pollution of water basins. If, in addition, any plant discharges its wastewater into the city sewerage, which has not undergone preliminary physical or chemical treatment of any toxic substances at workshop or factory facilities, then the microorganisms in the activated sludge will generally die and it may take several years to revive the activated sludge. months. Consequently, the runoff of this settlement during this time will pollute the reservoir with organic compounds, which can lead to its eutrophication.

One of the most important problems of environmental protection is the problem of collection, removal and disposal or disposal of solid industrial waste "and household waste, which accounts for from 300 to 500 kg per capita per year. It is solved by organizing landfills, recycling waste into composts with subsequent use as organic fertilizers or into biological fuel (biogas), as well as burning in special plants.Specially equipped landfills, the total number of which in the world reaches several million, are called landfills and are quite complex engineering structures, especially when it comes to storing toxic or radioactive waste.

More than 50 billion tons of waste accumulated in Russia are stored on 250,000 hectares of land.

2. Legal framework for protectionenvironment

System of standards and regulations. One of the most important components of environmental legislation is the system of environmental standards. Its timely scientifically substantiated development is a necessary condition for the practical implementation of the adopted laws, since it is these standards that polluting enterprises should be guided by in their environmental activities. Failure to comply with the standards entails legal liability.

Standardization is understood as the establishment of a single and mandatory for all objects of a given level of a management system of norms and requirements. Standards can be state (GOST), industry (OST) and factory. The system of standards for nature protection has been assigned the general number 17, which includes several groups in accordance with protected objects. For example, 17.1 means “Nature Conservation. Hydrosphere", and group 17.2 - "Nature protection. Atmosphere”, etc. This standard regulates various aspects of the activities of enterprises for the protection of water and air resources, up to the requirements for equipment for monitoring air and water quality.

The most important environmental standards are environmental quality standards - maximum allowable concentrations (MPC) of harmful substances in natural environments.

MPC is approved for each of the most hazardous substances separately and is valid throughout the country.

Recently, scientists have argued that compliance with MPCs does not guarantee the preservation of environmental quality at a sufficiently high level, if only because the influence of many substances in the future and when interacting with each other is still poorly understood. nature reserve park

Based on MPC, scientific and technical standards for maximum permissible emissions (MPE) of harmful substances into the atmosphere and discharges (MPD) into the water basin are being developed. These standards are set individually for each source of pollution in such a way that the cumulative environmental impact of all sources in a given area does not lead to an excess of the MPC.

Due to the fact that the number and power of pollution sources change with the development of the productive forces of the region, it is necessary to periodically review the MPE and MPD standards. The choice of the most effective options for environmental protection activities at enterprises should be carried out taking into account the need to comply with these standards.

Unfortunately, at present, many enterprises, due to technical and economic reasons, are not able to immediately meet these standards. The closure of such an enterprise or a sharp weakening of its economic situation as a result of penalties is also not always possible for economic and social reasons.

In addition to a clean environment, a person for a normal life needs to eat, dress, listen to a tape recorder and watch movies and TV shows, the production of films and electricity for which is very "dirty". Finally, you need to have a job in your specialty near your home. It is best to reconstruct ecologically backward enterprises so that they no longer harm the environment, but not every enterprise can immediately allocate funds for this in full, since environmental protection equipment, and the reconstruction process itself, are very expensive.

Therefore, temporary standards can be set for such enterprises, the so-called TSV (temporarily agreed emissions), which allow for increased environmental pollution in excess of the norm for a strictly defined period, sufficient to carry out the environmental measures necessary to reduce emissions.

The amount and sources of payment for environmental pollution depend on whether or not an enterprise complies with the standards established for it and in which ones - MPE, MPD, or only in the UES.

Law for nature. It has already been noted earlier that the state ensures the rationalization of nature management, including the protection of the natural environment, by creating environmental legislation and monitoring its observance.

Environmental legislation is a system of laws and other legal acts (decrees, decrees, instructions) that regulates environmental relations in order to preserve and reproduce natural resources, rationalize environmental management, and preserve public health.

To ensure the possibility of practical implementation of the adopted laws, it is very important that they are backed up in time by by-laws adopted on their basis, precisely defining and clarifying, in accordance with the specific conditions of the industry or region, to whom, what and how to do, to whom and in what form to report, what environmental regulations, standards and rules to follow, etc.

Yes, the law "On the Protection of the Environment" establishes a general scheme for achieving the coincidence of the interests of society and individual users of natural resources through limits, payments, tax benefits, and specific parameters in the form of exact values ​​​​of standards, rates, payments are specified in resolutions of the Ministry of Natural Resources, industry instructions etc.

The objects of environmental legislation are both the natural environment as a whole and its separate natural systems (for example, Lake Baikal) and elements (water, air, etc.), as well as international law.

In our country, for the first time in world practice, the requirement for the protection and rational use of natural resources is included in the Constitution. There are about two hundred legal documents related to nature management. One of the most important is the comprehensive law “On the Protection of the Environment”, adopted in 1991.

It states that every citizen has the right to protect health from the adverse effects of a polluted natural environment, to participate in environmental associations and social movements, and to receive timely information about the state of the natural environment and measures to protect it.

At the same time, every citizen is obliged to take part in the protection of the natural environment, to raise the level of their knowledge of nature, ecological culture, to comply with the requirements of environmental legislation and the established standards for the quality of the natural environment. If they are violated, then the perpetrator bears responsibility, which is divided into criminal, administrative, disciplinary and material.

In cases of the most serious violations, for example, when a forest is set on fire, the perpetrator may be subjected to criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment, the imposition of large monetary fines, and confiscation of property.

However, more often administrative responsibility is applied in the form of fines both on individuals and on enterprises as a whole. It occurs in cases of damage or destruction of natural objects, pollution of the natural environment, failure to take measures to restore the disturbed environment, poaching, etc.

Officials may also be subject to disciplinary action in the form of complete or partial loss of bonuses, demotion, reprimand or dismissal for failure to comply with environmental protection measures and non-compliance with environmental standards.

In addition, the payment of a fine does not exempt from material civil liability, i.e., the need to compensate for the damage caused by pollution or irrational use of natural resources to the environment, health and property of citizens, and the national economy.

In addition to the declaration of the rights and obligations of citizens and the establishment of responsibility for environmental offenses, the above law formulates environmental requirements for the construction and operation of various facilities, shows the economic mechanism for environmental protection, proclaims the principles of international cooperation in this area, etc.

It should be noted that the Environmental Legislation, although it is quite extensive and versatile, in practice is still not effective enough. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important is the discrepancy between the severity of the punishment and the severity of the crime, in particular, the low rates of fines levied. For example, for an official, it is equal to three to twenty times the minimum monthly wage (do not confuse with the actual salary received by the employee, which is always much higher). However, twenty minimum wages often do not exceed one or two real monthly salaries of these officials, since we are usually talking about heads of enterprises and departments. For ordinary citizens, the fine does not exceed ten times the minimum wage.

Criminal liability and compensation for damages are applied much less frequently than they should. And it is impossible to fully compensate for it, since it often reaches many millions of rubles or cannot be measured in money at all.

And Usually, no more than two dozen cases of liability for air and water pollution, which led to serious consequences, are considered throughout the country every year, and the most numerous cases related to poaching do not exceed one and a half thousand a year, which is incomparably less than the actual number of offenses. However, in recent years there has been an upward trend in these figures.

Other reasons for the weak regulatory effect of environmental legislation are the insufficient provision of enterprises with technical means for the effective treatment of wastewater and polluted gases, and inspection organizations with devices for monitoring environmental pollution.

Conclusion

Of great importance is the low ecological culture of the population, their ignorance of the basic environmental requirements, their condescending attitude towards the destroyers of nature, as well as the lack of knowledge and skills necessary to effectively defend their right to a healthy environment, proclaimed in the law. Now it is necessary to develop a legal mechanism for the protection of environmental human rights, i.e., by-laws specifying this part of the law, and turn the flow of complaints to the press and higher administrative authorities into a flow of lawsuits to the judiciary. When every resident whose health has been affected by harmful emissions from an enterprise files a claim demanding financial compensation for the damage caused, valuing their health at a fairly large amount, the enterprise will simply be economically forced to urgently take measures to reduce pollution.

Bibliography

1. Akimova T.V. Ecology. Man-Economy-Biota-Environment: Textbook for university students / T.A. Akimova, V.V. Khaskin; 2nd ed., revised. and additional .- M.: UNITI, 2009.- 556 p. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for university students.

2. Akimova T.V. Ecology. Nature-Man-Technology.: A textbook for students of tech. direction and spec. universities / T.A. Akimova, A.P. Kuzmin, V.V. Khaskin .. - Under the general. ed. A.P. Kuzmina; Laureate of the All-Russian competition to create new textbooks on general natural sciences. discipline for stud. universities. M.: UNITY-DANA, 2006.- 343 p. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for university students.

3. Brodsky A.K. General ecology: A textbook for university students. M.: Ed. Center "Academy", 2006. - 256 p. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for bachelors, masters and university students.

4. Voronkov N.A. Ecology: general, social, applied. Textbook for university students. M.: Agar, 2006. - 424 p. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for university students.

5. Korobkin V.I. Ecology: Textbook for university students / V.I. Korobkin, L.V. Peredelsky. -6th ed., add. And revised. - Roston n / D: Phoenix, 2007. - 575s. Laureate of the All-Russian competition to create new textbooks on general natural sciences. discipline for stud. universities. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for university students.

6. Nikolaikin N.I., Nikolaikina N.E., Melekhova O.P. Ecology. 2nd ed. Textbook for universities. M.: Bustard, 2008. - 624 p. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for technical students. universities.

7. Stadnitsky G.V., Rodionov A.I. Ecology: Uch. allowance for st. chemical-technological and tech. cn. universities. / Ed. V.A.Soloviev, Yu.A.Krotova.- 4th ed., corrected. - St. Petersburg: Chemistry, 2007. -238s. Recommended by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for university students.

8. Odum Yu. Ecology vol. 1.2. Mir, 2006.

9. Chernova N.M. General ecology: A textbook for students of pedagogical universities / N.M. Chernova, A.M. Bylova. - M.: Bustard, 2008.-416 p. Approved by the Ministry of Education. RF as a textbook for students of higher pedagogical educational institutions.

10. Ecology: A textbook for students of higher education. and avg. textbook institutions, educational according to tech. specialist. and directions / L.I. Tsvetkova, M.I. Alekseev, F.V. Karamzinov and others; under total ed. L.I. Tsvetkova. Moscow: ASBV; St. Petersburg: Himizdat, 2007. - 550 p.

11. Ecology. Ed. Prof. V.V.Denisova. Rostov-on-D.: ICC "Mart", 2006. - 768 p.

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Nature is constantly exposed to various influences, which causes deterioration of the ecological situation. Because of this, air, soil, water bodies deteriorate. All this affects the health of humans and animals. There is engineering work which is carried out by special employees. This allows you to keep the environment in a safe state.

What is this specialty?

Human activity has long had a negative impact on the environment, which is difficult to recover. All people strive to satisfy their needs, not paying attention to the pollution of nature. Hazardous waste constantly enters the environment. There are places with the most critical state of nature, as far as industrial cities are concerned.

The unfavorable state of the environment is associated with human activity, as people use natural resources irrationally. The reason for the negative consequences for nature is the destruction of ecosystems, the accumulation of waste. That is why environmental engineering is required. Who can work in this specialty?

Environmental engineers are working to protect nature from ecological catastrophe. This specialty is taught in higher educational institutions around the world. The knowledge of employees is needed to create harmonious conditions between man and nature. Employees help prevent environmental problems. Therefore, the branch of "environment" is important. The specialty allows you to get a job in a large enterprise.

The purpose of training

Every profession has a purpose, including environmental engineering. Training allows you to prepare employees who will make life safer. This is especially true for regions with a high density of industrial activity.

Future environmental engineers will monitor the anthropogenic pressure on the environment. They ensure the safety of nature management, protection, restoration and protection of nature. The work of engineers is carried out in all spheres of human life. There are employees who carry out their activities at the international level.

Tasks of training in the specialty

Training in the profile "Engineering environmental protection" is carried out with the following tasks:

• training employees to solve various professional problems using modern technical, information, computer tools;
• formation of a competent person who is able to perform analysis, forecast and promotion of environmental culture and education;
• improvement of directions in the field of modeling and forecasting of natural systems;
• creation of programs, methods of environmental protection, restoration of broken systems using modern methods, protection devices.

Environmental protection methods

Protection is based on a concept that means development, meeting the needs of people without harming nature. This is realized on the prevention of pollution, which is carried out using various technological methods. Engineering methods of environmental protection are active and passive. The first involves the creation of resource-saving methods.

Passive methods are divided into 2 groups:

• rational identification of pollution sources;
• elimination of pollution sources.

Everywhere there should be objects of the economy that reduce the burden on the environment. Localization refers to the use of protective technologies, systems and devices. All methods allow you to keep nature in order.

Biotechnology

Environmental engineering involves the use of biotechnological processes that offer the creation of desired products and effects using microorganisms. B requires biological objects, communities, drugs that will be introduced into nature.

Biotechnology is used in various fields:

• disposal of sewage and waste using anaerobic digestion;
• water purification from inorganic components;
• soil restoration, elimination of heavy metals in water;
• oxidation of vegetation waste;
• development of material for air purification.

Engineering environmental protection involves the elimination of the formation of polluting components and other factors influencing nature. Specialists take part in the creation of devices that will later be used in a specific area of ​​cleaning. Environmental engineers control the flow of pollutants, water, gases.

The placement of waste recycling systems is constantly being carried out. And to protect nature from everything unnecessary, modern equipment and technologies are used. Improvement activities promote the restoration of the natural environment.