"Surveillance of the Former Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in the Penza Region" Project CHEMTRUST 5

GREEN CROSS INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF GREEN CROSS INTERNATIONAL IN RUSSIA

APPROVED BY Vice-president of National Organization of International Green Cross in Russia S.I. Baranovsky

Report on Research Work

"Surveillance of the Former Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in the Penza Region"

Project CHEMTRUST 5

July, 1998

Project Manager: Program director Green Cross Russia V.A. Leonov

Work Manager V.M. Pankratov

LIST OF EXECUTIVES OF THE RESEARCH WORK ON SUBJECT:

Scientific Manager: D. Sc. (Geol.), professor, head of chair of hydrology and water resources protection of Perm State University

S.A. Dvinskikh Scientific Manager of hydrogeological research: Cand. Sc. (Geol.-Mineral.), deputy director on research work of Natural Sciences Institute of Perm State University

N.G. Maksimovitch Scientific head: Cand. Sc. (Chem.), head of department of Scientific Production Association "Taifun"Yu.I. Savin

Senior executive of project: chief Specialist of the Government of Penza regionV.M. Pankratov

Executives:
Senior Lecturer of the chair of hydrology and water resources protection of Perm State University
Cand. Sc. (Tech.), assistant professor of chair of Engineering ecology of Penza State Agricultural Academy
Research worker of Natural Sciences Institute of Perm State University
Cand. Sc. (Hist.), assistant professor of chair of Sociology of Perm State University A.V. Devyatkov
S.I. Mishanin
S.M. Blinov
S.A. Zhivodrova

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part 1

1. Physical-and-geographic characteristics of Penza region
1.1.Geographical position and relief
1.2. Climate
1.3. Hydrography
1.4. Soils and vegetation
1.5. Description of locations of former CW destruction

Part 2. Procedure of sampling and analysis performance

2.1. Specifics of soil and ground contamination at places of former CW destruction
2.2. Soil and ground sampling
2.3. Selection of methods of analysis and list of substances subject to identification

Part 3. Characteristic features of hydrological condition of water
systems in the area of CW destruction

3.1. Field hydrological survey
3.2. Description of water systems
3.3. Conditions of outflow formation, alimentation of rivers and hydrologic condition
3.4. Characteristic features of bed processes
3.5. Conclusions

4. Hydrogeological Researches

4.1. Geological-and-hydrogeological region conditions
4.2. Results of field hydrogeological researches
4.3. Conclusions

5. Results of analysis and their discussion

5.1. Determining the total content of arsenic in samples of soil, water and bottom deposits
5.2. Study of contamination of water of the Surskoye water reservoir and
Mokhovoye lake with heavy metals
5.3. Chromato-mass-spectrometric analysis of samples of soil, water and bottom deposits for content of organoarsenic and sulfur-organic agents
5.4. Results of analysis of soil samples for content of polychlorinated dibenzo-n-dioxins and dibenzo-furans (PCDD/PCDF).

6. Experimental part

6.1. Method for determining total arsenic content in the samples of soils and bottom deposits
6.2. Method for determining total content of arsenic in water samples
6.3. Method for determining lewisite and products of its transformation in water
6.4. Method for determining lewisite and products of its transformation in soil
6.5. Method for determining yperite in soil samples
6.6. Method for determining products of yperite transformation in soil samples

7. Conclusions

7.1. Results of researches
7.2. Conclusions
7.3. Recommendations on further works

References

Appendix

INTRODUCTION
The chemical weapons (CW) storage facility is located on the territory of Penza region. This facility is used to store 17.2% of total stock of CW available in Russia.
The specific feature of the CW storage facility located in Penza region as compared with the like facilities in the other regions consists is in its location in close vicinity of the big cities. The airborne CW munition storage is located in the green zone of the city of Penza, 7from the cities of Penza and Zarechnyi with the population of more than 600 000 people and 5from the Surskoye water reservoir which is a source of drinking water for these cities.
Within the period of storage the CW stock has been renewed with adoption of new types of agents. During the stock renewal the outdated types of munitions were subject to destruction. The main bulk of discarded munitions has been taken away from the territory of the region. The doubtful munitions from the viewpoint of safety of their transportation have been destroyed, according to the evidences of the former employees of the facility, close to the place of their storage.
By January 1997 there have been found three locations of former destruction of chemical weapons in the area of the CW storage. Two locations are the forest areas with traces of conducted destruction which are remnants of the munition casings and specific admixtures in the soil having pungent unpleasant smell. The third location is the Mokhovoye Lake the water area of which was used for underwater destruction of airborne chemical munitions. The specific features of the lake contamination consist in absence of green aquatic plants and vegetation in the lake, as well as the loss of trees along the lake shore in the area being 8 to 30 m wide around the lake.
Because of limited financial resources for the design implementation, there was performed a complete examination of the most contaminated location of the former CW destruction on the territory of the region and preliminary examination of the Mokhovoye Lake. The consequences of destruction in the inspected area by the moment of the work beginning aroused suspicions since by the external symptoms (change of soil color, absence of vegetation, presence of specific smell) there was noted the presence of toxic decomposition products of chemical agents (CA) in soil and assumption of their migration by means of infiltration with atmospheric precipitation into underground water. Alongside with contamination of underground water there was not excluded the danger of contamination of surface water (for example, the Surskoye water reservoir which is a source of drinking water supply).
The purpose of our studies was to determine:
- the levels of contamination with the products of transformation of chemical agents within the visible boundaries of the areas of the locality;
- the types of toxic products and boundaries of their dangerous spreading in the areas of the locality;
- the possible ways of migration of toxic products and searching for a possibility of their penetration into surface and underground water.
Apart from this, it was supposed that the preliminary study of water and bottom deposits of the Mokhovoye Lake be performed to take a decision on conduct of complete survey of this lake.
Simultaneously with the survey we have organized information service for the population of this region about the work performed and the results of the survey.
To achieve the object the following problems have been solved:
- study of locality and topographic survey of one of the areas of former CW destruction;
- procedure of sampling was elaborated and safety measures during conduct of work in contaminated areas were adopted;
- methods of analysis were developed and list of substances subject to identification was prepared;
- conditions of forming of surface flow and hydrological features of water systems were studied;
- specific features of hydrogeological condition of the territory and a possibility of spreading of toxic substances in underground water were analyzed.
The study is based on the data of field survey, the results of analysis and stock materials of different organizations of the Penza region.

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