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Azerbaijan: Persistent Obsolete Pesticide Removal in Salyan

Azerbaijan: Persistent Obsolete Pesticide Removal in Salyan

the details…
Key pollutant
Persistent Organic Pesticides (POPs)
Source
Legacy chemical dump
Pathway

Dermal

Inhalation

Dispersion into groundwater

Population affected
2,000
Cost of project
153,000 total
Funders
European Commission, Local Government
Project Partners

Jianji Toxic Waste Storage and Azerbaijan Ministry of Agriculture, with additional funding from the European Commission/UNIDO, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and Government of Azerbaijan.

Exposure to pesticides can affect the reproductive system, causing infertility, miscarriage in early stages of pregnancy, spontaneous abortions and fetal deaths. Many pesticides are known to cause cancer. The impact on human health and environment depends as much on the type of pesticide as on the level of exposure.

The town of Salyan is located in south-western Azerbaijan. The contaminated site was one of the largest former pesticide and fertilizer storage facilities in the county, and is now in possession of a commercial company; it is used for storing food. The former pesticide storage building was demolished in 1990 and pesticides that were stored there were just left exposed on the ground. Contaminantes such as DDT, Polydofen, Granozan, Zineb, and HCH were found in both liquid and powdered form, and had contaminated the top soil as well.

The Salyan cleanup project was prepared in January-October 2017 and implemented in November 2017. The main contaminants at the site were DDT, Polydofen, Zineb, HCH and Granozan. During the project, 25 drums of Polydophen (110 l each) and 380 m3 of obsolete pesticides were transported to the Jianji Polygon facility for permanent waste storage. Heavy machinery – trucks and excavator were used for loading and transporting contaminated soil and pesticides.

At the end of the remediation, a total of 49 trucks were sent to the Hazardous Waste Facility, of those, 2 truck were filled with nearly 500 empty drums, 2 trucks were filled with Polydaphen with total of 25 drums, 44 trucks, each 10 m3, were filled with empty drums, contaminated soil, DDT and Granozan. The pesticides were repacked in brand new FIBCs and steel drums at the Hazardous Waste Facility. Solid waste contaminated with OPs was packaged in FIBCs.

All of the collected soil and barrels were brought to a hazardous waste facility situated away from any residential areas. They were placed in 14 concrete lined pits and covered with concrete slabs on the top. Barrels with liquid pesticides were overpacked in plastic.

From the Pollution Blog: Cleanup Of Infamous Pesticide Site Brings Toxic legacy To An End

Local News Coverage:

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