CA PROPAGANDA PERSPECTIVES SPECIAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 43
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 19, 1972
• Content Type: REPORT

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POLLUTION IN THE SOVIET UNION
May 1971
Many conservationists and social critics are unaware
that the Soviet Union has polluted its environment as
extensively and severely as any other country in the world.
Some have assumed that the.basic cause of pollution is the
private greed of businessmen in a capitalistic economy who
seek profits at the expense of the community. Others have
assumed that economic planning in Communist countries would
take into account the possibility of pollution and take
steps to prevent it. These assumptions are contradicted by
the. severity of pollution in the Soviet Union.
Water Pollution
The Soviet Union -- in area the largest country in the
world -- stretches across two continents from the North
Pacific to the Baltic Sea, and has every phase of,climate
except the deep tropical. One of its great resources is
its water supplies.
There are some 150,000 rivers and 250,000 lakes in the
Soviet Union. The larger European rivers include the
Dnieper, flowing into the Black Sea,. the Volga and the
Ural into the Caspian Sea, the Don into the Sea of Azov';
the Western Dvina into the Baltic and the Northern
Dvina into.the White Sea. The Asiatic section is drained
by the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena, each over 2,000 miles
long, which flow into the Arctic Ocean, and the Amur,
which flows into the Pacific. In the European section
there is an 88,000 mile inland waterway system in which
canals link rivers leading to five seas: the Caspian,
Azov, Black, Baltic and White. The Caspian Sea, of
which only the south end is in Iran, is the world's
largest lake in surface area (143,550 square miles).
Other lakes are the Aral Sea (25,300 square miles), Lake
Baikal (11,780 square miles), Lake Balkhash (6,720 square
miles), and Lake Ladoga (6,835 square miles). The Soviet
Union has abundant water resources. They are not distributed
evenly -- Soviet Central Asia does not have enough rivers
and streams -- but a serious water shortage is developing,
not only in the Soviet Union's dry regions but also in
areas where its great rivers flow. The cause is easy to
find. Water pollution is by far the'Soviet Union's biggest
environmental problem.
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The crime culprits in Soviet water pollution are factories
along major rivers which dump their pollutants into the
water without regard to the effects on the environment.
Fish die and the water'becomes unsafe to drink. The
Molognaia River in the Ukraine, for instance, has been
dc:'.ared officially to be dead, and chemical pollutants
are causing many other rivers in the Soviet Union to lose
their capacity to support the water-life that is necessary
to man.l
The loss of fish as a source of food and the fear of
contaminated water is beginning to be felt in town and
countryside. In 1968 Radio Moscow warned Soviet citizens
not to drink or fish on long stretches of Russia's great
rivers. Again in September of that year Radio Moscow
complained that the Moskva River, which runs through
Moscow, was being heavily polluted by factories that ignored
anti-pollution regulations and were not being prosecuted.
Ten years had passed, Radio Moscow said, since factories
had been advised to use air-cooling, plants instead of a
water-cooling system, but water-cooling continued to be
used by old factories and was even being installed'in new
factories. Water-cooled systems dump three to four times
as much industrial effluent into water supplies as do air-
cooled systems.
The danger of dumping chemical pollutants into rivers
was illustrated dramatically in Sverdlovsk in 1965, when
a careless smoker threw his cigarette into the Iset River
and the Iset caught fire. The same year, the Chernorechensk
Chemical Plant near Dzerzhinsk killed virtually all fish
life in the Oka River by uncontrolled dumping of its
industrial wastes. Similar offenses have been committed
by factories along the Volga, Ob, Yenesei, Don, Ural,
and Northern Dvina rivers, and all these major rivers are
now considered highly polluted. In 1967 Soviet journals
reported that 65% of all the factories in Russia were
discharging their waste without bothering to clean it up,
and not one river was left in the Ukraine whose natural
state had been preserved.2
1) Goldman, Marshall I.,,"The Convergence of Environ-
mental Disruption" in Science, 2 October 1970. The author
is professor of economics'- Wellesley College, and an associate
of the Russian Research Center, Harvard University. His
article in Science magazine is a condensation of a paper
presented to the International Symposium on Environmental
Disruption in the Modern World, held in Tokyo in March 1970.
2) Ibid.
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One of the worst examples of Soviet industrial pollution
occurred in 1966, when a lead and zinc ore enriching plant
was built along the Fiagdon River that flows near the city of
Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus. The plant was allowed to
dump its wastes into the water, although, as Pravda reported,
the river was the sole source of water for about 4U kilo-
meters along its route. Since the industrial authorities
felt no responsibility for insuring pure water was available,
the local inhabitants were simply left with contaminated
water to drink. The same lack of concern by Soviet
authorities for a healthy environment can be seen in the
fact that important Russian cities like Vladimir which is
on the :Klyazma River, Chkalov (Orenburg) on the Ural River,
and Voronezh which sits on the bank of the Voronezh River
near its junction with the Don River, do not have adequate
supplies of drinking water.3
While industry is most to blame for the Soviet Union's
water pollution, Soviet cities add to the problem by not
disposing of city sewage in a safe manner. Even the most
favored cities of the USSR, the Russian cities of Moscow
and Leningrad, do not have enough modern sewage disposal
facilities to take care of their waste. In non-Russian
population centers of the Soviet Union the situation is
usually much worse. The USSR's 1960 census revealed that
only 40% of the cities and suburbs in the Russian half of
the Soviet Union had sewage treatment facilities, while in
the Soviet Union as a whole only 35% of the urban housing
units were connected to any sort of sewer system. In 1969
Soviet journals reported that only six of Moldavia's 20
cities had any sewer system, and only two of those cities
had sewage treatment facilities attached to their sewer
systems to prevent raw sewage from contaminating the
water supply.4
Far from Moscow, in Soviet Central Asia, a cellulose.
factory and its lumber mills are polluting one of the
largest bodies of fresh water on earth, Lake Baikal. This
lake, which holds one-fortieth of all the world's fresh
water, is estimated to be over 20 million years old.
Until the mills and factory were built along its edge in
the 1960's, Lake Baikal was renowned for the purity of
its water and the 1200 species of life it contained, including
700 species found in no other place the world.
3) Ibid.
4) Ibid.
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Despite the protests of Soviet scientists and con-
servationists,, when the factory opened it began to dump
wastes into the lake at the rate of 60 million cubic meters of
effluent a year. A few months later, scientists at the
Limnological Institute reported that animal and plant
life had decreased by one-third to one-half in the area
where wastes were being dumped. It was easy to see that
such a high rate of contamination posed a danger to the
entire lake, despite its huge size. To reduce the pollution,
Soviet authorities designed and built a special waste
purification plant, but it has failed to stop the factory's
pollution. Water coming out of the purification plant has
a yellowish tinge and sometimes an odor. An alternate
proposal for disposing of the waste has been rejected by
the Ministry of Paper and Pulp Industries since it would
cost about $40 million. Although the problem has not
been solved, the Ministry has built a second. paper
and pulp mill near Lake-Baikal-and has plans for constructing
more mills along the Lake's shores .5
In. Addition to water pollution caused by factories and
city sewage, Soviet water supplies are also being polluted
heavily by its mining operations, oil wells, and ships
that freely dump their waste and ballast into the nearest
body of water. The shores of the Baltic and Black Sea are
often streaked with oil left by Soviet refineries and tankers
that ignore oil-disposal regulations. Although the Soviet
government laid down strict new regulations in October
1968 for its shipping and oil fields, Soviet scientists
noted little improvement had been achieved by 1970 except
in Turkmenia where officials succeeded in stopping the
dumping of oil effluent and cleaned up the port of
Krasnovodsk.
The immense Caspian Sea, once the main source of
Russian caviar, has suffered particularly from oil pollution
caused by Soviet oil refineries and tankers, that have
left a huge oil slick Floating oYer the Northern Caspian.
In January 1971 an offshore oil 'rig caught fire in the
Caspian adding even more oil to that already being dumped
there. In many parts of the world offshore drilling
for oil is under attack by conservationists, but international
experts are particularly critical of the way Soviet off-
shore oil rigs are allowed to operate without taking the
kind of precautions that are considered mandatory in other
countries.
5) Ibid.
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. Two months after the offshore oil-rig fire in the
Caspian, the Soviet press, after a long silence on the
subject of pollution, revealed that one of the Soviet
Union's biggest oil and gas pipelines had ruptured, spewing
oil along the Ural River which in turn runs to the Caspian
Sea. The break was so serious that Pravda reported on
March 21 that the oil leak not only threatened fish-life
in the Caspian, but also threatened fertile bottom lands
of nearby collective and state farms. When the break
occurred, maintenance crews hastily threw up embankments
of soil mixed with snow to contain the oil but, as Pravda
reported, the mixture of snow and earth could give way
during spring thaws and allow the oil to flow. Some of
the oil has, in fact, seeped through the ground and appeared
many miles away at a truck drivers hostel in Kaleny.
Since the pipeline break occurred on the west bank of the
Ural River above the city of Guryev it is quite possible
that the drinking water of Guroyev, as well as other populous
areas, is being contaminated.
Soviet authorities are planning to lay a network
of large-diameter oil and gas pipelines for thousands of
miles from Siberia to as far west as West Germany, France,
and Italy. Soviet scientists, however, have warned that
the pipelines could be dangerous and give way in many
places. The danger is particularly great in Siberia, the
source of the oil and gas. A Soviet geologist, Dr. Fabian
G. Gurari, deputy director of the Siberian Research Institute
of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Resources in Novosibirsk,
warned in?the January issue of the Soviet science journal
Priroda (Nature) that the warm oil and gas flowing through
the pipelines might cause thawing and sagging on the permafrost,
leading to pipeline breaks and spillages.?
Closely allied to the Soviet Union's water pollution
problems are mistakes that have been made in its water
management. To meet the demands for raising industrial
output set forth in the five-year plans (for instance, the
.five-year plan prepared in 1966 called for a 50% rise in.
industrial output), huge dams and reservoirs have been
built on important bodies of water to generate electric
power for expanding industry. Many of these water works
also have a network of canals to supply irrigation to
6) New York Times, 22 March 1971
7) Ibid.
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farmland. In some places the effect has been a disruption
of the natural. environment that, while contributing to
Soviet economic growth now, may in the long run undermine
important economic resources.
For instance, dams and irrigation works along the
Don and Ural Rivers have diverted large amounts of water
that once flowed into the Caspian Sea. During the past
20 years the level of the Caspian Sea has fallen almost
'2 1/2 meters. As a result one-third of the spawning beds
of the Caspain sturgeon fish are now dry land. The
combination of oil slicks on the surface of the Caspian,
reducing oxygen in the water, and the loss of ancient
spawning beds has reduced the Caspian sturgeon catch from
1,180,400 centners in 1942 to 586,300 centners in 1966.
Caviar, which the sturgeon produces, used to be an important
source of foreign exchange for both the Soviet Union and Iran.
Now, caviar is becoming so scarce, Soviet scientists are
experimenting with production of artificial caviar. The
overall fish catch from the Caspian is now only one-fourth
what it was forty, year ago, a sharp loss that affects the
economies of the Soviet Union and Iran.8
The condition of the Aral Sea is even more serious.
In 1970 the Soviet press reported the Aral aea had dropped 1
to 3 meters in the 1960s. Since the average depth of the
Aral is only about 20 to 30 meters, the Aral, in effect,
is beginning to disappear and some Soviet scientists fear
it will be nothing but a salt marsh by the end of the
century. Already, the fish catch from the Aral has been
nearly wiped out -- it has fallen 80%. The fish catch
from the Sea of Azov has fallen even more 91%.9
There has also been an increase in the incidence
of malaria in the region of the Caspian Sea.. When the
level' of the Caspian dropped due to dams built to the
north, new swamps formed on the Soviet shoreline where
malaria-carrying mosquitoes could breed. At the same
time, a fish called the belyi amur, which had kept down the
number of mosquitoes by'consuming mosquito larvae, began
to disappear from its old feeding-grounds near Ashkhabad,
at the mouth of the Volga, as the waters receeded from the
shore. In 1969 the Soviet press reported the expectable
8) Goldman, op. cit.; New York Times, 30 March 1971
9) Goldman, op. cit.; Service de Presse I. S. E.,
16 February 1971
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result, an increase in malaria in the area.10
In building great dams and reservoirs in dry regions
of the Soviet Union, Soviet engineers have sometimes failed
to take elementary precautions against water seepage and
against raising the salinity of the soil, which can ruin
the soil for farming. Some great Soviet dams have unlined
irrigation canals attached to them to carry off some of
the water to farmland. Without a lining to stop it, a
considerable amount of water is seeping out of the canals
along the route. This has caused a rise in the water table
in many areas, which in turn has increased soil salinity,
especially where the soil is very dry. Some Soviet scientists
fear new deserts could be formed. They are also concerned
with the way the great dams were built without provision
being made for the way they can disrupt the flow of water
to underground water reserves or the way great amounts of
water can be lost through evaporation in broad-surfaced
reservoirs in dry areas.11
Land and Air
The paper and pulp mills at Lake Baikal not only pose
a threat to the lake but to the surrounding land as well.
The construction of the mills, and towns for their workers,
has involved large-scale cutting of trees,.which has weakened
the shoreline, allowing the flow of silt into the lake,
and removed an important soil stabilizer in the surrounding
forests. Just over the border from Lake Baikal is the
Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Scientists report that the dunes
have already started to move, and some fear that the Gobi
Desert will spread into Siberia and destroy the taiga and
the Lake .12
Other forests are being destroyed. A well known case
is the destruction of some magnificent oak and pine forest
at Yasnaya Polyana, not far from the historic city of Tula.
Leo Tolstoy had his summer home at Yasnaya Polyana, and the
place became an internationally kno i...tourist attraction
with lovely grounds and a museum devoted to the great
Russian writer. In`1955 a small coal-gasification plant
was built within view of the Tolstoy museum and in 1960
was expanded to produce fertilizer and other chemicals.
Now known as the Shchekino Chemical Complex, the plant has
over 6,000 employees and produces a wide range of
10) Goldman, op. cit.
11) Ibid.
12) Ibid.
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chemicals, including formaldehyde and synthetic fibers.
The smell drives away the tourists, while unseen chemicals
in the air eat away the trees.
Air pollution in the Soviet Union, like water pollution,
is largely the result of factories which emit harmful wastes
into the environment. It was found in 1968 that only 14%
of the factories that were polluting the air had fully
equipped air-cleaning devices. Another 26% had some air-
purifying equipment, but it was frequently either operating
improperly or not operating at all. There have been several
cases reported of factories sending dangerous amounts of
lead into the air. In Sverdlovsk and Magnitorgorsk, public
health officials have had to order the closing of factories
and boilers to protect the community's health," but periodically
there are complaints that factory managers have been able
to pressure the public health officials into declaring a
factory could be reopened without proper air-purifying
equipment.13
A number of Soviet cities have developed serious smog
problems. Leningrad has 40% fewer clear daylight hours than
a nearby town, Pavlovsk. Magnitorgorsk, Alma Ata, and
Chelyabinsk, with their metalurgical industries, frequently
have a dark. blue cap over them. In the hilly cities of Armenia,
carbon monoxide in the air frequently exceeds permissable
health levels. Thilsi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia,
has smog almost six months of the year, and Kislovodsk, a
health resort high in the Caucasus, is becoming an unhealthy
place to live. Before World War II, Kislovodsk had 311 days
of sun a year. Now it is shrouded with air pollution from
lime kilns in a nearby industrial city and the dust in its
air exceeds by 50% the norm for a nonresort city.14
The Soviet Union has not yet begun to make a serious
effort to halt this environmental disruption. Attempts by
one set of governmental authorities to save the environment
are often undone by another set of governmental authorities
who take the side of industry, even when industry is clearly,
breaking the law. This can be seen in the case of what has
been done to save the Georgian Black Sea coast from disappear-
ing. At some places the sea has moved as much as 40 meters
inland and there is concern that the mainline railway will
be washed away. Excessive construction in the area has
13) Ibid.
14) Ibid.
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has loosened the-soil and multiplied many times over the effects
of natural erosion. Near the resort area of Adler, hospitals,
resort hotels, and even the beach sanitarium of the Ministry
of Defense collapsed as the shoreline gave way. In addition,
building contractors have exploited the shore's pebbles and
sand as a cheap source of gravel. They have hauled away as
much as 120,000 cubic meters a year of beach material to use
in construction elsewhere.15
The problem then was compounded by the government's
decision to build a network of dams and reservoirs, which have
blocked off the normal wash of new pebbles coming in with
streams that feed into the Black Sea.
The dams and reservoirs have provided a source of electric
power, but they have robbed the area of beach pebbles which are
essential to the shorelines' ability to withstand erosion from
the waves beating on the coast. In an effort to save the rest
of the shore from erosion, construction close to the shore has
been halted and concrete piers have been built to. absorb the
impact of the waves. The authorities have also had gravel
material from inland mountains hauled to the seacoast to replace
the gravel removed by building contractors. The building
contractors, however, have found they can disregard regulations
'for protecting the shoreline, without being prosecuted. So
they continue to haul away th pebbles and sand, and the sea-
coast continues to disappear.16 Construction projects that
support heavy industry and meet high-growth targets set by the
five-year plan can nullify the regulations designed to protect
the environment.
Prospects for Pollution Control in the Soviet Union
Soviet economic planning, which emphasizes high iiidustrial
output at the expense of all other social considerations,..is
at the root of the pollution problem in the Soviet Union.
Soviet economic planning as its exists in the 1970s, began
in 1928 with Stalin's first five-year plan, which gave every
aspect of the economy a "high production orientation." This
has influenced development in a variety of ways. Quantity,
not quality, of goods has been emphasized. The setting of
ambitious production targets has embedded the practice of
15) Ibid.
16) Ibid.
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judging the performance of individual industrial enterprises
on their ability to expand existing patterns of production
rather than introduce innovations in production techniques.
Innovations such as new anti-pollution control devices are
not attempted since they might require the attention of the
factory's best engineers and involve work-stoppages for
re-tooling, both of which would divert the factory from
reaching its annual production goal.
The same pressures for high production goals that absorb
the energies of factory managers, also affect the willingness
of administrative authorities to enforce laws against pollution.
Administrative authorities know that if they enforce anti-
pollution regulations, local factory output may be lowered and
administrative authorities along with factory managers will
be criticized. Officials in the Soviet Union, whether they
are governmental authorities or factory managers, are judged
almost entirely by how much they are able to increase their
region's economic growth. Politically, it is easier to allow
pollution to continue than to enforce laws that would even
temporarily lower industrial output.
Similarly, the lack of a serious intent to control pollution
is shown by the Soviet government's failure to create clear
line`s of authority and responsibility for enforcing pollution
control regulations. Various Soviet agencies, such as the
Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Public Health,
have some responsibility in anti-pollution programs, but their
authority is limited and overlapping. When a responsible
government authority does not enforce the pollution laws,
industrial managers frequently choose to break the law deliberately.
Punishment is often minimal, especially when an important
industrial complex is involved. At Lake Baikal the penalty for
breaking anti-pollution regulations has been only $55 per offense,
while the cost of eliminating the water pc~lut.ion has been
estimated to be up to 40 million dollars. Although regulations
were established for timber cutting and factory operations at
Lake Baikal as far back as 1960, they have not been kept; yet
more timber and factory operations are being planned for the
area. Nikolai Popov, an editor of Soviet Life,, has asked:,.
"Why, in a socialist country, whose constitution explicitly
says the public interest may not be ignored with impunity, are- "18
industry executives permitted to break the laws protecting nature?
17) Ibid.
18) Ibid.
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Basically the reason is that officials of Gosplan (State
Planning) and tie it allies in other government offices, who
see an opportunity to increase industrial output, are able to
over-exploit natural resources at will. They cannot be turned
out of office by the voters. They can smother the criticism
of conservationists which appears occasionally in the state-
controlled press. (For three months preceding the Supreme
Soviet session at the beginning of 1971, articles describing
pollution were apparently censored out of the Soviet press,
since they became noticeably few in number.) Finally, Soviet
economic planners, with sormuch power at their disposal, are
able to galvanize the direction of Soviet economic growth on
such a massive scale that they can cause fundamental disruptions
in the environment before they are able to reflect on all the
consequences of their decision. When Khrushchev decided in
the early 1960s?that the Soviet Union needed a large chemical
industry, Soviet economic planners ordered chemical plants to
be constructed rapidly all over the country and given maximum
production targets. These plants have become a major source
of water pollution in the Soviet Union and thereby are harming
both the people and the economy that depends on water resources.
Another problem contributing to pollution in the Soviet
Union is the uneasy relationship that exists between Soviet
scientists and the Soviet state, including its economic organs.
The type of Soviet economic planning, introduced by Stalin
forty years ago, has had an influence on the direction of
Soviet science to this day. Since factories have looked solely
to raising gross output and have resisted innovations such as
anti-pollution devices in production techniques, Soviet scientific
research and development has looked mainly to academic success.
Research :.institutes display little interest in the practical
application of scientific development in industrial enterprises,
so innovative technology, the bridge between industrial production
and scientific research, has been neglected.
Writing in Pravda, 18 January 1967, the First Deputy
Chairman of the State Committee for Science.and Technology,
Academician V. A. Trapeznikov, calculated that while the United
States was spending three times more on technological develop-
ment than on scientific research, the Soviet Union was spending
more on research than on development. Trapaznikov has advocated
a large increase in funds for research and development between
1971 and 1975, but the economic planners of Gosplan have dis-
agreed, arguing that research and development has not been
producing as much of an economic gain since 1966 as had been
predicted.
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Similarly, Academician A. Rumyantsev, writing in a
I Soviet economic journal in January 1971, complained that
increased investments in the technological sciences had not
produced a corresponding increase in industrial output and
that scientists do not pay enough attention to economic
questions. Displaying a characteristic hostility of Soviet
economic planners for scientific research and development,
he wrote: "The introduction of new machinery requires
considerable expenditures. It js.not enough to create a
technically interesting design, since the economy needs
not mere novelties but economically effective solutions."
He could not understand why industrial hourly output. per worker
rose by only 70% between 1959 and 1968 when scientific
personnel in the applied sciences increased 240%. He did
not indicate that Soviet economic planners take into
consideration any values other than increased production
when they allocate funds to different sectors of the economy:
"The key problem in the development of the socialist economy
today is increasing the efficiency of social production in
all its spheres and branches. No matter what indices we use
to measure this efficiency, in the final analysis what we
are talking about is a risk-kin the productivity of social
labor."19
At the same time, Soviet emphasis on ideology, which
permeates every field, including science, has repeatedly
prejudiced scientific discussions and hidden the merits of
scientific research. As is well known, ideology set Soviet
genetics back two centuries under Stalin and halted Soviet
investigation of cybernetics which Stalin termed "that
bourgeois science." Today, of course, it is recognized in
the Soviet Union that cybernetics, along with its data
processing machines, is essential for keeping proper control
of modern industrial processes and that cybernetics has a
crucial role to play in predicting the environmental damage
that could be caused by new factories, dams, irrigation works,
chemicals, etc. In fact, the anti-scientific mentality of
Soviet ideologists, as the anti-scientific mentality of
Soviet economists; can be said to play an important role in
allowing Soviet industry to exploit and abuse the environment.
The Soviet Union will have to acknowledge considerations
other than industrial output in its economic planning if its
pollution problem is to be solved; it will have to allocate
adequate funds for scientific research and development, if
19) Academician A. Rumyantsev, "Questions of'Scientific
and Technical Progress" in Voprosy ekonomiki No. 1, January 1971
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anti-pollution techniques are to be found and applied to
industry; and finally, it will have to enforce its anti-
pollution laws, if it is serious about stopping its
destruction of,the environment.
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CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
NE'W YORK TIMES
17 March '1972
.'U.N. Group Offers Environrnent Plan, '
Asking `Reorientation of Man's Values'
By GLADWiN IIILL
special to The New York Thne!
UNITED NATIONS, N,Y.,
arch 16-In the first program
er propoun cc -~.
T e environment, a United Na_
nergics and resources."
-~
ation~ of science and tech
hyslcai, economic and social
hreatened irreversible ecologi-1
or remedial measures, was set';
orth 4n a 600-page set of pro-'I
n June ,-by most of the nations
In Work for 2 Years,
lonal action was the product
;nee, which was constituted by
he Soviet Union, _among Dirt
a permanent unit'in the United;
tional environmental activities.
send a global "cartliwatch" sys
hoeing and exchanging of infor-
nations-formally acknowledge
a responsibility not toy impair
that affluent. nations finan-
cially a
-rntrior~~& 17t.'~6 in
pet _ens ui ~' ,u
-
ration-in environmental pro
tection. _ t
Altogether there are more
than 200 recommendations for
international action, which the
is supposed to en-
dorse or ject, and over 300
recommen ations for national-
level acti ins that have the
lower star s of "suggestions."
Subje is for Discussion
The proposals in , sixes Pam-
agreed u on for the confer-
ence: pro lems of human set-
pollution,
resources
t
,
s,
t)cnien
economic development, inter-,
national virbnmental organi-j
zatlon, a ri . public education
and infor atiorl.
Some r commendations were
qu'itc gen ral, such as one urg-
ing that ,grfvcrllments avoid
creating barriers to intrrna-
tional tra a to offset the rosts
of pollut on control." Others
were qu to 'specific, among
them one proposing the estate-
lishment of 100 or more
"Earthwa ch" stations to mon-
itor the a ospherc.
The In rnational recommen-;
dations w re addressed broadly'
to "gove nments," to the Sec-
retary G .neral rand to United
Nations specialized agencies
such as he World Health Or-
ganizatio and the Food-and
Agricultu c Organization.
Execut on of the bulk of the
lnternati nal h:proposals, it. was
tobably would fall,
t
trialist turned diplomat. of principles" constituting "tile
The Stockholm program, inI i first a'iempt by the nations.
contrast with the multifarious of the world to agree on stand-i
t' 1 behavior'
n
international conferences that
have dealt with environmental
problems in largely scientific
and technological terms, views
global environmental reform as
essentially political.
"The very nature of cnviron?
mental problems-that is to
say, their intricate lnterdepend-
ence-is such as to require po-
litical choices," the prepara-
tory committee said.
More than 100 of the 132
member countries of the United
Nations, representing most of
the world's 3.5 billion people,
are expected to participate in
the conference, from June 5
to 16,
ards of interna loo
and responsibility" regarding
the environment.
Soaring population was noted
quite bluntly in the Stockholm
material, but specific actions
were left by implication to a
United Nations conference on
population, scheduled for 1974.;
Also dealt with obliquely,i
and left targcly to national'
action, was. the rapid- deple-
tion of nonrrncwable resour.
ces such as minerals.
Confrontation Is Urged
The gap between the ad-
vanced nations that are inter-
estcd in environmental reform
and poor nations that consider
Soviet Role in Doubt it a luxury was dealt with
Mainland China, comprising largely in terms of the 1971
some 20 per cent of the world's preparatory conference at
population, will be represented. Founex, Switzerland, which
It is uncertain whether the 1coneludrd that potential eco=
Soviet Union and the Eastern ,nomic frictions resulting from
European bloc will participate. !envirommcntal improvement
They are vexed over denial of should be confronted and ne-
participation for East Germany, gotiatcd through international
which is not a member of the trade ori-inizations.
United Nations. The Stockholm program jre-
There has been no indication jccted the notion that environ-
.udicial
hoW the proposals will fare at mental reform was Prct
iStockliolm. Virtually all hadj to the rc,:olution of other prob-
been discussed by the prcpara-` lems such as .the risk of nu-
tory committee in four long+ clear war, poverty, discrimina-
meetings over the last two ycarsj tion, the urban crisis, the rural
that were open to the entire exodus, inflation combined with
United Nations membership. unemployment."
,
e , p
suigcs
ultimatel to 'esfablislicd Unitedl' Mr. Strong said at a news
Nations g4`ncics. Those age n-. conference today that the
ties ha e' bten,? conducting Stockholm project had already
many a vironmcntal activities' "justified expectations" by ac-
but thes have generally been celerating to an advanced
pieceme , fragmented andl stage of negot.iation of several
sometim s conflicting. conventions to deal with such
specific international problems
He ded by Canadian
The s ockholni program was
a distill tion, of 12,000 pages
of mat ial produced by the
secretar t of the conference,
by bun ,1 eds of consultants and
as dumping of toxic wastes into
the oceans, the conservation of
ing part of man's global berit-
tagr, and thn preservation of
wetlands and islands for sci-
tcnce."
Mr. Strong said he thought
- t
16 na
1
by con ibutors from
~p
ry
~
11
elgte~s~ 9 ire' ctdr~ who d'tN Stdo m,co`ftcu~ft g
prepara Dry work, is Maurice endorsement pf a "declaration
Mankind s growing interde-
pendence, th creport said, calls
for "a more equitable utiliza-
tion of the world's resources
and distribution of its oppor-
tunities for a more balanced
development of the world's pro-
ductive capacity and significant
redirection of its industrial and
scientific capabilities."
,It is vital to add a new di-
mension' to man's thinking," it
added, This is to see himself
not as a separate, antagonistic,
exclusive exploiter of the earth,
wise
teward and w
I,Fhe precious and
d
ht .he pr
limited resources.
 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5
CPYRGHT
LE MONDE
13 April 1972
(also reprinted in die Welt, La Stampa, and The Times.)
CPYRGHT
La bataille pour la Terre
Par AURELIO PECCEI (*)
OMMENT parvenir a 6qullibrer
do tagon satfsfaisante Is d6ve-
C
loppement do t'Industrlo at to
protection do I'environnement ? C'est
una des questions lea plus impor-
tantes aujourd'hul pos6es. Una des
plus controversee. aussf. L'industrie
- on entendant par Ia toute activite
productrico - conditionne notre ni-
nemont
do notre
i
Le p
m6me v
naffs at
solides.
se ratty
autres
I'human
at dont
Isol6med
qua dependent et Ia qualit6
vie at to pr6senco memo do
t to terra.
obl6me est cependant Jul.
c16 par lea facteura emotion-
par l'absence d'informations
Sa complexite at Is fait qu'll
he, qu'il est mAl6 A tous leg
rands probibmes auxquals
6 dolt faire face aujourd'hul,
d'op6rer leg choix. Nous sorions Ine-
vitablement conduits A des conclu-
sions fausses si nous considhrions to
question sp6cfflque des relations in-
dustrie-environnemont, hors du cadre
plus vaste oil efie se situe : colui
des rdponses at des initiatives de to
soci6t6 devant Jos mutations d'un
monde qui 6votue trbs rapidement.
Et nous serfons vou6s A una totaie
Inefficacit6 si, 1'Europe etant la pre-
mibre dons nos c r urs, nous p6chions
per .._1, A., .-t.... i._- _ IL..R..w,.,
vue. A f;, soc4',16 -mon(enne settle.
L~ pre;;?tq yin"1i ~t?n-
tirno qu'il convio+t co reci ficr
nion trbs Iargem,-nt repandur. ia:
laquello c'est t'indu ;trio qui cat
ponsnble do In d6gradntion r;; iris
do t'environnement humain. facc.;t is-
tablement. it y a dans Ies zones
IndustrIelles una concentration me[-
saine do pollution at do detritus qui
conteminont notre air. . ,tia sot,
nos rivibros et leg eaux c6tibros.
La presom.ption de Z'homm.rt.e
CPYRGHT
Pourtant, I'industrie est seulement
to bras s6cufier, ('instrument de pro-
duction, de Is soci6t6 dont elfe no
fait qua servir leg objectifs. Et c'est
contre Is soci6t6 dans son ensemble
quo dolvent titre formuteos leg accu-
sations qui sont profdrdes hautement
contra site par tout to monde. Non
qua I'Industrio soft irreprochable :
efie est an position domtnante, at elle
on protite; trop souvent, pour exploi-
ter la cr6dulit6 do eonsommateurs
sans defense et pour flatter tours
toquades collectives ou Ieurs fai-
biessos, sans guere so soucier des
interets reels do fa communaut6 ou
do Is salubrite publiquo. Mais ce
stint IA abus qu'une mellieure appli-
cation dos Iola ou I'Intervention de
('ombudsman sufflraient A faire dis-
paraltre.
Co qu'll nous ' Taut' chercher A
comprendre, at analyser, ce sont lea
facteura determinant I'actlvit6 Indus-
trlelle, autrement dit, lea motivations
at lea orientations de is soci6t6 qui,
c'est to drama. sont on plain d6sac-
cord aveo lea nouvelles r6alltes du
monde, nolamment s[ I'on pense a
i'environnement.
La principals force motrice de to
ocI to moderne, derivdo, dons sea
deux versions, capitalists . at socia-
liste, de Is tradition Juddo-chretienne,
gamble titre une fol illimites en Res
propres possibfiit6s at realisations
scientlfiquos, technologiques. Indus-
trielles of an lour d6veloppoment ul-
t6rleur. Cette presomption, qui intoxi-
quo, vlent de Is conviction quo I'hom-
me est non pas une parcelle do to
nature mais Is maitre de Is terra
at qu'll pout exploiter son royaume
A son gre. Eile a fait un h6ros do
i'homo faber, capable do transformer
la p6nurie on abondance, at efie a
repouss6 I'homo sapiens A I'arri6re-
plan. Tous lea peupios se sont ainsl
laisse prendre au mirage d'une ex-
pansion 6conomique sans Iimites. La
glorification at Is poursuite des va-
fours mat6rielles, placees plus haut
qua tout, at symbolis6es par Is P.N.B.
at I'indice de consommation per ca-
pita, sont lea symptbmes de ce syn-
drome do la croissance, dont Is con-
sequence la plus redoutable est Pero-
sion continue - comma I'a montr6
le recent rapport du M.I.T. (1) - de la
capacit6 devolue A notre petite pla-
n6te, finie, surpeupl6e et, probable.
ment, d6ih blen malade, d'entretonlr
is vie. On dolt done s'interroger sur
I'6quifibre ecologlque d'oc d6coule-
rent Jos possibilltes do survie de noire
systbme humain.
Aprbs une pdrlode marquee par un
accroissement phdnomdnal de to po-
pulation et do Is production, Is
systbme humain est toujours embraye
sur la croissance, ators qua pro-
bl6mes vitaux sont, aujourd'hui, des
problemes d'equllibre. Equillbre no
veut pas dire stagnation. 11 suffit de
regarder autour do sol. Dans tous
lea cycles at leg syst&mes vitaux,
dans to corps humain. clang leg fordta
ou leg oceans, dans leg espbces,
avec lours luttos Internos ou entre
ellos, nulle part, rlen, jamais, ne croft
Ind6finiment. If y a croissance lei et
d6clin lb, puts survlennent des forces
ou des 6v6nements qui font d6croltre
A son tour ce qul croissait tandis qua
se presentent de nouvefles 6mergen-
ces dans un mouvement continu
d'adaptation mutuelle at d'ajustement
A 1'environnement. Cette dynamique,
co retablissement perpetual do 1'equi-
libre, sont Ie secret et Is cause de
touts evolution, at hors do cola 11 n'y
a quo to rulne at I'immobilite de is
mort.
L'bcart entre pays sous-d6veloppes
at surd6voloppds deviant of radical
quo fours positions sont impossibles
A conciliar dana Is cadre do pensde
at d an s Is systbme d'organisatfon
d'aujourd'hul. Les pauvres, qui for-
ment Is grando majorite de t'huma-
nite, v 0 n t probabiement degrader
davantage I'ecosystbme m o n d I a I
an essayant do se dfnelopper,
A n'importe quel prix pour 1'ecolorrie,
et its n'atteindront pas tour objoctif
pour to raison qua Ies nations Indus-
trialis6es absorbent leg trots qunrts
des ressourcos naturefies axtraltes
at qu'elles an veulent davantage. Et
lea riches, qul no se sentont as stirs
do- lour richesse, parts quo lours
fournitures vitales proviennent do tar-
ritoires 6trangers, vont essayor de
contr6ler at do monopoliser une en-
core plus grande proportion des res-
sources mondiales. Lo conflit de buts
at d'int6rets trees par cett,) situa-
tion invraisemblable eat sans solu-
tion. Des crl; es at des hours entre
cos deux groupes humains at on our
sein 6clatcront forc6ment at attein-
dront lour summum au moment oil
"Ies limites mat6rielles at Ies exigen-
ces ecologiques de is planeto devien-
dront 6videntes.
II nest pas sage d'ignorer flu do
minimiser ces defis at ces risquos.
Ce sont [as plus grands que 1'hornme.
ail jamais rencontres, et c'est la pre-
miere fois qu'une menaco so profile
A I'echelle mondiale. Sou:, on im-
pact, I'humanit6 va avoir finaemont
A prendre position at A cornbattre,
dune fagon ou d'une autre. Four Co
qui sera litt6ralement In - 'ataille
pour to Terre ,..
pprove or a ease
2
 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5
CPYRGHT
Au niveau du monde entier
far analogle, it serait souhaitabie
ue is societe pr6sentftt an son se in
it dans sea rapports aver Is milieu
memo harmonle at Is memo pour-
ulte de i'equilibre qui creeralent Is
euie condition propico a un authen-
ique ddvotoppement do I'humanite.
at n'est' matheureusement pas to cos
I'heuro actuelle.
Toutes lea nations, communautes at
uutures sent secouees par des des-
quillbres internes qui vent on s'ag-
ravant. Dons Is sphere do l'indostrie,
Iis surviennent entre Ia production et
Is distribution des riohesses entre lea un temps de rdpit at indiquer is
besoins publics et Is demande privee, vote, mats Ila no peuvent pas modi-
entre Is sauvegarde do l'environne- tier substantiettement noire t r i s t e
ment at l'activite economique, mats] condition collective ni lea tendances
its concernent jusqu'A Is place at Is do futur.
fonction Imparties A 1'dconomio dens Pour aaliir ce qu'est actuelioment
le corps social. cette condition of ce quo pout Ctre
.A 1'echelle des nations, lea dilem- i'avonir, 11 faut conald6rer Is situa-
mes devant lesquels elles so trouvent tion au nivenu du monde antler. A
sent angoissants at quaslment ipso- fiotre opaque, c'est sur Is scbne pla-
lubios dans l'acluel contexte. Les n6taire quo so joue is tragedie
choix proposes au niveau national humeine at, pour pouvoir Influer sur
ou regional (. business as usual r, elle, nous evens A nous preparer,
. qualified growth - ou ' < zero A noes famillariser avec de nou-
growth ,) peuvent dormer seulement veaux concepts an ce qui concerne
Le role de l'indristrie.
La dure verite, qu'll taut regarder
on face, c'est quo si to societe nest
pas capable de so purifier ells-memo
du p6che qu'elle a commis an soori-
fiant 1'enrichissement moral at Gut-
tural do I'humanite a la poursuite do
satisfactions mat6riollos, at Si cue
conserve un train do via au-dessus
des moyens do son habitat torrestre,
ells se condamno a etre arrOtee dens
son elan avant qu'il soft longtomps,
ou par I'inlorvention do forces exte?
rieures faisant partie du systeme do
I'univers, ou bien par tine guerre
civiie e n t r e ees membres luttant
pour lour subsistence. Dons lee deux
cas, des souffrances at. des molts
s'ensuivront,. Incommensurables at,
memo sl noire esp6ce reussit A sur-
nager, it y a peu do chances quo
survive ce quo nous appelons Is
civilisation.
'Probabiement, cotta abomination,
cetto stupidite, peuvent-eiles encore
titre conjurees. Male, pour cola, it
faudrait quo is communaute mondiale
modififtt compiatement sea fagons de
sentir at do ponser. A cat egard, la
r0le do I'industrie pout Atre d6cisit.
Evoquer Is catastropho dans I'abs-
trait sans consideror lea conditions
d'ensemble at lea macroproblbmes
du monde We pas de sans. Par
contra, 11 est capital do chercher a
savoir at I'industrie des hommes
pout - sans causer des dommages
irr6parables aux ecosystbmes de Is
planate - fournir Is. nourriture, lea
biens, lea services at un niveau de
vie politiquement at moralement ac-
ceptable a une population do
3 600 millions do ? terriens - - qui
seront bientOt 6 milliards, 7 milliards
at davantage.
Or alder Is Societe a pr6voir a
I'echelle mondiaio, tel eat pr6cise-
ment to nouveau role do l'industrle.
Memo Iimitea pour to moment & une
Etude trbs prellminaire do In ratio-
nalisation planetaire de to production
(comment lea systemes economlques
at ecologiques peuvent-ils etro coor-
donnes ; comment to devoloppement
global pent-il etre atteint do maniere
compatible avec Is preservation do
is Terre), I'entreprise sera dune dif-
ficuite at d'une complexite effroya-
bies. Leaucoup do personnes diront
qu'elle est utopique r t qu'olle d6-
passe lea possibifit6s humaines. Mais
is crois quand memo quo t'industrie
aura asset d'imagination pour don-
Urn pro jet com.plexe
Les objectits sent aussi simples
qua la projet est complexe :
a) Les concepts de 1'impiantation
do l'industrie, de sa structure at de
sea modes d'op6ration, doivent etre
revises at r6ajust6s do fagon ration-
nelle sur une base mondiale. an vue
do repondre aux exigences sans
cease croissantes de la demande
dune Societe giobalisee.
Ces exigences seront exprlmees
an objectils qui no peuvent, a i'heuro
actuelle, qu'etre presumes arbitraire?
gressive des ecarts actuels eat pa-
reillement souhait6e ;
d) Quo lea activltes productrices
dolvent etre poursuivios de maniere
a no pay epuiser ou affaiblir la ca-
pacite d'entretenir to vie qua d6tient
notre pian6te. at de manibre A prot6-
ger 1'6cologle humaine dans Is pre-
sent at pour I'avbnir
a) Qua Jos ressources non renou-
velables doivent etre ailouees, utt-
lisces at recycl6es do maniere A ne
pas cr6or do problemes insolubfes
pour lea generations futures, qui ant
b) Qua I'un des buts principaux autant do droits quo nous sur ce
e commun
i
i
mo
n
de la communaute des hommes, dans patr
to monde, est d'assurer un niveau de f) Qua lea possibilit6s do forma-
_.._ .,R,.,,.,t 3 tmie sea habitants ; Pion of d'emploi doivent etro fournles
consi erer qu'ii leur Incourbe a-.
fournir un support materiel pour la'
satisfaction des sutres besoins pri-
mordiaux do I'humanitertist qu catifs,
cuiturels, spirituelS,
scientifiques.
Ces objectifs sent,, tour lea six,
fondamentaux, mats its sent nean-
moins incompatibles at l'on pr6tend
satisfalre n'impbles loquel eux au maximum. La recherche Ini-
tiale a entreprendre eurait pour but
1 ossibillt6s do log
lea ordres de grandeur, I'epproche at
lea cons6quences a pr6voir. La tech-
nologic at 1'Interd6pendance crols-
sante entry lea systbmes naturals at
coux constructs per 1'hommo tiertnent
I'humanite at i'environnement dens
une cone d'unite organiquo. Persister
dans Is poursuite do buts 6goistos,
comma le font toujours lea pays at
lea p a u p ies, eat non seulemont
condemnable macs Illusolre, car notre
commune terra nourriclere nest do
touto fapon pas assez vaste at pas
assez g6n6rouse pour rbpondre a
toutes Jos attentes.
CPYRGHT
nor sa mesure dans co nouveau role.
Outre quit ny a pas d'altornntivo at
qu'il taut bien essayer d'orpaniaer to,
monde pour qu'il subvienne ed6qua-
toment aux besoins do touts as popu-
lation, lea enjeux sent al eleves quo
- on pout rafsonnabloment 1'esp6rer
is determination qui poussa
I'homme a poser sea plods sur Ia
Luna se rotreuvera pour planlfier
cette experience sans pri:cbdent h
tenter sur notre' bonne vieilto Terre.
La phase initiate s'6difiorait autour
dune recherche similaire - port6s
giobaie, petiode do temps limit6e.
approximation rudimentaire - a celle
offectu6e par to MIT sur lot Limites
de la crolssance -. Les termea do
reference devront etro etudh,s minu-
tleusoment.
CPYRGHT
cherche, mail co quo ton commence
a distlnquer, (inns lea broulilards do
la situation precaire ou ton erre
aujourd'hul, c'est Is necessltd do
I'entreprendro. Le temps pmcse, car
I'Industrie dolt relever to di fi avant
que toutes lea forces no soient d6-
pioy6es A travers to monde, taus log
esprits mobilises, pour la bataille do
la Terre. A I'interieur do 1'industrie,
je pense qua 1'entreprise privr;o dolt
prendre la fete du mouvement. Cats,
pour deux raisons : dune part, an
d explorer as p
-coordonner, on utilisant ditferents beaucup d'endrolts, site stibit Is
jeux do donn6es, pour lea integrer, a prossion do foPonion publique at,
to tongue, dons une combinaison ou d'autre part, ells possOde - A un
des combinatsons coherentes. Col- degre bien superieur A colul qua
ies-el indlqueraient, avec une ap- Pon trouve dans 1'entreprise publi-
proximatlon grossiere, leg resultat, qua, operant, do nos jours, dans Jos
1. - t? canine nminnnin - U flhre Inter-
c) Quo, 1'egalisation du niveau do a to plus Haute propvrnon - qui NVu--?-
vie des ditferents group politiques nationals altt6st mondiarlese 4 rd'esprit i sent am
es humains vailleurs potentials sur une base monde reel par des approprichoixes. p
no pouvant a3tre~ envisages dans un mondiale Equitable at strategiques
; qQ ~jr nsabtos.
avenir previsibtA t Ved Forult6rieurs Re eas Indust M ell CIA-MM, f WAOM 0180001 -5
lea
 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5
THE NEW YORKER
19 June 1971
CPYRGHT
OUR FAR-FLUNG CORE ESP NDENTS
THE POLLUTION OF LAKE. 13AIK L
Lk r: BAIKAL, a foil r?-hundred-nnilc-
long hod). Of water in southcast-
ern Siberia about twenty-five
hundred miles cast of Moscow, is
thought to he between twenty-five and
thirty million years ol(1, and hence the
oldest lake on earth. With a maximum
depth of more than five thousand feet,
it is also the world's deepest body of
fresh water and its largest in volume,
containing an estimated fortieth of the
planet's fresh water-though one So-
viet geographer gives the unlikely fig-
ure of twenty per cent. The lake. is fed
by three hundred and thirty-six rivers
but is drained by only one, the Angara,
which flows out of Lake Baikal's south-
western end to run a thousand miles
northwest to the Yeniscy-which, in
its turn, runs another fifteen hundred
miles to the Arctic Ocean. Because a
large part of Lake Baikal's watershed
area is snrfaccd with rock, its water is
between twenty-five and fifty per cent
lower in mineral content than that of
most other freshwater bodies, and is so
transparent that divers can sec down
almost a hundred and fifty feet. These
and many of the lake's other unique
attributes and resources have, for the
past ten years or so, been increasingly
threatened by the incursion of industry.
The threat has produced the snit of
confrontation between manufacturers
and conservationists that has repeatedly
been in the news Owl. here. In the So-
viet Union, as mig it be expected, the
fight has been lc. dramatically re-
ported than it mig) t be in the United
States, but it his been reported, and it
continues-just as he apparent degra-
dation of the lake d es.
It would he ha -d to overestimate
either the effect of Lake Baikal on the
climate of the sir ?ntnding region-
largely mountaineer
longing to the Bur
cast and to the Jr
west-or the rema
flora and fauna. T'
only thirty miles frcb
large bodies of
change tcmpcratur
in the city may bel
degrees higher or to
lakeshore. Morcove
tares in the region
by September or 0
form on the lake i
or early January.
blessed with an unu
age of cloudless da
an average of twee
eighty-three sunny
as, for instance,
resort city in the C
two thousand such
of the air in the Ill
rahle, too. As a Vis
lakcshorc, the fres
breathing seem almost a nrw rxprri-'
ence. As for the flora and fanny of the
Baikal region, nitre than twuIvc hun-
dred Organisms have hrrn catalogued,
of which seven hundred and eight are
pectdiar to it. Among these indigenous
species are the nrrpa-the world's only
freshwater seal, of which there are
thirty thnusancl in the lake-and the
golomyanka, a transparent fish that
hears about two thousand live young.
Lake Baikal is different in so many re-
spects from any other place on earth
that those whose lives have been
touched by it are sometimes inclined to
believe that it has supernatural powers.
The area is-venerated both by the local
inhabitants and by Russian conserva-
tionists.
Until a decade or so ago, there was
no significant industrial development on
at Republic on the
:utsk oblast on the
k~ble variety of its
c (city of Irkutsk is
n Baikal, but, since
atcr are slow to
the temperature
~ts much as twenty
vver than it is at the
-, though tcmpcra-
all below freezing
tohcr, ice does not
ntil late December
Also, the area is
wally high percent-
's. Lake Baikal has
five hundred and
tors a year, where-
islovodsk, a sunny
ucasus, has a mere
tours. The quality
c region is memo-
tor approachcn the
, crisp air makes
the shores of the lake, which are rn;iin y
steep slopes unsuitable for anything hot
small settlements, but several cities and
factories had sprung rip on some of its
tributaries-especially the major nn",
the Sclenga River, which supplies about
fifty per cent of Lake 13aikal's water.
Over the years, about fifty factories, in-
cluding meat-packing plants and lull
her mills, had been established along
the banks of the Sclenga, and only
about ten of these bothered to treat
their waste before ill was discharged.
Most of these factories are near
the capital of the 1311riat Rcptrhlic,
Ulan-Udc, which is lthotrt seventy-five
miles from the lake's shore, and which
alo empties its sewage-untreated---
into the Sclenga. In the
fifties, the lake was hc-
ginning to show the ef-
fects of sttch'eneroacli-
mcnts. 'I'hc catch of
oinrcl, the lake's prize
'fish, declined fifty-five
per cent in twelve
years, from 91,3011
ccntncrs (about tell
thousand tons) in 1945
to less than half, that in
195 7. The decline may
have begun as a result
of poor fishing prac-
tices, 'but it was exaecr-
hated by pollution of
the lake's tributaries--_
especially the Sclenga,
the breeding area for
sixty, per cent of the
lake's orntrl.
'I'hc industrial threat
to the ecology cif tilt
region was increased
greatly in 1957, when
the State Institute for
the Design of CrirtuL.:.
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4
 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5 PYRGHT
and 1':11>I r 1'l:ulrs (o? (;ipproshi11),
louder tilt- stimulus of the State Planning
Ofiicc (nr (;nsplan) of, the Russian
J cpuhlics, suggested that the enormous
timber reslurccs ;Intl pure water of the
Baikal region he put to some use. The
plans called for the construction of at
lease.- two factories-a cellulose-cord
factory nn fire southern shore of the lake
at Baikaisk and a ce1hih sc plant on the
?Sclenga. The planners announced their
intentions in 1955, but not until July
of 1960, her work on the plants iced
begun, was there any public hint of
what such ind,strial develnplncpt might
mean for Lake Baikal. At that time-
in a forty-eight-page pamphlet pub-
lished by the 13tlriat Book Publishing
Company, in Ulan-Udc--a local writ-
(.r, 13. R. Buiantucv, cautioned that es-
tablishing such factories on or next to
Lake Baikal would create complications
for the lake and its huge surrounding
forestland. But since Buiantuev's essay
was published in Siberia, and in an edi-
tinn of only twenty-five hundred cop-
ies, it is unlikely that it received much
attention.
As a matter of fact, a potentially ef-
fective law aimed at protecting the lake
had been passed earlier that ),car by
the Council of Ministers of the Russian
Republics. Anticipating some of the dif-
ficulties that the new plants would'cre-
atc, the law had three major provisions;
First, it stipulated that no factory could
open until its officials could guarantee
that a water-purification system was
working and that Al Rcsiilting effluents
were harmless. This fact also had to he
certified by various ministries and by a
remote' provincial city seemed particu-
larly interested, Until December of
that ),car, most Soviet citizens remained
unaware that factories that could pol-
lute the lake were being planned. Then
Gregory Galaxy, the director of the
Lirnnologicil Institute cif the Academy
of Sciences, in Sihcr
warning ;tlloill what
:1 leper it) the etlitltrl
h orirsnrpolrkni,, llr,
scribed how the pl;u
velopnlcnt of the la
horn, catalogued the
logical changes that t
would inflict on the
that the liquid waste
could not only dest
lake's unique marine
adversely affect the
kutsk. Galazy wend
to the lake. First, I
factories treat and
Biit if that should p
pensive, he wrote, ti
build a forty-two-mi
flow into Lake Baik;
suggested that it was
abandon the whole
posed that cellulose a
lie transferred to tl
about three hundred
gara. Since a paper
would have to he don
.
1, issued a public
at ll ippenlltg. In
(,f tilt- newsp;ipcr
vdrr, Gaiazy (I,-
(shore had been
1t- new industries
akc, and warned
from the plants
'fly Snllic of the
ife but might also
atcr supply of Ir-
on to suggest a
citing the threats
e urged that the
cIase their water.
t)vc to he too cx-
c factories should
.-long sewage by-
r, which does not
. Finally, Galazy
till not too late to
project. He pro-
id pulp operations
city of Bratsk,
miles tip the An-
)Iant was already
Bratsk, all that
e would be to ex-
i w, 11
as almost as good
Lake Baikal itself, I
wmtlrl hr
lent
nt ci
p
y
state sanitary inspector. Second, the able, for an imam use hydroelectric '
law called for the enlargement of the plant would soon op ?n nearby. What-
13arguzin National Preserve, a six- ever happened, Ga azy pleaded, no'
million-acre forest area around the Waste water from the cellulose factories
shores of the lake. 'T'hird, it banned the { should he permitted n flow into
stripping-as against the selective cut- Like Baikal,
ting--of timber where the land sloped A month later, th~' cconolic
as much as fifteen degrees, and banned tiv''''kly d;'kn-/rJrllir'jrr Ikeda Ca-
sclectivc cutting as well where the slope l'inted Il cautn,r
hans designed to prevent erosion on the about the impcni'?-i~I~DRi79h 11~a1 A 201a1t~Q '~,~ Ilts :t Ila
d
mM st ator s success is ju
ged protecting the lake, a public outcry
in terms of increased production. There ;arose, leading to the formation of vari-
is no space on performance charts for ous investigative bodies. It is hard to
graining a governor on his maintenance list all the organizations that investi-
of.the quality of the air or water in his gated the I3aikal issue at one time or
domain. Moreover, governmental and :Mother, but reference has been made
managerial officials in the Soviet Union in the Soviet press to at least four: ma-
tend to resist the allocation of funds jor national groups that opposed the
for conservation, because this usually opening of the cellulose plants and six
means that there will be less money smaller bodies, mainly local, that ap-
available for expanding productive ca- proved. (And, as has happened in sinli-
pacity. When the managers of a pa- Jar situations elsewhere in the world,
per plant at Bratsk were asked why a' the testimony of at least one of the ap-
new waste filter had not been installed, proving experts was discredited when it
one of them replied, "It's expensive, was brought to light that he had served
The Ministry of Timber, Paper, and ;Is a consultant for the Ministry of
Woodworking is trying to invest as Timber, Paper, and Woodworking for
few finds is possible in the construe- a fee of a hundred thousand rubles a
tine of paper and timber enterprises in year.) Yet while the coin missions la-
ordcr to make possible the attainment bored, so (lid construction workers on
o4 good indices per ruble of capital in- the sites of tile plants. The commis-
i?vsttncnt. These indices are being lion reports fell off the presses like so
ae;hicved by the refusal to build pnrifi- -ilany drops of the effluent that would
c?;ition installations." Both factory man- ultimately issue from
agers and political official- suffer if unlike the eRluent, tit
Rinds are diverted from production to have no effect. I)es
conservation, and as a result of this tests, no one in a
identit,I of interests government offi- 'took any action to
vials in the Soviet Union are more apt Everyone agreed th
to ignore damage to the environment threatened, but ever
than officials in societies where, along helplessness. When t
with private enterprise, there is minished, for exanlp
a degree of public accountability. the Ministry of Fishi,
It is true that most American plaited that they had
corporate officials would prefer hibit the discharge of
fewer rather than more pollu- water. Only the s;
tion controls, because such Con- Could do that, they sai
irols make prodnctitu more costly and ever reason, tilt
normally less profitable, and these ex- tor did not do it,
eeutives have not been especially timid from the cello]
in making their sentiments known to authority to r?
our government officials. But industry's charge was ve
wishes are not all that an American Ministry of I4
mayor or governor has to worry about. and Water Manage
lie also has to consider the demands of Ministry of Timb
conservation groups like the Audubon Woodworking. That
Society, voter pressure groups like the our Atomic Energy
Council for a Livable World, and con- trot over the radio.
stituents whose health is endangered by from atomic-energy i
oil spills and polluted air and water. and large, it has. Criti
There are, of course, outspoken con- thcrmore, that the Mi
servationists and suffering citizens in Paper, and Woodwo
the Soviet Union, ton, and they are up transferring the
often supported by the Soviet press, the discharge of wast
but for the most part they have no the plants themselve,
power to influence the government. and buck-passing ma
What counts-above all else is increased for the factory man.
production. plants operating.
the plants-'hut,
reports were to
)ate ;Ill the pro-
,sition of power
save the lake.
it it was being
one also pleaded
is fish catch di-
e, auithor?ities in
g industry Cnnr
`u) power to pro-
sewage into the
nitary inspector
and, for what-
sanitary inspec-
As for the waste
se factories
the
,
Mate such dis-
kalsk and on the Seleri La could perfect- f
ly well have been huil elsewhere. Ini-
tially, tile Ministry of '1'inmber, Paper,
and Woodworking I id insisted that
Baikal's "exceptionaI n tr;a-pure water" i
was necessary for the )last at Baikalsk
because it was nllpossil is to make "su-
per, super cellulose ct ll? I" for aircraft
tires without it. Challe 4ging the wht,le
rationale for building lit, ilaikai:;l, f;ic-
tory, the editors of I o,nsn)irnlsk;rin
Pravda noted that in the mid-sixties,
once it was well novice "orlstl?uction, the
Ministry had decide(I to change the
kind of cellulose to c prodnced, a,.
well as the very purp Esc of the pl;ult.
Somewhere along the w;sr, it sct?nn?d,
the aced for "super, super cellulose"
had diminished, and t Ie Ministry had
decided that the facF or would also
make paper-a prodtill that does not
require exceptionally I urc water. "In
this way, the original rlsistelice on the
need to build the fac ory directly on
Lake Baikal underwc it a qualitative
l)letamorphosls," the 1 ditors of Kom-
somolskala Pravda pot ited out. "And
what remains?" they ; ?kcd, "A nearly
completed factory Om t, with a little
scientific effort, could have been built
ill another region of ht country and
thus could have spare I Lake Baikal."
The production plan (or the Sci1iiga
plant underwent a sin 1;u- chatigc?.
Aft- construction had I cell started, the.
Ministry decided that the plant shnnld
produce not only cclit use, as originally
planncd, but also car Iboarcl for heavy
cartons, which in , n o way regales tl;
especially pure watt At least, snidl
the critics, if the to of such water
ted not in the was essential for so nr pro(ucts, the
rid Reclamation two pi:InIs could ha t lee Ii collil)incd
lent but in the into one, tiros Ior:si zing
r, Paper, ;and the area of poll, Lion.
was like giving Next, the conservati trusts
ommission con- charged that the pet duc-
ctive discharge tion of "super, super ccl-
ants-which, by lulosc" cord had 1i in a
?s predicted, fur- misbegotten notion 5 1 tile
istry of Timber, first place. They sal i that nylon cord
king would end was superior to c. 11 dose cord and
es onsibility for pointed out that f cdorics producing
into the lake to "super, super cellulo e" in Canada had
Such confusion closed down for lac of demand. They
it all the easier also asked how Ann rican factories that
;ens to get their , (lid not have water ?omparable to that
`in Lake Baikal co rid produce high-
!quality cellulose. Si ch ar unlents a;
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 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001 YRGHT
parentiy had little c
August 23, 197.
Times carried an
Russian official as sa
eel States was indir~
the ; pollution of L
the `United States
country in the wo
strong cellulose, an
to the Soviet Union
Even the 'e:.-on
Baikal projects cat
scrvationist critics i
the Ministry of 7
Woodworking pit
construction costs
much as twenty-
($24,420,000 )-
Cost--in order to
Production plans,
similarly fuzzy. Ft
tiers had failed to
timber supply wo
more than twent
ignored the fact t
tory was sixty t
prime timber sup
1966, when the
cration, erratic (I
forced it to suspfl
times. Also, th
Iiaikalsk rcquirc4
another plant, tl~
the I3aikalsk plat
'ect. As recently as
the New York
tide that quoted a
ring that. the Unit-
ctly responsible for
Ike Baikal because
vas the only other
`Id that made such
it refused to sell it
mics of the Lake
e under fire. Con-
have insisted that
imber, Paper, and
"posely understated
'or the plants by as
:wo million rubles
t third of the total
win initial approval.
it was said, were
r example, the plan-
scertain whether the
ild he adequate for,
-five years and had
tat the 13aikalsk fac-
ttks away from its
~Iv. Since the end of
actory went into up-
ivcrics of timber have
id production several
cellulose made at
further processing at
usands of miles away
here, say the critics,
t cnuld perfectly well
quakes-to say nothing of its having
ignored what the debris from two such
factories would do to the lake's water.
Throughout the debate, officials of
the Ministry maintained that the dis-
charges into Lake Baikal by the fac-
tories would be carefully treated to
protect the quality of the lake. No ex-
pense would be spared, they promised,
to construct the most IIvanced treat-
ment, plants in the country, if not the
world. Unfortunately, however, the
treatment system put into use at 13ai-
kalsk was so new that it had never been
tested under actual production condi-
tions; indeed, according to one critic,
it was tested "by simply using a model
with two hundred litres of artificially
polluted water." Furthermore, the sys-
tem relied in part on -the use of a bac-
teria culture to petrify the effluent from
the factory, and it is difficult or impos-
sible for such cultures to survive in the
below-freezing weather that prevails
in the Lake Baikal region for eight
months of the year. Also, the cultures,
which feed on pulp waste, die if pro-
duction is interrupted-as it has been,
because of the erratic timber deliveries.
Not only flit( the Ministry fail to test
the treatment process thoroughly but-
in direct violation of the 1960 law
aimed at protecting Lake Baikal-it
went ahead with the construction and
opening of the Baikalsk factory before
all the plans hall been finally approved
by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry
of Fishing, and the Ministry of Land
itself instead of new water drawn from
the lake. An unplanned form of recy-
cling was taking plac~? anyway, the crit-
ics pointed out. l3ccause of the peculiar
nature of Lake Baikal, it seems, water-
flow patterns in the Vicinity of the
13aikalsk plant are circular. Thus, the
water from the discharge pipe works its
way hack around to the intake pipe,
which is only two or three miles away,
and the quality of the water the plant
uses has already been lowered. As a re-
suit, the Ministry of Timber, Paper,
and Woodworking has had to provide
for siip(tlcrnetttar}' treatment, making
the plant still more costly to run.
S f) far, everything that has happened
indicates that there will he damage
to Lake Baikal even if the treatment
facilities operate properly. Several Rus
sign scientists-including Galazv, from
the Lininological Institute--who visit-
ed the T3aikalsk factory in 1968, re-
ported some dismal findings. Valentine
Kostylev, the manager of the treatment
plant, was quoted as complaining that
its filter had hecn nlalftinetioning for
two years. Galazy reported that (lur-
ing one visit he made the treatment
plant's oxidizing machine Was inopera-
tive, the plant's pipes were blocked
tip, and the aerator had broken down.
In fact, he said, it had been necessary
to rcennstrnct the whole treatment
plant, at a cost of four million rubles
($4,400,000 at the official rate). In
the tnc:uttitnc, waste had been shunted
to storage pools about eleven yards
from the lakc?shore, and then, in the
form of black slink, had begun licrco-
(ating into the lake at a rate estimated
by Galazy at thirty-four and a half
litres t second. This apparently had
been going out for most of the year
(and, at last report, continued on into
1970 ). Although he quoted Kostylev
as saying that he, Galazy, had "come
just at the wrong time," it apparently,
would have been impossible for him to ll
have come at the right time. The black
slime that was flowing into Lake
The Ministry
for its belated It
tire Baikal rcginn Will WWill a highly active Reclamation and \Vatc1 Management.
seismic zone, ;ind that the site chnseti Moreover, it seemed, the I3aikalsk plant
for tht? llaik;dsk point wo-is directly on had started operating before the staff
the fault of the zone. The 9clcng;i of the treatment plant had been prop-
plaiit is soincwh;it belief. situated ira this erly trained.
reg:u"d, but cvcn so lit is only sixtreli Slime of the defenders of Lake
yards away from the cpic(?ntrr of a Baikal noted further that even if the
gunke recorded a few years ago, so it ircatn t tit plant here npcrating proprr-
scrntc(
I a distinct possibility that both h" and it full c;rp ici I., the diluent
factories entd(1 t+nnblc into the Water. would at hest be only ninety-seven per
Major earthquakes occurred in thr area cent pill'(', :aril the plant would he able
in 1862, 1950, 1957, ,ind 1959, ;iti(I to pnwtSS only two-thirds of the emit-
tIl(re wct?e smaller shocks in 1961 red waste. Anti cvcn though the water
said 1961. I)uring the that -would rinrrgc tinder these cnndi-
1962 quake, an area of tions from the List st;tg(? of trcatna(vit
land shout the sizc of would hr drinkable by hii nun hcings, it
Boston collapsed into the wo.iild hr - yclb,wish, wntiltl h;tve a
lake, In its initial plan- slightly unplcasani odor, arid Could still
ring for the i factories, taint Iakc Baikal, 1\11 vway, said the
the Ministry of Timber, coucrt?ati nists, if the treated water
Paper, and Woodworking sccm.4 to really turned out to It( all that it was
,
have ignored the likelihood of earth- claimed to he, it should he recycled and sewage had been ohscr1?cd floating on
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7
the first place.
as further castigated
ognition that the en-
I Baikal, according to (1,
of fatty acids, ntcthan,
I sulphides. Between 196
die of 1968, the Balk
dumped three hundi"c
three tons of these toxic
the lake. As a result is]
lazy, Consisted
and organic
and the mid-
ilsk plant had
I and eighty-
ads of alkaline
 CPYRGHT
anroved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000200180001-5
at distances of nine to thirteen miles mantled, industrial activity- around the
front the plant's nutlet qu, for as long lake abandoned, and the entire shore
as two months. These stands-one of allowed to revert to forest would there
than eighteen miles I >ng and three he much chance of lial(i)lg the degra-
water but the air arol rid the lake as ecological balance in the lake basin is so
well. The effect of sucl tox- complex that the danurge may he irre-
The office of the Lim4logi- Because of the small amount: of
cal Institute at Lake faikal soil covering most of the watershed
reported that animal
plant life near the 13,
treatment plant had he
duced by a third to a
In late 1970, 1 v
the Soviet Union and
chance to talk with I
Chistiakov. I must s:
away impressed with
sincerity of his coticer
ditioris at Lake I aikal~l
the daily reports he
the quality of the
and area, and also because of hurricane-
kalsk force winds that are common in the re-
n re- gion, it is very hard to regenerate plant
half. . growth in the surrounding forest area
as in once trees are colt down.
lad a - - Needless of these hazards,
y that I came stripped many acres bare.
the depth and The recent growth of towns
i over the con- and homes in the vicinity
received about nuded the shoreline, and the
ater being dis- consequences have been
charged at the Baikalsktreatment plant, far-reaching. With the trees
but, hard as he tried I to reassure me ? gone, the soil is washed away by rain
fer, the hest he could (10 was insist that fin w of silt into the I lake and also
when the treatment p ant was proper- re likes the ability' of the hind ;arra
ly operational it wool fulfill the pre- to retain the moisture it receives in
scribed norm
Th
i
f
h
l
k
'
i
f
f
i
I
s.
e pt
ty o
t
e
a
e
orm o
s t
ie
ra
n and snow. In 1968,
original water, howee cr, was higher an observer reported that, owing; to
than those norms. timber-cutting, a third of Lake Baikal's
Since the treatment plant has proved basin had lost a significant portion of
so faulty, conservatic lists have been its natural water-regulating capacity,
i For the most part, f hey have fallen thirty streams and springs in the area
back on Uatazy's sugestion of a dce- flooded during the thaw and were dry
the mountains to the-~rkut River. The disruption of the ecological and hydro-
working continues to r'sist this proposal, I utary streams has inevitably affected the
because the forty-t?
would cost the cquiva
lion dollars-an i,
would probably make
tion far too costly. L
a pipeline would alley
of pollution only frc
cause the plant on tl
be too far away to c
o-mile pipeline chemical makeup of the lake itself.
ent of forty mil- There has been a noticeable increase in
cpcnditurc that the quantities of sulphates, chlorides,
the whole opera- magnesium hydroxidf, and nitrates
any event, such its waters. Very little of this is traceable
iate the problem to the Baikalsk plant; most of it arises
c Sclenga would and from certain other forms of man-
innect up to the made assault on the area, so the climi-
same pipe. Accordin4y, most critics nation of factories could not in itself
feel that the openitY of the Sclenga repair the damage.
plant, due any (lay no , should he post- The method of moving the cut
..c
ful that Lake Baikal ould be preserved Large numbers of logs are rafted to-
should be built and he Selenga plant trihutarv rivers and through Lake Bai_
converted to some less noxious use. kal itself. Though this nicthodi is chcap-
est so far as day-to-day costs air colt-
cerned, it is expensive in many r other
ways. For one thing, about ten per cent
of the logs sink, and sunken logs do two
kinds of harm: they cover-up vital fish-
breeding grounds, and they absorb the
lake's oxygen. In 1968, it was esti-
mated that a million and a half cubic
minus of timhur had sunk over the pi, -
cntlinz' dcc-adr and licit tifti sir .tin.
with :r rnnihinrrl length of tivent}-iron
hundred mih?s, 't ere ih< rr11y clitilinatid
as spawning gronuris for fist. In sonar
of the river hot toms, till. logs were pilr'uI
khrcc or four yards; Irii'h. '1.hc p;rpcr
and lumhl.r mills recrntlty agreed to
Stoll rafting their log, aid to ship them
lit? rail irrstc;rd. Bur p:uttt hrcausr such
siiiptiit?nt rnclrrires a considrrahli? in-
creased cash outlay ;urd l?rrily hoc-:ors.
the railroads rave he ?o very slow it)
supplying flatcars, tic logs have cnrr-
tinucd to be shilrpcd by winter, anri havr
continued to daniagr the lake.
l''ot? }'ears, it was thought that land-
slides would be unlik-ly in the region
brcanse of the predoniimuitly cold cii-
matc, \Vitlr thin ills;rpiuearralice of the
true cover, this is no longer the case-
i1 nd, most threatening of all, the cut-
ting of the trees and the intrusion of
heavy machinery into the wooded areas
has unstahilized a large area of sand
dunes southeast of the lake. By 1963,
there were large stretches of shifting or
poorly anchored sand there. Lately, oh-
servers have warned that these shifting
sands are linking up with the Gohi Des-
ert, just over the border in Mongolia,
and there arc fears that the Gohi will'
sweep into Siberia and destroy not only
Lake Baikal but a large portion of the
surrounding forest.
UNFORTUNATELY, no one knows
how to restore virgin nature. The
only hope for Lake Baikal is that Soviet
industry will curb its passion for pro-
duction in time to prevent complete
destruction of the area. To that end,`a
new law regulating the use of Lake
Baikal was passed by the Council of
Ministers of the Soviet Union---the
country's highest administrative body-
in February, 1969. The law provides
for the establishment of a special watcr-
conSet?vatio-i zone of some twenty
thousand square miles, where no timber
ttiay he cut, and again forbids any iun-
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hcring on mountain slopes steeper than ' 1969 law will be III- more so. Will cumulation of w. er in the Bratsk
twenty-five d(?grecs. The law also stip- the Ministry of 'I? nhber, Paper, and reservoir. This would have resulted in
111:1t'c?s that suhwer?l;rd logs are to he rv- ! Woodworking war obediently once a drop in the level of Lakc Baikal-a
a punt ? ready to operate { change whose con:',quenccs cannot be
moved from the rivers and- from Lake the Sclen
g
Baikal, and that logs arc to he brought if proper water tr fitment is not yet fi predicted. Lately, here have been re-
down the mountainsides by cableways; assured? If so, th(' will he showing ports that the Mnistry of Timber,
rather than dragged down by tractors. greater self-restrain than they (lid at Paper, and Woodworking is not go-
Construction of new factories is strictly 13aikalsk. In fact, in August, 1970, ing to confine its 1 'ojects in the basin
regulated, and none are to he established report in Knnrso,nriskaja Pravda indi- to the Sclcnga an( Baikalsk factories,
where they might pollute the lake or its cited that abuse o the lake had in- and that at least o is other sMich plant
trihutvics. I' irthcrmore, the purifiea- creased, not decre: sed, since the pas- is apparently in tic advanced blue-
tion plant at Baikalsk was to he rccon- sage of the 1969 la% '. print stage. Similar y, the government
strurted hcfor'c the end of the year. Nor can it be . sumcd that worse chemical ministries rave let it be known
The Sclenga factory was ordered not 'will not follow. T hough Lake Baikal that the Soviet eco only would benefit
to start production of cartons until its is no longer untau ed, it dots remain greatly if chemical plants could be Cs-
purification equipment was ready, and much purer than a ything else around. tablished on the la ? ?'s shores and could
(hthrr indusu'irs in tic lake's basin were It is only natur: 1, therefore, that use the lake's watt s. In 1968, Galaxy
!similarly restricted. The questions ri various proposals or its exploitation warned that Lake laikal's unique cco- i
main whether this i cw law was passed continue to he a(~ anted by Russian logical system migi 11e destroyed with-
soon enough and . hcthcr? it is strong industrial plane rs. For example, in the next dcc:~ Ic. The industrial
enough. Ater all, the 1960 law ad- one proposal-for unatcly not acted managers may fu ill his prophecy. In
dressed to many (1f the same issues upon-was that th -, outflow of water the case of Lake 1~ tikal, at least, there
proved to the inrftt ctive, and there is from Lake Baikal be artificially in- seems little to ch(p )se between private
red
MAR'HALLI. GOLDMAN
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WORLD POLITICS
July 1971
THE SOCIAL COSTS OF MODERNIZATION:
Ecological Problems in the USSR
By DAVID E. POWVELL
Let us not be too proud of our victories over nature. For every such vic-
tory nature takes revenge on us. True, each of these victories, the first
time, has the consequences we calculate, but the second and third times,
the consequences are altogether different and unforeseen and very often
destroy the significance of the first ones.
-Friedrich Engels'
V IRTUALLY all of the existing literature on modernization is
concerned with the virtues of modernity. It focuses on the gains
to be derived from modernization-industrialization, material progress,
social welfare, political rationality, etc. But experience suggests that
gains' are usually achieved at some cost: the drive toward modernity
seems invariably to produce new social and personal problems. In the
USSR-perhaps the world's most developed underdeveloped country-
the modernization process has been accomTa-nied by massive social
costs. .
To be sure, the Soviet regime has been responsible for a number of
significant achievements, and has fashioned a central authority capable
of mobilizing the nation's resources toward social, political, economic,
and scientific-technical change as effective as that of any country. But
Soviet modernization has been achieved at a heavy cost. Traditional
patterns of family life, religion, personal freedom, and community or-
ganization have been disrupted. The USSR is presently faced with a
growing drinking problem, crime and juvenile delinquency, the be-
ginnings of a drug' problem, and alienation and emotional tension
among substantial numbers of citizens. These difficulties have accom-
panied the Soviet Union's rapid social and economic change.
In an assessment of the Soviet experience, then, achievements must be
weighed against failures, and gains must be balanced against perceptible
costs. Perhaps this cost/benefit dualism can be seen most clearly in the
realm of ecology: the ambitious Soviet effort to transform the environ-
ment, despite (or rather because of) its many successes, has at the same
time resulted in much harm. Recent years have witnessed growing evi.
dence of pollution and misuse of the land throughout the Communist
world. States as different' as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, and the
3 The Dialectics of Nature, as cited in Literaturnaya gazeta, December so, 2967.
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USSR have shown signs of profound ecological damage.' The Soviet
Union seems to have "progressed" furthest in this direction: Soviet
sources admit to the full range of symptoms, from littering, an excess
of pesticides, and despoliation of the land to noise, air, and water pol.
lution of sometimes immense magnitudes.`
Soviet industrialization, no less than American industrialization, has
given rise to vast damage to the environment. I will spell out below
how the Soviets perceive this problem and what they are doing and in-
tend to do about it. As we shall see, the USSR confronts many of the
same problems as the United States does, and for many of the same
reasons. A strong urge toward industrial production, a weak and di-
vided anti-pollution lobby, and official ignorance of, or indifference
toward, damage to the environment all these facts are clearry visible
both in the USSR and the United States. Industrial development has,
by and large, taken priority over the care of nature; environmentalists
are not heard until the damage has been done. Only now is the Soviet
government beginning to heed the warnings uttered as long ago as
the 1950'x. And, though it is too late to save certain communities and
The official response to the growing menace of pollution has been
piecemeal and unsystematic. Local government agencies have experi-
mented with a number of approaches, but, until recently, the central
authorities have simply avoided the problem. In the past two years,
however, the Party has begun to mobilize its resources for a broad-scale
attack on pollution and polluters. The official policy of focusing atten-
tion on one area, which for many years had allowed the Party to re-
main indifferent to ecological damage, may now be working to the
benefit of the environment. New principles of land legislation (1968),
public health (1969), and water legislation (19io) suggest a concern
and resolve that had long been absent.' Whether these measures are
enforced, whether these general principles are transformed into public
policy, remains to be seen.
2 See Lidova Demoeracie, July 26, 1970; Zycie Warszau y, October 8, 1970; Scientia,
March 19 and July 16, 1970. literaturnaya
s Pravda, July 27, August 17 and November 21, 1967, February II, I970;
gazeta, March 15, 1966 and August 9, 1967; Sovetska3?a Rossia, April z2, 1970, in Cur-
rent Digest of the Soviet Prers [hereafter cited as CDSP], x u, No. 48 (December 1970),
8; Nauchno-tekhnicheskyye obshchestva SSSR [hereafter cited as .'P'TO], No. 2 (1968),
in Joint Publications Research Service [hereafter cited as JPRS], No. 45,666, 14; Oktyabr,
No. Io (1966), in CDSP, xv111, No. 48 (December 1966), 16.
'Pravda and Izvestia, December 14, 1968; Pravda and Izvestia, December 20, 1969;
Izvestia, April 28, 1970.
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Air and water pollution in the USSR represent formidable prob-
lems. Soviet industry, geared for rapid economic growth, has, over the
course of half a century, dumped untold millions of tons of sewage into
the nation's waters and millions of tons of particles of dirt into the air.
Until very recently, the authorities have paid little heed to the environ-
mental costs incurred. Pollution of Soviet waters has now assumed
crisis proportions, and air pollution, too, represents a considerable threat
to the well-being of citizens. Although the problem of clean air is not
nearly so manifest as the problem of clean water, it is much more than
a minor nuisance, and there is every reason to expect the situation to
deteriorate further. At present, concerned citizens and officials are de-
voting their primary attention to the nation's rivers, lakes, and streams.
Nonetheless, aware that the problem of dirty air-has assumed the pro-
portions of a national disaster in other countries, and aware that the
USSR is entering the automobile era, central and local authorities are
devoting increasing attention to air pollution. They are determined to
deal with the situation before it gets out of hand.
Pollution in some regions of the USSR has reached formidable levels.
er, and salts are
discharged each year into Soviet rivers. Only a small part of the more
than seventy million cubic meters of waste water that flow into them
annually has been decontaminated.' As a result, hundreds of major riv-
ers are polluted, and thousands of lesser rivers and streams have suf-
fered the same fate.' Industrial enterprises, power plants, mines, agri-
cultural fields all contribute to the problem. In addition, many forests
have been "timbered out"; the resulting soil erosion damages the land
and adds to the dirt flowing into bodies of water.
Pollution is noticeable even to the casual tourist. Visitors to Moscow
and other large urban centers can see smog and haze in the air, as well
as filth in local rivers. Only a decade ago these were not present. In.
some parts of the country, pollutants in the atmosphere have reached
appalling concentrations. Scientific studies indicate that in many major
industrial cities the concentration of harmful substances in the air
5 Perhaps one-tenth of this effluent undergoes biochemical purification (thus remov-
ing 80-95 per cent of the impurities). Another third of the waste water is subjected
to less thorough purification, removing perhaps 40 per cent of the impurities, and the
remaining waste water empties into other bodies of water without undergoing any
decontamination whatsoever. NTO (fn. 3).
0 L teraturnaya gazeta, May 14, 1969; Pravda, June 21, 1965 and December 15, 1969;
Izvestia, July 9, 1968; Sovetskaya Rossia, November 14, 1968, in JPRS No. 4705, 39-40,
48-
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greatly exceeds the norm set for people's health. The city of Mayevka,
for example, the site of a steel mill, has been described as "literally
covered with soot." In Siberia, "a dense cloud of smoke and dust con-
stantly hangs over" the city of Irkutsk.' And, as the Soviet automobile
and truck population increases, the problem is getting worse. In 1966,
a Pravda editorial observed that "the poisonous haze of exhaust gases
over cities is becoming thicker and thicker," and a year later the same
newspaper charged that exhaust gases from automobiles "thoroughly
pollute the atmosphere of our cities."' As the date approaches when
Togliatti's Fiat plant begins adding dramatically to the number of cars
in the Soviet Union, the problem can only get worse. And, as Soviet
industry continues its rapid rate of economic growth, industrial enter-
prises add more and more dirt to the air. Air pollution thus threatens
to become as significant a problem as water pollution.
Pollution in the USSR, like pollution elsewhere, involves two major
costs:. (r) to the health of citizens, and (2) to the national economy.
Human physiology knows no ideological-boundaries; excessive concen-
trations of certain gases and solids suspended in the air or dissolved in
water can do serious damage to people's well-being anywhere. Soviet
-TFFtcit countcrparts in the West do. But
although the Soviet authorities are familiar with the implications of
pollution for public health, they seem far more concerned with its eco-
nomic consequences. Following Soviet practice, we will focus our at
tention on these.
Pollution caused by an individual enterprise is likely to raise the
costs of production of other factories located downwind or downstream
from the guilty enterprise. As the air becomes filled with soot, for ex-
ample, the use of electric power for artificial lighting increases. Thus,
in the city of Leningrad, a sharp rise in power consumption has been
attributed chiefly to dirty air. Moreover, ash carried through the air -ac-
celerates wear and tear on the friction parts of machinery with which
it comes into contact. Sulphuric and sulphurous anhydrides, coming
into contact with moisture in the air, help to corrode metal.'
-Though pollution inflicts harm on virtually all sectors of the econ-
omy, its economic costs are seen most vividly in the fishing industry.
Spokesmen for the fishing industry, scientists, and environmentalists
have published numerous articles describing the damage done to spawn-
ing grounds or to adult fish by effluents from chemical enterprises, oil
I1zvestia, September 17, 1g68; Pravda, April 8, 1966.
8 Pravda, December it, r966 and November 16, 1967.
'1zvestiai August it, 1966.
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refineries, pulp and paper mills, sugar refineries, and other polluters.
Sulfates, chlorides, and suspended particles oxidize, thus using up oxy-
gen from river water without which fish cannot live. Hundreds of riv-
ers and other bodies of water that used to contain large fish have com-
pletely lost their importance for the fishing industry. In the USSR as
a whole, the fishing industry is said to lose between 12o and 300 million
rubles a year because of river pollution."
Although industrial wastes exact their toll on fish gradually, there
have also been instances of mass destruction of fish due to the sudden
emission of large quantities of effluent. In July, 1965, one such incident
occurred near Volgograd; millions of fish were poisoned by the dis-
charge of unpurified waste water by the Kirov Chemical Plant in Volgo-
grad. Losses were estimated at ten to twenty million rubles. The year
before, the Iset River caught fire near Sverdlovsk. Many of the city's
enterprises had been dumping their sewage, filled with fats and oil
by-products, into the river. The concentration of combustible materials
in the river grew so dense that a lighted cigarette thrown into the water
one day was enough to ignite it. Countless numbers of fish perished. ence .1 u
1116 111 ljaLIT- id
mented, "the Iset lies dead for hundreds of kilometers below Sverd-
lovsk, turning into a collection of sewage.""
Pollution of fishing waters has reached such vast proportions that
a procedure was adopted in 1969 whereby the Chief Administration for
Fish Breeding and Protection of Fish must agree to sites where enter-
prises arc to be constructed near commercial fishing waters. Proof that
there will be adequate devices for decontamination must be submitted
to the fish-protection agencies for their approval before the site-selection
process can be completed."
CAUSES OF POLLUTION
Numerous factors are involved in any explanation of why pollution
has reached such an alarming level. The explanation involves political,
economic, and scientific components. As we shall see, the most impor-
tant factor contributing to pollution is the ignorance, indifference, or.
outright hostility that Soviet officials traditionally have manifested to-
ward efforts to curb pollution.
Some pollution is an inevitable correlative of industrial civilization.
10 L'teraturnaya gazeta, May 14, 1969; NTO (fn. 3). See also Pravda, in JPRS No.
36,384, 69.
lllzvestia, December 17, 1965; Pravda, April 2, 1966; Oktyabr (fn. 3), 15.
is Pravda, July 28, 1969.
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Production involves the creation of by-products and waste; even the
best-intentioned technological society has yet to devise means capable
of preventing waste entirely. As industry develops, it produces a greater
volume and variety of substances, and methods for extracting these new
substances from waste water or the atmosphere are either unknown or
difficult to carry out. Though some substances can be extracted from
waste, others invariably remain. For the foreseeable future, then, some
part` of industrial or agricultural waste will inevitably be carried into
the sea or the atmosphere.
Although some pollution is inescapable, certain aspects of the prob-
lem in the USSR aie attributable to the operation of the Soviet system.
We can identify four causal-factors.
(1) Technological backwardness. Anti-pollution technology is rather
backward in the USSR. Methods for utilizing waste products and puri-
fying effluents have not been studied very carefully, in part because few
people have been encouraged to study these processes. Higher educa-
tional institutions have not expressed interest in stimulating such study,
and those who are already in the field are treated badly and have little
pecia ize institutes- that train
en ve to coma pollution. The specialized--
students for work in the petroleum industry, for example, do not pre-
pare specialists for the water-supply and water-disposal shops of oil
refineries or chemical enterprises. There simply is no opportunity avail-
able for those who would specialize in water purification. Indeed, even
basic courses in conservation or ecology are rarely offered, and when
they are, they are available only to certain students. As long ago as 1947,
Moscow University introduced a course in conservation, and similar
courses were soon set up at other institutions of higher learning. How-
ever, none of the courses is open to all students-not even to all students
in technical fields. The course at Moscow University is offered only to
ztoologists and biogeographers; Rostov University's course is open only
to botanists; and only geographers may register for the course at Perm
University."
The level of scientific work done in universities, specialized institutes,
and technical schools is also rather low. Little time is spent devising
instruments and techniques for purifying wastes. According to a 1965
decree of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, "The designs of installations for
purifying industrial wastes are often based on methods that have not
been tested even in laboratory conditions, let alone in production con-
ditions; this lowers the effectiveness of the funds expended. Research
and higher educational institutions are doing an extremely poor job of
11 K:omsomolskaya pravda, May 25, 1.967 and January 6, 2968.
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working out and introducing progressive methods of purifying sewage
water and the wastes released into the atmosphere and of rationally
using and reproducing natural resources."" Most of the installations
that are designed and put to use are inefficient; moreover, they are not
given proper care and often break down. Inferior designs, poor work-
manship, delays in building, and excessively low capacities all contribute
to the problem. Pollution equipment is not large enough to handle the
job in most enterprises, and much of the equipment is poorly managed.
Repairs are carried out infrequently, and by ill-trained technicians.15
The same problem inhibits efforts to curb air pollution. Existing
gas-purification machinery often fails to function, and the process of
replacing equipment with new, improved designs is slow. Many de-
vices are too small for the task assigned to them; others suffer from
inadequate maintenance and repair. Unproved systems of gas removal
and pollution control are employed, and as a result they frequently
break down or operate inefficiently. Little attention is paid to the de-
sign and construction of new installations, and existing ones deteriorate
rapidly le
J2) The low status of anti-pollution work. If few students are pro-
vided with an inte ectua apps
in school, fewer still develop an incentive to deal with such matters
once they are at work. Water-disposal shops and personnel are con-
sidered auxiliary. Salary levels are lower than in other sections of plants,
the opportunities to earn bonuses are fewer, and, even in the matter
of retirement pensions, employees of water-disposal or -purification
shops are subjected to discrimination. As a result, few choose a career
in anti-pollution work, and the rate of turnover in this sphere of in-
dustry is very high. For example, large numbers of anti-pollution spe-
cialists at the Baikalsk Pulp Plant near Lake Baikal give up their jobs
every year and move to Bratsk, where they receive higher wages at the
lumber industry complex.i9 In view of the inadequate training available
and the low level of financial incentives, it is understandable that anti
pollution technology has stagnated and that not many have chosen this
line of work. The system provides few incentives to potential environ-.
mentalists.
14 Vcdomosti verkhovnogo soveta RSFSR, No. 44 (370), November 4, 1965, in CDSP,
turf, No. 46 (December 1965), 3.
''- Pravda, June 21 and November 12, 1965; l:restia, September 3, 1968.
'e Pravda, March 24, 1969; Ekonomicheskaya gazela, No. 28 (1966), in JPRS No.
37,534, 16-
17 During the summer of 7967, for example, more than loo persons (out of a total of
230-240) left their jobs at the Baikalsk purification installation. Literaturnaya gascta,
October 11, 1967.
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(3) Appropriations and incentives. A third major factor influencing
pollution hinges on the question of money. Two components are in-
volved here: (a) the authorization for and actual levels of expenditure,
and (b) the incentive system, which stimulates a drive toward produc-
tion. rather than toward conservation of the environment. We will deal
with each of these in turn.
State agencies invariably allocate insufficient funds to industrial en-
terprises for anti-pollution purposes. In addition, plant managers often
choose not to spend all the funds allocated to them, diverting resources
to production shops instead. Economic units strive to achieve high pro-
duction indices per ruble of capital invested; they often succeed by
delaying construction work on purification installations. Thus, during
the period ig6o-1964, more than 25 per cent of the funds allocated for
-the construction of purification installations in all industries was not
put to use. The directors of individual plants have their own priorities,
and they prefer not to invest "their" funds in ways they regard as non-
productive."
Production and profit, not social purposes or care of the environment,
motivate both the central authorities and the managers of industrial
__p1 is ~T'hey ire rewar kd fueconomic output, not for maintaining,
purifying, or enhancing the beauty of the environment. "Produce the
plant product-that is the main thing," managers are said to reason.
"The purification installations can wait."" Plants are permitted to begin
operation before work is completed on their purification facilities-
sometimes even before it is begun. The sluggishness with which com-
missions of experts (who must pass on purification installations) work
is striking in comparison with the drive to begin production operations.
According to B. Voltovskii, Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of
Ministers' State Committee on Conservation, "It has become a common
bad practice to plan the construction of decontamination installations
as a second or even a third stage, after the main shops have already
worked full blast for years." Moreover, he goes on, "In the construction
of new industrial units; serious attention has been directed to only one
aspect, the purely production aspect. Almost no calculation was made,
for example, of the losses we would suffer if the industry discharged
every year so much poisonous wastes into the air, or dumped so much
water polluted with harmful substances,. the effect it will have on the
18 Pravda, February 28, x965, December 23, 1966, June 26, 1967, and December g,
1968; Vedomosti verJhovnogo soveta RSFSR (fn. 14), 3; lzvestia, April 15, 1969.
1a Ekonomicheskaya gazeta (fn. 16), i6.
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health and longevity of the people, how much it will decrease the
available amounts of drinking water, irrigation water, etc.""
There appears to be widespread indifference--even outright hostility
-to the arguments of conservationists. An article in Izvestia several
years ago told of the director of an enterprise who began "to fuss about
to have himself relieved of all these unnecessary headaches, the instal-
lation of all kinds of filters and sediment traps."" Officials, mindful of
their production assignments, devote little attention to anti-pollution
measures because of their involvement in production; they consider the
protection of nature minor in comparison with their "more urgent"
production tasks. One critic of this order of priorities has complained:
"If ... an enterprise does not fulfill its production plan, its executives
have to make a strict accounting to the party organization, the trust
and the ministry. But when this same enterprise pollutes the air and
releases dirty water into a river, poisoning all the life in it, it is hardly
likely that anyone will demand an accounting from the guilty parties.""
Other commentators are equally indignant. One has recalled the exam-
ple of an official who, in a discussion of Russia's polluted rivers, de-
clared that "first we have to build communism and only afterward
raise 66-J" But rn tests ngainct such attitudes have been to little avail-
Official public policy is that increased output of goods compensates for
damage to the environment. "Victors are not judged," as the saying
goes. When the time comes to receive a bonus, no one reminds the
managers of a plant about the pollution they have caused "
(4) Organizational weakness of anti-pollution forces. No single in-
dividual or organization has been assigned overall responsibility for
dealing with pollution and polluters. The two agencies with the great-
est influence here, the USSR Ministry of Public Health's Sanitary Pro-
tection Service and the USSR Council of Ministers' Chief Administra-
tion for the Hydrometeorological Service, have neither the power nor
the will to combat pollution effectively. Their responsibility is "the pro-
tection of the natural environment against pollution by sewage, harm-
ful discharges into the atmosphere, and toxic: chemicals,""' but they
20 Pravda Ukrainy, August 29, 1967.
21 Izvestia, April 25, 1965.
22 Pravda Ukrainy, September 10, 1967.
23 Literaturnaya gazeta, February 23, 1965; lzvestia, November 14, 1968; Pravda, June
26, 1967.. A 1965 conference of conservationists and fishing indusrry representatives
adopted a resolution requesting the Ministry of the Fishing Industry "to prohibit the
awarding of bonuses to officials of enterprises that have failed to take steps to eliminate
and prevent the pollution of fishing waters." Literaturnaya gazeta, March 1, 1966.
24 Ekonomika selskogo khozyaistva, No. 2 (1970), in CDSP, lull, No. sg (June 1970),
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share this responsibility with a dozen other state, Party, and public
bodies. The problem is not simply one of variety; there are overlapping
jurisdictions and rivalries, with no single agency competent to coordi-
nate the efforts of all. "With such a large number of 'masters,"' two
scientists have noted, "it is rather difficult to speak of the integrated
utilization of water resources. Various kinds of lack of coordination
are frequently encountacd..
A third agency, the All-Union Gas Purification and Dust Removal
Association, attached to the Ministry of the Petroleum-Refining and
Petrochemical Industry, is the major source of research and design work
in the field of air pollution. But its powers are limited. The Association
has always been attached to a single ministry, and thus it lacks a broad
perspective. Many industries cause air pollution, but the Association is
concerned only with "its own" problems; it refuses to assist in solving
pollution problems in other branches of the economy. The Association
has been described as "a second-class appendage of a branch ministry,"
which cannot and will not adopt a national perspective. Its resources
are modest, and its point of view is restricted. Indeed, the Association
has only one plant, which cannot possibly fulfill industry's needs for
as- urification eguipenr "a
The fact that there is no single center to coordinate research and
development efforts in the area of air pollution involves considerable
costs. Construction and testing of experimental installations proceed at
a lethargic pace, and previously approved methods for trapping harm-
ful fumes and dust are introduced even more slowly. As a result, "primi-
tivism, amateurishness, and the crudest design errors" occur, and the
pace of scientific progress is extremely slow."' Moreover, because of
the confusing and uncoordinated bureaucratic picture, managers of in-
dividual plants tend to see matters from a limited point of view, and
individual plants and ministries continue to pour pollutants into Soviet
rivers and lakes.
WHAT Is To BE DONE
Given the nature and magnitude of the problem, what remedies are
available to those who wish to combat pollution? Some see the problem
as purely technical; their response is to call for more and better purifica-
tion installations, the design of electric vehicles, etc. Others see it as an
expression of the wrong attitudes; they suggest a propaganda campaign
"5 Izvertia, January 20, 1968.
"Pravda, March 24, 1969. See also Izvertia, December 29, 1968.
27 Literaturnaya gazeta, August 9, 1967. See also Pravda, February 12, 1969.
CPYRGHT
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to persuade citizens of the merits of conservation and the evils of pol-
lution. One of the traditional approaches has involved the establish-
ment of "health-protection belts" between factories and residential
areas, which protect urban residents from the harmful effects of indus-
trial wastes." The major thrust of the official response to pollution, how-
ever, involves two elements: (a) the use of legal sanctions, and (b) the
use of financial incentives. Both approaches seek to persuade polluters
and potential polluters that marring the environment is bad business.
The most widespread response has been to reprimand and/or to fine
polluters. In addition to serving to punish the guilty, this approach is
designed to deter others from further pollution. Until very recently,
however, the maximum fine was set so low that the system failed to
exert any influence whatsoever on the industrial community. Errant
managers usually escaped with a reprimand and/or a nominal fine."'
With such lax controls, industrial executives simply ignore the in-
structions of sanitation inspectors. Instead, they follow the lead of local
Party and Soviet officials, who are more concerned about industrial
output than they are about the purity of the air and water. In the words
of an Izvestia editorial, "The harm wrought by all this [polluting of
riversl is_enormouC hut tbincal Snviers and the vrarioug inrr nr e
teams vested with considerable powers in the struggle against the de-
stroyers of nature display timidity and excessive delicacy `in the show-
downs.' Indulgence and protection from consequences cover up the
affliction."" The system of fines has not acted as a brake on pollution.
Many enterprises pay millions of rubles in pollution fines but continue
to pour filth into the nation's waters and air. In fact, the system of fines
is said to have been turned into an insidious device. The funds are
turned over to the local Soviets, which use the money to pave streets,
build clubhouses, and lay water mains. "This becomes a peculiar kind
of redistribution of state funds," it turns out. "The local Soviets begin
to regard pollution indulgently, if not favorably."" To provide local
government authorities with a vested interest in pollution is a very in-
adequate way of protecting the environment.
In the past few years-interestingly enough, since the fall of Nikita
Khrushchev-the Soviets have resorted to a much stronger weapon,
2" Pravda, June 21, 1965; Pravda Ukrainy, August 29, 5967; Vedomoni verkhovnogo
soveta RSFSR (fn. 14), 4; Oktyabr (fn. 3), 16.
29 See, e.g., Ziteraturnaya gazela, July 52, 1962 and I?ecember 2o, 1967; Pravda, June
26, 5967..
30lzvcstia, November 14, 1968.
91 Komsomolskaya Pravda, April 27, 196o.
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i.e., criminal law. After the mass destruction of fish near Volgograd in
July, 1965, was traced to poisoning by unpurified waste water discharged
by the Kirov Chemical Plant in Volgograd, the legal authorities moved
against the plant's director, chief engineer, assistant chief engineer, shop
chiefs, and chief of the plant's purification installations. All were
charged with "an attitude of criminal negligence toward the perform- _
ance of their duties, leading to the pollution of the river with waste
water." Similar episodes elsewhere have brought criminal punishment,
and it appears that resort to criminal sanctions will be one of the prin-
cipal. weapons in the Brezhnev-Kosygin struggle against pollution."
The new Principles of Public Health and Draft Principles of Water
Legislation prohibit the putting into operation of industrial facilities
unless they are provided with anti-pollution devices." Moreover, most
of the union republics have adopted conservation laws. Typically, they
prohibit "any action leading to the pollution of water resources or the
air," or industrial activity that "adversely affects the health and sani-
tary conditions of the population's everyday life." Penalties include the
closing down of enterprises whose pollution endangers people's health,
and deprivation of freedom for up to three years for the guilty officials.
-gdVM- imenL'SpOsi oi-n vas ur iF strcng iene in the spring o
r97o, when the new Article 223 was added to the RSFSR Criminal
Code. According to this law, pollution of bodies of water or the air
that is harmful to human beings is punishable by corrective labor for
up to one year or by a fine of up to 30o rubles. Pollution that causes
"substantial harm" to the health of human beings or agricultural pro-
duction, or that results in the mass destruction of fish, is punishable
by deprivation of freedom for a period of up to five years." Though it
is too early to say, what effect these new laws will have, experience with
conservation legislation in general suggests cause for considerable skep-
ticism. Managers may continue to ignore the law's clear mandate un-
less prosecution officials take the offensive. Experience indicates that
fines are likely to be fairly light, and the possibility of criminal punish-
ment or the closing down of an enterprise is remote.
Because of this, some Soviet commentators have begun to argue that
only by appealing to the economic self-interest of plant managers can
82 izvestia, December 17, 1965 and January 22, 1967; Pravda, June 20, 1968; Sovetskaya
Rossia, February 15, 1970, in CDSP, xxii, No. 17 (May 1970), 20.
88 See fn. 4.
21Izvestia, April 1, 1959; Meditsinskaya gazcta, November tr, 1969, in CDSP, xxi,
No. 48 (December 1969), 14; Vedomosti verkhovnogo sovcta RSFSR, No. zx (6o8),
May 28, 1 o,-in JPRS No. 50,956, 76.
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CPYRGHT
the battle be won. This approach has been pursued along two lines: (a)
demanding a charge for the use of water, and (b) persuading managers
to extract valuable by-products from wastes emitted by their plants;
In Soviet industry, water is a free good: enterprises use it free of
charge. No one has a material interest in economizing on its use, and,
as a consequence, industrial plants make no effort to reduce the volume
cf water they pollute. If, however, they were charged for polluting it,
they would have an incentive to purify and re-use it. At present, there
is no reason-except the moral one, which is not enough-to be con-
cerned about purification. Although the technical means for saving
water exist, the incentive system does not stimulate water conservation.
It has been suggested, therefore, that economic responsibility for dirty-
in; water be borne by the guilty enterprise. In Czechoslovakia, a plant
roust deduct assets from its own budget for each cubic meter of water-
it contaminates. Managers quickly learn ,that when the overall sum of
these deductions is large enough, it will be more profitable to construct
purification installations than to pay these sums.86 The system involves
a kind of tax or fine-but one that, at least in Czechoslovakia, promotes
environmentalism. Although the suggestion promises much, it has yet
"n the
The second approach has been tested, though not on a very broad
scale. The logic is simple. Industrial sewage contains valuable sub-
stances whose discharge into water sources represents a considerable
economic loss. Petroleum refineries typically lose up to 3 per cent of
their total output in this way; artificial fiber plants lose up to 4 per cent
of certain products, and cellulose-paper combines lose up to 8 per cent
of wood fiber. Great quantities of acids, alkalis, dyes, and oils are lost,
even though these substances can be easily separated from the waste
wat:rs. Phenols, too, which even in miniscule concentrations give water
a medicinal taste, can easily be extracted from sewage. Furfuraldehyde
and methyl alcohol (which serve as the raw material for the production
of plastic) can also be obtained from sewage water, and waste liquid
from soda plants can be converted into fertilizer. Efforts to save some
of these valuable substances have proven successful. In Irkutsk, for ex-
amp'.e, organic substances are extracted from the sewage of a number
of pants and are used to obtain fodder yeast. A cable plant in Perm,
which for a long time dumped etching solutions into the Kama River,
built a simple recovery installation and now produces copper foil from
the former wastes. Oil, too, can be saved. Special oil traps for multi-
8511teraturnaya gazeta, July 12, 1967; Tzvestia, September 24, 1966, January 20, May
.
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CPYRGHT
staged sewage purification have decreased the oil content in sewage
waters at certain plants by up to 8o per cent and organic pollution by
up to 95 per cent.,"
But although there are successes, there still is much room for im-
provement. Despite the fact that the USSR organized a broad campaign
during the mid-sixties to save ferrous metals, tremendous amounts of
these substances were simply washed away with waste water. Cadmi-
um, for example, was simply dumped into the water, although by add-
ing a small amount of alkali to the sewage waters, the cadmium could
be made to settle and could then be recovered. Soviet enterprises sustain
an annual loss of dozens of tons of lead, copper, nickel, chromium,
cobalt, zinc, and other metals in sewage waters, although modern tech-
nology is capable of extracting these metals from waste water with the
help of ion-exchange resins. This loss of metals has led at least one
water-conservation authority to call for the elimination of the so-called
"discard norms," maximum possible amounts of matter in waste water,
for substances that can be completely extracted from sewage."" The idea
is still new, and the outlook for adopting such a measure is far from
Central and local authorities have recently adopted a more vigorous
stance with respect to two of the most significant sources of pollution,
the lumber industry and the automobile. Activity here would seem to
indicate that Brezhnev and Kosygin are serious about preserving or
restoring the natural environment.
The lumber industry's practice of sending "log floats" downstream
to pulp mills for processing results in considerable river pollution.
Whole logs, bark, sawdust, shavings, and other wood scrap sink to the
bottoms of rivers. An Izvestia correspondent, investigating the result
of log-floating on the Volga, described the picture as "an ugly one."
"Sunken trunks stuck out of the water like artillery for many kilome-
ters along the shore. You sec shapeless giant heaps of logs. Waves wash
off logs, and chips ... float with the current...."" The bottoms of
many rivers "are lined with a thick layer of logs." Perhaps five to ten
per cent of floated timber goes to the bottom. These "drowned logs,"
as they are called, consume the oxygen dissolved in the water and form
an anaerobic, or dead, zone. Deposits of wood and rotten bark remain
on the river bottoms, and food sources for fish are damaged or ruined.
As the wood scraps dissolve in the water, they absorb the oxygen the
86 NTO (fn. 3), 13; Izvcstia, September 24, 1966; Komsomolskaya Pravda, April 27,
1960; Pravda, November r2, 1965.
87Izvestia, September 24, xp66. 181avestia, July 27, x968.
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fish need, and give off acids, phenol, and other poisonous substances.
As a result, some rivers have lost their value as spawning grounds and
are no longer useful to the fishing industry.''
The authorities have begun to remedy this situation. In some areas,
government agencies have prohibited the loose floating of logs down
rivers used for fishing. The lumber industry in these areas now must
ask permission every time it wishes to float logs. The Draft Principles
of Water Legislation have added further controls, banning the loose
floating of timber on navigable waterways and certain other bodies
of water.'?
To minimize the harm done by motor vehicles, the Soviets have
adopted a number of tactics, the most important of which is to limit
the number of privately owned vehicles. Other steps have been taken as
well. Moscow claims to be the only capital in the world in which the
use of ethylated gasoline is banned. (Ethylated gasoline pollutes the
air with lead compounds, which are among the most highly dangerous
products of exhaust.) Moreover, Soviet scientists have begun to develop
and produce neutralizers that render exhaust virtually harmless. An
automobile engine that emits virtually no pollutive exhaust gases (spe-
ci l chambers nt Tf1P ~P]/1 n~ h 71'n~er ~I xzrux~t. vvixx
bustion of the gasoline) has passed state tests and is currently being
tested on vehicles in Central Asia."
More imaginative steps have been taken in several cities in the
Ukraine and elsewhere. Municipal authorities in Kharkov, for example,
have switched to electrically powered vehicles for public transportation.
The city's central districts are served by trolley-buses, and the outlying
districts are served by streetcars. Kiev, Riga, and a number of smaller
cities are planting greenery, which absorbs carbon dioxide while giv-
ing out oxygen, By replacing noxious fumes with oxygen, they help
to combat air pollution.'2 This is a promising approach to the problem.
that probably will be emulated by other Soviet cities.
CONCLUSION
Where man lives and works, it would seem, filth appears. Man every-
where threatens to upset natural ecological balances. No state, regard-
less of its social, political, or economic system, has been able to escape
38 Literaturnaya gazcta, tiovcmber 15, 1967; Sovetskaya Rossia, February 15, 1970-
40 Pravda, August 31, 1969; Literaturnaya gazeta, March x, 1966; Izvestia, April 28,
1970.
41 Nedelya, No. 9 (February 23-March 1, 1970); Izvestua, February 15, 1967 and
May 1, 1970-
42 Literaturnaya gazeta, August 9, 1967.
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the consequences of man's callous treatment of the environment. We
might have expected the Soviet Union to be preeminently suited to
preserve and enhance nature's gifts. It is less advanced than the West
and thus can profit from our mistakes. The Soviet political elite claims
to be guided by the lofty ideals of socialist humanism. The Communist
Parry, the "leading core" of all organizations, is capable of enforcing
its will on any problem facing the country. The State owns the land
and the means of production. The regime is committed to a rational
course of modernization. In view of these facts, we might have ex-
pected the USSR to be safe from the depredations of "robber-baron"
industrialists and other despoilers of nature. We might also have ex-
pected the Party to create an environment of genuine beauty, which
-would serve man's aesthetic, social, and economic needs.
However, as the Soviet experience shows, centralized decision-mak-
ing and the capacity to mobilize the energies of the entire nation have
not always led to socially desirable ends. Socialist industrialists, no less
than their capitalist counterparts, have shown themselves capable of
despoliation on a massive scale. Indeed, centrally determined priorities,
1 ante t1P
d11V1.LlLLViLJ, L _ ~~,
xauon on pro uction, at the expense of all else. Recent efforts to in-
troduce reforms in the economic system illustrate only one dimension
of the problem of overcentralization. Production for production's sake
has led not only to economic distortions, but to social and ecological
blunders as well.
In the political realm, the absence of autonomous groups in the com-
munity-the very essence of pluralist systems-has meant that over the
years no one "represented" the environmentalists. The political elite,
virtually unanimous in its desire to industrialize rapidly, and insulated
from the masses, effectively denied a hearing to those more concerned
with the beauty of nature. This monopoly of public opinion prevented
others-with a different conception of the public good-from present-
ing their views. The lack of access to decision-makers experienced by
conservationists, when added to the politicians' focus on rapid indus-
trialiization, meant that there was no one to lobby for nature. Only when
the social and economic costs of pollution and misuse of land had as-
sumed menacing proportions did the Party respond.
At present, the Soviet leadership, like its counterparts in the West, is
faced with a pollution problem of considerable proportions. Decades
of indifference to the environment have exacted their toll, and the au-
thorities must now deal with matters that their predecessors simply
ignored. They have given little indication of a desire to meet the prob-
lem head on; until recently, t icy resorted to makeshift measures that
were uncoordinated, superfici 1, and quite inadequate. Recent legisla-
tion in the fields of land use, atcr use, and public health suggest more
concern and better or.ganizati n and may indicate the beginning of'a
broadly based, comprehensiv policy of pollution control.
To cope with the problem, owever, will require the expenditure of
massive sums of money. More important, it will require a fundamental
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re-ordering of priorities, from the almost pathological fixation on pro-
duction to a more balanced ttitude, showing as much concern for
ecology as for production indices. Communism in the USSR and else-
where has been basically orien Led toward transforming, not preserving,
nature. Now this transforma ion must proceed in a more balanced
manner. As a Soviet conservat on official has argued: "Man transforms
nature. 'T'his relationship to ature should always be one of mutual
benefit. That is the main thing. In other words, in using nature, protect
it; in protecting nature, use it -sensibly."" It may well be that the pol-
icy-makers have now turned d eir full attention to ecology, interpreting
their modernizing mission sot ' ewhat more broadly. If this is so, their
monopoly of power should c able them to mobilize the nation's re-
sources effectively and deal w th the problem. If Soviet socialism is to
manifest the profound huma ism its leaders claim for it, steps will
have to be taken very soon, f r the social costs of modernization thus
far have been substantial. Whe her or not the regime takes the necessary
steps remains to be seen.
u
WASHINGTON POST
21 February 1971
CPYRGHT
AN ENGELS VISION BLURRED BY EAST EUROPE'S POLLUTION
By Dart Mor[yrryr.
ELGRADE "The factory town
transforms all water nos stinking
manure," wrote philosopher Friedrich
Engels of the squalid capitalist In-
dustrial centers of his time. He went
on to predict that socialism would put
a stop to the "present poisoning of air,
water and land."
A century later the Communist
countries of Eastern Europe are a long
way from fulfilling Engels' environ-
mental vision. In many places east of
the Elbe, streams are Indeed l eing
turned Into "stinking manure"-by un-
treated sewage and Industrial waste
from state-owned plants. Tons of sul-
phur-laden ashes from coal-burning
power plants and factories desecrate
acres of forest and cloud city skylines.
And the overall visual impact of East-
ern Europe-in contrast with the mani-
cured highways of West Germany or
the decorative villages of provincial
France-is often'one of shabbiness and
neglect.
munist lenders of Eastern Europe for-
mally recognized pollution as a prob-
1cm when they called for the environ-
mi it to be placed on the agenda of an
conference on the environmental
sit ation has been called by the East
Eu opean leaders in Prague for the
sp ng, and some of the shackles have
ben taken off the controlled Commu-
nis press to enable it to expose the
Polland-by far the most advi nced in
aw eness of the proi,lem-the result-
ing attacks on Industrial violators have
bee a described by one factory man-
age singled out as an offender as "sa-
A 13assic Conflict
Treason for this new mandate to r
the press Is clear-an environmen-
tal ?isis that has begun to equal the
one already afflicting the West in
som respects. Moreover, pollution
no poses for the Communist leaders
CPYRGHT
some fundamental choices between
productivity and cost: saving on one
hand, and steadily worsening eopdi.
tions for work and recreation on the
other.
An the Polish Baltic riots showed In
December, Communist populations.%
want never conditions for daily lire.
But pressure to cut production costs
places a powerful check on extensive
controls, and one which Is aggravated
by increasing competition for world
markets and acute shortages of money'
for new technological advances.
The Vistula River, for instance, Is
the picturesque central artery of Po-
land from which a beautiful mermaid
was.' said to have' emerged centuries
ago and chosen the site of Warsaw.
Today Warsaw-otherwise one of the
best designed cities in Eastern Europe
-pumps most of its sewage untreated
into the Vistula, and complete sewage
treatment facilities may not bo ready
for as much as 10 years because of the
tremendous engineering costs of driv-
ing a new pipe system through the un-
derground rubble that lies beneath the
newly built capital..
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Belgrade sunsets take on a bluish
hue from the haze of smoke that rises
from the factories along the Sava
River, ..but Czechoslovakia's northern
Bohemian mining and Industrial re-.
glon may be the East bloc's dirtiest
district. In northern Bohemia, dark=
mess comes at noon. It is brought
on by the mingling fumes, from chemi-
lcal and electric power plants that'
often become so dense that they force
motorists to switch on their headlights -
In broad daylight on a sunny morning,;
as they drive past the moonscapes and
slag heaps of Most' and Usti on the
Elbe.
The region reflects a classic conflict
between state needs and human re-
quirements. Since 1945, Czechoslova-
kia's use of coal for electrical power
has tripled, and the next five years of
Industrial growth calls for_ even
greater power production. Like most
of Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia re-
lies heavily for electrical power on the
burning of soft brown coal, one of the
dirtiest fuels known to man. Northern
Bohemia is rich in It, Because the
Icrumbly dusty substance cannot be
transported easily and must be burned
where It is mined. the area has borne
the brunt of new electrical power In-
stallations.
Grim Statistics
1ESULTS ARE PLAIN to see. The
party newspaper, Rude Pravo, esti-
mates that 30,000 acres have been dam-
aged by chemical wastes in northern
.Bohemia, and that 17,400 tons of ash
fall on the area every year. Evergreen
forests have died out altogether in
some places. '
Workers at local factories have
threatened to move to cleaner parts of
the country, and the central govern-
meat has responded with some conces-
sions to local. Interests, such as a pro-
gram of supplemental cheese and milk
for children to combat hf'alth threats
nosed by polhit.ion, ; ms one-month
fresh air vacations for the school chil-
dren.
In 1969, a new electricity works for.
the area was approved by the Prague
government. Since then, the district
committee has been demanding such
pollution mitigatory as a 600-foot chim-
ney to disperse ash more widely, and
limits on the amount of coal that can
be burned at the new site.
"It would be possible to eliminate
the pollution, but it would double the
cost of electricity," said I)r. Mlrko Ma
tyas of the local governing committee,
and a specialist on the problem. The
main threat to health are the toxic sul-
phur dioxide fumes, although the ash
Is extremely unpleasant. Gases are still
below danger levels, Matyas says.
The problem of sulphur dioxido
fumes Is serious In Eastern Europe be-
cause of the continuing use of soft
coal, whose sulphur content is roughly
twice as high as that of hard coal.
Eliminating It cheaply is a problem
that has defied scientists In some 3,000
Institutes around the world. Czechoslo-
vak and Polish officials speak of in-
stalling a Japanese process for turning
the sulphuric wastes Into ammonium
.'sulphur compounds-in efi'CCt by
-building a second plant next to the
coal-burning Installations, But l?PJ cost
..Is prohibitive.
"It may be that this Is a scientific
problem that will not be solved until
we no longer are burning coni," said a
Prague chemist pes lailstically.
Pollution in Czechnstm?aki.+ today
seem:: curiously iiticd to th, present
r c' ! of politic.-.1. discrs:rrg: mcnt 3O
months after the Soviet invasion. Per-
haps the saddest of all reminders of an
environmental crisis In the making is
the city of Prngue itself, once among
the loveliest capitals in the world.
Today, garbage piles up in back alleys
and on humid or misty evenings, smog
completely obscures the magnificent,
view of Prague Castle across the
Vltava River.
Rivers of Black
TOUT THE CZECHS have no monop-
it) oly on pollution In the Communist
b10l5, NAti1I;04I Vliu( Mist 41ei'mnn41 011t+
door enthusiasts by tradition, have also
begun to take fright at the Industrial
landscapes they see around them.
"There are no fish In the Snale river
near Halle," wrote a reporter for the
weekly Wochenpost recently. "The
water in the river Is black, and smells
likd a chemical experiment. On sum-
mer days, when there Is little wind, a
pall of smog hangs over Bitterfeld,
Ilalle, Schkopau and Leuna, increasing
the heat and making it difficult to
breathe."
East German 'district water boards
are now cracking down with fines for
industrial polluters and with fees for
use of river water, a measure aimed at;
forcing plants to economize on water;
use. A number of plant managers have
been practicing self-criticism In the.
press., Dr. Eberhard Anton of the Buna
chemical works recently described
justified," and added that pollution
could not be checked by "platonic [sic]
declarations."
Esthetic blemishes such as these
pale by comparison with the sheer eco
nomic and health impact of pollution
in certain parts of Eastern Europe.
? Lead and carbon monoxide from
automobile exhausts in Prague is ..
often "above the norm," according to
the Communist Party newspaper Rude
Pravo. (Governments In Eastern Eu-
rope have shown little or no cdncern
for auto safety requirements or ex-
haust emission standards, though Ilun-
gary this year initiated controls on die-
set bus exhausts, which are Infamous
polluters' in Budapest.)
One-third of the rivers In Poland
are so polluted that they cannot be
used either for drinking or agriculture..
Fish kills have occurred near paper.
manufneturing pinata. Out of 14,000 In-'?
dustrial plants in the country, 8,400
send wastes directly into rivers. And
the Warsaw dally Zyclo Warzawy de-
scribes 600 plants as "oppressive" pol.
luters and 300 as."downright danger-
ous."
? The Czechoslovak town of Melnik,
north of Prague, grows the succulent..
grapes for a pleasant white wine drunk
nil over the country. But experimental
mice which were fee] ashes emitted by
the local power plant died In two days.,
(Americans consume almost three
times as much energy per person as
Czechs and Slovaks, according to.
Prague figures, but both countries pro-
duce about the same amount of pollut.
ants per hoed-6,000 pounds a year.)
? Bathers In the select Yugoslav re-
sort town of Dubrovnik were covered
with tar and oil last spring. Increased .
oil tanker traffic in the Adriatic and
uffohnrn ririllintt porn nit rvcr-prrrieut
Ihrrnt that a dinister could sfniodoy
ruin beaches and hurt the Yugoslar.
tourist trade which Belgrade depends;
nn to offset an unfavorable trade ba)
ance with the West.
The East European governments'
are not blind to these phenomena. But
the problems that have become ob- -'
vious now have been long accumulat
Ing in the years of Industrialization,
and obstacles to solving them are to a
li sib aittoiit btailt lilt" the eco.toznic
and political Infrastructure of the
Communist countries.
There seems to be little Immediate
hope for a radical shift away from
I.brown coal as a major fuel, for exam-
ple. Atomic power is only on the dis
fines against his plant as- "absolutely. taut horizon. Except for Yugoslavia
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 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A0002001800aV-SRGHT
and Romania, hydroelectric power Is.,
unavailable. Tho Introduction of natu-
ral gas, from the Soviet Union is mak-
Ing it possible to reduce coal burning,;
in housing projects and private homes,,
but the big Soviet supplies will not.
start flowing West for several years
and then a large portion will be ear-
marked for West.European markets.
Under the auspices of the "Budapest
Clean Air Committee,' the govern-
ment in the Hungarian capital has:
begun to convert the 90 per cent of
city housing heated with coal. But the ;
project Is costly and slow. So far 1,000
buildings, in the downtown core have
been, switched over to gas. or central
hot-water city heating. At the same
time, the 'Hungarian government is
trying to decentralize Industry, half of
which was until recently concentrated
in the capital.
Nevertheless, much of Eastern Eu-
rope appears to be wedded to brown ;
coal for the better part of a decade.
Regional cooperation on eliminating
the causes of pollution has been aur?
prisingly limited, considering the tight-
ly-knit character of the Communist
bloc. Polish officials, for instance, com-
plain that for. years Czechoslovakia has
been polluting the Oder River with,..
salty wastes from coal mining opera-'
tions, a short distance before it flows
Into Poland. The northern Oder is a
river of great historic importance to
Poland, since It forms the country's.
post-World War II western boundary.
But more Important, the river is a
main source of water to industrial Sile?
sia in Poland which; is desperately
short of water resources.
Under an International agreement,
chemical pollutants In it are measured
at' the Polish-Czechoslovak frontier, `i
but Polish officials say drily that the
monitoring does not help, much to.
eliminate the poisons. A leading War
saw official conceded that "it's true'
that centrally planned societies have a-i
better chance to solve these problems'."
than others." But he added that the so.::
lution "demands huge capital invest.
ments which are often beyond our
reach."
No Smoke, No Bread
OR MONTHS NOW, Poland's Pu-
lawy nitrogen fertilizer plant has
been under attack by the Krajobrazy
C1ub, an organization of journalists that
specializes in defending the Polish en
vironment in print. One commentntor
field that a eoutaminnted cloud of am?
monium nitrate aerosol fog reaches 10 gional planning has bc'rn surprisingly
miles or more from the plant and weak. But there are r gns that the
threatens 22,000 acres at?lapd.. Communist governments are moving
The practical answer given by plant ''toward more local enforcement and
'"director Mieczysiaw Kolodziej, a "de_- are putting more teeth in regional
voted camping man,? struck at the core master plans. A new taxation system
of the problem. in Hungary will make industries flay
"Myself, with all my love for nature, local taxes, with a view to malting ilh; ;
.I cannot agree to treat artificial fcrti- more responsive to their commuiiitcs,
Basil to n nightmare of contemporary for instance.
man," he said. "In the Daft y't+Arn we Another case in >oint la Silesia, the
were able to raise grain production former fiefdom o; the new Polish
from 17 to 22 hundredweight per half party leader, Edward CIerck. The" iii-
acre-partly due to use of fertilizers. dustrial and mining area is Poland'i.
For the dollars we had to pay to fro- .,,Ruhr, dirty and smog hound, But etivi.
port grain we could build five or SIX
To me the issue i's simple. If we did
not have Pulawy we would not have
bread." '
However, the director admitted that
at the time the first nitrogen plant was
built "we had no experience what-
soever on nitrogen compound fallouts
even today we do not know well all
the poisonous compounds."
This conflict between an industry
and the community it serves could be
:typical for East or West. But there
seems to be some question whether the
state ownership of factories may not
actually put Communist governments'
at an embarrassing disadvantage In"
taking forceful action against in-
dustrial violators of pollution laws.
"In the United States," claimed an.
ecologically minded regional planner.
in Katowice, Poland, "you can close.
down a plant. Here the plant belongs!;
,,to the state and closing it would there.,:
fore damage the whole society."
This fail, the country got a blue-rib-'l
'bon commission on the environment;]
under the prime minister's direct con- 0
trot. Some $200 million are allocated fora:
pollution control In the next five,
years, Including nearly $30 million for.,
air pollution research. The country.,
manufactures its own electro-filters aor
factory chimneys--though press critics a
complain that too many are marked t
for export rather than installation inl
Polish plants. Under the air control
law, all new or rebuilt factories must
have the filters and there are limits on
emission of chemical ash by, older
ones.
hopeful, Signs
I~HROUGHOUT EASTERN EUROPE,
.T the centrally-approved five-year
development plans are the dociabvo
guides to area development. and re.
ronnientalist.i and rerlonal p1r,nirc?rs
have tii~tit:ilic~1e ; mat o ccriitiicirratiloc
headway In tho it dew year:,.:
The Institute of owii Ulwiniug rand
Architecture has ,von some of its bet-
ties with the Ministry t;: Coal Aliaung.
particularly In keeping the bulk o
new workers' housing well-separated
from mining zones. The Institute's re-
gional plan is an "advisory, scientific
plan," which takes into cotisiderntion
water supply, industrial needs and the
overall ecology of the region. Though
it has no force of law, its concept,- are
supposedly worked Into the five-year
plan for the area, which does.
The Institute reported recently that
land reclamation projects had dolt?-pled
the forested area of the Katowice re-
gion in the last 20 years. But, it said
that more research was needed in the
search for plantings that. could take
hold on bituminous coal dumps. Coal
mines are now required to pay indem-
nifications for'new land taken for min
ing, and to fill used-up shafts with'
sand to prevent- cave-ins. Since state"
ministries collect the indemnities, how-
ever, one Polish journalist wrote that
the transaction was a "transfer of
money from one pocket to another."
There is a long way to go, however.
The evening train from Katowice t6'
Warsaw still joggles past Orwellian',
landscapes on Its way out of Silesia--
great catch basin lakes pumped 'up
from underground coal mining opera-
tions, grimy row houses that could n::
well be set In Liverpool or the Bronx,
and giant mounds of coal and slag.
East and West seem little different
In that moment of departure from Slic-
sia. Whether the socialist lands of tiv-
East can provide a purer environmcn
for man,' as Engels predicted, is yet to-
be proven. In the long run it could prc%
vide a telling test for the reiativ,-
worth of industrialsociety in East ar
West.
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