Environmental Science, 10th Edition (Cunningham)

Chapter 8: Environmental Health and Toxicology

GE Exercise: Norilsk Nickel Smelter, Russia

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Latitude/Longitude: 69.3632, 88.1339

Overview: Norilsk Nickel Smelter, Russia, p. 166

Norilsk has the largest heavy metal mining complex in the world and is one of the world's most polluted places. Norilsk was founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp and it remains a closed city from which all foreigners (and observers) are excluded. The city still has much of the bleak, grimy character of its pioneer days. Every year the mines and smelters produce more than 400,000 metric tons of copper, 250,000 tons of nickel, 95 tons of palladium, and 22 tons of platinum. In this process, 2,000 tons of dust, ash, and toxic metals including cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are dispersed into the city air. Other air pollutants in the city include Strontium-90, Caesium-137, sulfur dioxide, particulates, phenols and hydrogen sulfide. Snow turns black as soon as it falls in Norilsk, and the air tastes bitter and metallic. Acids from sulfur and nitrogen oxides eat away paint. Everything is coated with soot and ash. Factory workers life expectancy is 10 years below the Russian average (which is already one of the lowest in the industrialized world). Respiratory diseases are extremely high. Children living in Norilsk are twice as likely to become ill as elsewhere in Russia. High rates of miscarriage and birth defects as well as infertility have been reported. Many residents would like to leave Norilsk, but having been attracted there by relatively high wages, they are now too sick to move elsewhere.

This view shows the main factory complex. Note the smokestack shadows, as well as the uniform color of the landscape. Smelting (heating ore to extract minerals) produces large amounts of acidic air emissions that can damage or destroy vegetation downwind of a smelter. If you zoom out and move northeast and from this place marker, you can see that there is more than one smelter complex in the area. Russia produces about 20 percent of all the heavy metals in world commerce. We all benefit from this dirty industry. Without copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold, and other metals, your computer, cell phone, TV, automobile, and all the other machines on which modern life depends wouldn't be possible.

1
Zoom out to see the location of the factory and the workers' housing complex to the east. Also move south to find the place marker marked with a question mark. What is done at this place mark?
A) Large holes are dug for dumping industrial wastes
B) Landscaping for future parks or developments
C) Mining, where the ore is dug for the factories
D) Terracing is being developed for future farms
E)A new city is being carved from the landscape
2
Return to the original place mark. Find the workers' housing, and zoom in close enough to see the buildings. Which of the following statements best describes this residential area?
A)There appears to be a lot of outdoor recreational facilities near the housing.
B)There is a gray pall over most buildings and a significant lack of plant greenery, indicating poor air quality.
C)There is a great deal of diversity in terms of the housing structures and landscaping.
D)The housing consists of small apartments and single-family homes nestled in a pedestrian-friendly, suburban environment.
3
Zoom out and note that the surrounding landscape is made up of tundra pockmarked with wetlands, probably a saturated landscape. What impact does this have on the problem of containing contaminated runoff from processing?
A)Water-saturated land tends to repel contaminants, and is therefore a good area to contain runoff from processing operations.
B)The pools of standing water make it difficult for workers to erect runoff barriers.
C)It's difficult to determine where runoff is escaping because the landscape appears so polluted already.
D)When the ground is saturated, waterborne contaminants move easily through ground water and among closely-spaced water bodies.
E)Clearly it rains a lot and the tundra gets in everything, making everything more difficult, including containing contaminated runoff from processing.
4
Zoom out to get a sense of whether Norilsk is isolated from large population centers. Why might it be difficult to regulate industries that pollute in a remote location?
A)It's difficult to find inspectors willing to work in remote locations.
B)It's difficult to conduct inspections in most remote locations due to extreme climates and topographies.
C)When there is no population whose jobs are not dependent on the plant, there is no population to object to pollution, and there is no authority to complain to.
D)Remote locations are more likely to have corrupt local governments, where bored regulation inspectors can be easily bribed.
E)It is no more difficult to regulate pollutants in remote locations than anywhere else.
5
Do those of us who use the metals produced in Norilsk have any moral responsibility for the conditions under which the workers and their families live? (Choose the one answer that is most correct.)
A)It's hard to know exactly where the metals we use comes from, especially since most consumer goods we use are now made overseas somewhere.
B)Whether we bear responsibility for the working and environmental conditions in the places where the stuff we use is made depends on your ethical and moral outlook.
C)Both choices are correct.
D)Neither choice is correct.
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