The role of monitoring the territory of industrial mining and chemical complexes at the stage of liquidation

Abstract

Mining and chemical industry is a source of significant anthropogenic impact on natural components. Industrial wastes of Rozdil state mining and chemical enterprise (SMCE) “Sirka” are one of the sources of environmental pollution, including soils and the water environment. The enterprise is located in the West of Ukraine (Lviv region). It poses an environmental hazard to the Dniester River and surrounding settlements. Large-tonnage wastes like phosphogypsum (over 3 million tons) were formed on its territory in connection with the production of mineral fertilizers for 22 years (from 1974 to 1996), and also there are about 80 million m3 of flotation tails on the territory of the enterprise. In addition, on the territory of the enterprise 17,195 tons of "MG" type modifiers, made from neutralized tar residues and residues boiler anhydrite maleic acid were imported from Hungary. The wastes contain heavy metals that migrate in the soil and the water environment. Currently, the enterprise does not work and is in the stage of liquidation. Issues of rehabilitation of the territories of mining regions, restoration of ecological balance and reclamation of degraded lands arose after the cessation of operation and restructuring of enterprises of the sulfur industry. The purpose of the work is to determine the role of waste, soils and water objects monitoring in the process of liquidation of the mining industry. Methodology. Environmental monitoring involves multidisciplinary research on the state of soils and water bodies, tar residues, phosphogypsum dumps, and the evaluation of geological and geophysical processes, in particular environmental degradation. Results. The process of liquidation of the mining and chemical enterprise has the following stages: 1) monitoring and forecasting of hazardous phenomena which may arise after the exploitation of deposits and activities of the enterprise; 2) assessment of environmental risk for the population and property; 3) comparison of the cost of active and passive methods for eliminating risk; 4) substantiation of rational use of renewable territories; 5) the development of the necessary measures for the prevention of environmental hazards and the preparation of areas for economic use. Monitoring of the territory is the first and the main stage of the process of liquidation of the mining and chemical enterprise. Conclusions. The ecological balance of the territory is violated due to the fact that the elimination of negative technical manifestations of the enterprise activity for a long time was considered unprofitable. The development of monitoring techniques for man-made landscapes, along with the development of methods for diagnosing the specifics of their functioning and technologies for reclamation, is an integral part of multidisciplinary research on environmental imbalances, which is caused by the transformation of natural landscapes into man-made. Therefore, it is expedient to establish a general practice aimed at the restoration of degraded areas.