Ecology of Schrodinger: we check whether Omsk is as scary as it is painted

Omsk is one of the most popular characters in horror stories about the environmental situation in Russia. Many of those who visited there describe a bleak picture. Like, wherever you look — pipes of industrial enterprises, dirt on the roads, spontaneous garbage dumps. On top of everything else, the city's largest thermal power plant is still running on coal. And the use of this type of fuel, to put it mildly, does not contribute to reducing emissions into the atmosphere.

Whether Omsk is really such an ecological hole, we checked within the framework of the project "Into all the Lungs", which we are implementing jointly with Shell Concern and the SKOLKOVO Business School. Three popular bloggers were sent on a trip around the country to find out where to breathe well in Russia. We have already reported on their impressions of Samara and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, now we will transfer to Western Siberia. As it turned out, Omsk is not so bad at all.

Photographer Peter Lovygin, traveler Sergey Anashkevich and lifestyle blogger Sergey Sukhov were instructed to take air and snow samples in three experimental cities and transfer the materials to the laboratory. The results of scientific research will be at our disposal very soon. In the meantime, let's outline the image of Omsk in general terms.

During the Great Patriotic War, a number of large industrial enterprises were evacuated here, which is why the city turned into an industrial center. Over the years, the number of factories has grown exponentially, and the installation of various kinds of filters was not worried too much. So Omsk was at the very bottom of the rating of ecological development of Russian cities.

However, in recent years, the situation has changed for the better, and very significantly. As a result of the large-scale modernization of many industries, the city has risen from 80th place to the top of the rating. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, in 2014 Omsk even broke into the top ten. "The environmental situation is difficult, but definitely not terrifying," says Igor Fedorov, a popular Omsk blogger.

At the same time, the residents of Omsk themselves do not agree that their small homeland can serve as a role model in this matter. While our researchers were taking air samples, a local resident spoke to them and persistently asked them to publish the real test results and somehow draw attention to the problem of air pollution, because of which many of his friends suffer from asthma. Moreover, a rally will be held in the city next Saturday, at which citizens dissatisfied with the ecology of Omsk will gather.

Who is right — the population or officials, the independent laboratory where we sent the samples will judge.

Whatever angels the factories turn out to be, Omsk's energy sector definitely needs to be reformed. According to official data, CHP-5 (Russia's largest thermal power plant operating exclusively on coal), together with its coal counterpart at number 4, annually spit 95 thousand tons of all kinds of filth into the sky like ash, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide. For comparison: another local power plant and two more large gas-fired boilers produce 2.8 thousand tons. Moreover, their contribution to providing the city with heat is about 40 percent.

However, it is still necessary to figure out which areas old-mode power plants harm more. Their chimneys rise high above the horizon, and the smoke dissipates far beyond the territory of the objects. Therefore, apparently, the snow at the concrete fence of the CHP was not at all as dirty as one would expect.

And in general Omsk is not dirty at all. Bloggers did not see any dominance of garbage dumps and overflowing containers. The streets are moderately neat, and the central district is very clean at all. Yes, the black snowdrifts from the exhaust gases pretty much spoil the impression. But where in Russia in mid-March are they not?

The depressing color scheme was revealed only in the private sector. There are a lot of nice wooden houses there, but their problem is that some are heated by coal stoves. And their owners dump the accumulated ash in heaps on the outskirts of the roadway. Cars lift ash into the air, after which this suspension settles on houses, sidewalks, roads.

By the way, since we are talking about cars. There is an opinion that, in addition to coal-fired thermal power plants, the ecology of the city is also ruined by the chaos reigning on the roads. Perhaps even more so him. While the whole progressive world is developing a public transport system, reviving trams that were once repressed, Omsk is moving in the opposite direction.

The tram lines here are in extremely sad condition and therefore are not popular. Omsk residents mostly travel by minibus. And minibuses stealing passengers from public transport are one of the main culprits of the formation of traffic jams, in which cars smoke the sky especially carefully. Gazelle drivers drive like crazy to get more customers, slow down wherever they can, and meanwhile the buses go empty.

However, the study of the situation on the roads does not directly relate to the tasks of the project "In all lungs". Our goal is to analyze how destructive coal—fired thermal power plants are for urban air. Expect a detailed report based on scientific data soon.