Victoria Burnazyan, EcoLur
The Tchotchkan tailing dump threatens to become an irreversible disaster. The tailing dump containing 22 million square meters of toxic substances threatens to collapse at any moment and to cover the transboundary Debed River, to close the highway and railway. (See photos).
Deputy Director of Environmental Impact Monitoring Center of the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA Seyran Minasyan shares this alarm, as under him, the drainage system in the dumping tail doesn’t operate, the pipelines designed to discharge water from the tailing dump are closed, and the whole water remains in it thus forming a liquid mass.
Tchotchkan villagers living next to the tailing dump are also anxious about radiation: “There is radiation, its absence is impossible,” said Tchotchkan Community Head Samvel Grigoryan. Under him, a device to measure the radiation background will be set up in Tchotchkan.
April 15, 2010