On December 20, 2021, an uncontrolled leakage of technical water in the amount of approximately 80 thousand cubic meters occurred on the territory of the sludge management shop of the ore-dressing plant of PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
Specialists of the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine found that the enterprise violated the rules for the operation of the Tsentralnoye tailing dump, not providing sufficient control over the stability of the dam. As a result, the uncontrolled leakage of contaminated process water led to the contamination of the adjacent territory - agricultural land.
According to the press service of the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine, according to the results of laboratory studies in contaminated soils, an increased content of chlorides and sulfates, that is, specific substances contained in tailings waste, was revealed.
"Considering that the normative-monetary valuation of the land of contaminated areas is quite low, the amount of damage caused by PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih to the environment amounted to UAH 300,000," the message says.
The enterprise was provided with instructions to eliminate the emergency state of the technological facility and the storage tank so that process water and waste from the tailing dump do not fall outside of it. In addition, the company must install monitoring wells to monitor the state of groundwater, which could also be contaminated due to the accident.
