Tailings Storage Facilities: Threats to Transboundary Waters of Ukraine

Tailings storage facilities (TSFs) – earthen reservoirs, natural or artificially made in the natural environment, for industrial waste storage – present high hazard risk for water resources of Ukraine. As of 2019, there were 465 TSFs in Ukraine storing over 6 bln tons of waste from various industries. Accidents at such facilities can have devastating consequences for the infrastructure of the areas and for the environment, including transboundary pollution of water resources.

During 2018-2020 a group of experts carried out inventory and assessment of the state of the TSFs in two river basins of Ukraine – the Dniester and the Siverskyi Donets. The studies were conducted within GEF / UNDP / OSCE / UNECE project “Enabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Dniester River Basin” and as part of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine’s activities on environmental security in eastern Ukraine.

Based on the results of the studies, a number of problematic issues about facilities’ operation was identified that require systemic management decisions and consolidation of efforts of all stakeholders to improve the level of environmental and technological security of the TSFs and prevention of industrial accidents of national and transboundary scale.

The press conference will highlight the results of the inventory of TSFs in the two river basins, and will open floor for discussion of the key issues and their solutions. Representatives of public authorities, international organizations, TSF operators, and experts will specifically discuss socio-economic and environmental aspects of the most problematic facilities, preparedness and response capacity in case of emergency, including the transboundary impacts.

Speakers:

• ‎Karin Rolke, Senior Project Officer at OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine
• Tamara Kutonova, Regional Project Co-ordinator, GEF
• Iryna Nikolaieva, PhD, Head of research group for current state of tailings storage facilities, environmental safety expert, expert of OSCE projects
• Max Linsen, Environmental Affairs Consultant, UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents
• Gerhard Winkelmann-Oei, German Federal Environment Agency (UBA); Co-chair of the Joint Expert Group on Water and Industrial Accidents
• Оlena Koltyk, Head of the waste management department the Ministry of environmental Protection and natural resources of Ukraine  Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine
• Taras Polishchuk, Head of the Department of technogenic safety of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine
• Ruslan Grechanyk, Head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of Lviv Oblast State Administration
• Yurii Aknievskyi, Director of PJSC “Bakhmut Agro Union” 

Moderator: Tetiana Troshchynska, Editor-in-Chief at Hromadske Radio.

The event is to be streamed live (in English and Ukrainian) here: https://uacrisis.org/en/pres-tsentr/stream.