Magnitogorsk was removed from the list of Russian cities with very high levels of air pollution, according to a report by the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) in 2018. Thanks to MMK’s large-scale environmental program, the Comprehensive Air-quality Index (CAI) indicator for the city will have been reduced to a low level by 2025.
The reason for the exclusion of Magnitogorsk from the list of cities with the highest level of air pollution in 2018 was due to the improvement of the environmental situation in the city, say authors of the study.
“Compared with the previous year, the concentration of Benzo(a)pyrene in Magnitogorsk decreased by more than 2-fold,” researchers said.
“The results of the study reflect MMK’s consistent efforts to reduce its anthropogenic impact on the environment,” said Grigory Schurov, Director of Occupational Health & Safety and Environment at MMK. “Last year alone the company successfully implemented 84 environmental projects with a total funding of 8.967 billion rubles, which was almost a third more than in the previous year.”
Since 2015 MMK has been implementing its Clean City strategic initiative, which will make it possible to reduce the CAI indicator of the city to below 5 units by 2025. As part of this initiative, in recent years the company has completed the reconstruction of the sulfur recover units in the sintering plant with a total investment of more than 4 billion rubles, upgraded the air-cleaning systems in the blast furnace shop with a total investment of 1.9 billion rubles and built a system of dust collection systems at blast furnaces Nos. 9 and 10, worth 1.2 billion rubles.
In July MMK launched a new sinter plant, with a total investment of around 30 billion rubles, which was built using the latest environmentally friendly technologies. The commissioning of this plant will make it possible to achieve a twofold reduction in dust emissions, a 4-fold reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and a 16-fold reduction in Benzopyrene emissions. The next step is the construction of a new coke furnace complex, which will allow for five old plants to be decommissioned. In total, MMK’s environmental projects will allow the company to reduce emissions by 26,300 tons by 2025, which, together with urban activities, will ensure a 20% reduction in total emissions at Magnitogorsk.
The total cost of MMK Group’s environmental activities in the period from 2000 to 2018 exceeded 58 billion rubles. The company will allocate more than 38 billion rubles for environmental activities up to 2025, including 21.7 billion rubles for air protection measures. (MMK/Ukrainian metal)
