Features Of Influence Of Industrial Enterprises Almalyk City On The Geological Environment

The article considers that the course of more than 5 decades as a result of the infiltration of contaminated waters of open pits, dumps, slag accumulators of the copper smelting plant (CSP), the production association (PА) "Ammophos", tailing dumps of copper concentrating factories (СCF -1 and СCF -2), as well as due to the leakage of reagents from the sulfuric acid shop through rocks that are not consistent in area and insignificant thickness of loess-like loams, and the penetration of polluting components into the aquifer occurs. Due to the action of the infiltration flow, a change in the chemical composition of soils occurs on solid soil particles, a number of chemical compounds are sorbed. The article provides recommendations for reducing the pollution of the geological environment.

Removal of Copper from the Sulphide Copper Smelting Waste Slag

The applicability of chloridizing roasting for removal of copper from the sulphide copper smelting waste slag of the ”Karabashmed'” copper-smelting plant is investigated. Calcium chloride CaCl2 was used as chlorination agent. It is established that the chlorinating roasting of the initial slag presented by fayalite 2FeO∙SiO2, hasn't led to noticeable removal of copper. Considerable degree of removal of copper (more than 90 %) has been reached as a result of the chlorinating of preliminary oxidized slag in which fayalite was oxidized to form Fe2O3 and SiO2. Using a fractional factorial experiment 23–1, dependence of degree of copper removal from preliminary oxidized slag upon temperature of the chlorinating roasting, time of isothermal roasting period and content of CaCl2 was established. It is found that increase of temperature and of CaCl2 content leads to increase in degree of copper removal. The influence of time of isothermal roasting period in the studied interval (2–4 h) is statistically insignificant.

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in woody plants and herbs near the large copper smelting plant

Variations of stable carbon (13С and 12С) and nitrogen (15N and 14N) isotopic composition are analyzed in forest plants subjected to the emissions of large copper smelting plant. The studies were carried out in pine forests at ten test plots near the Karabash copper smelting plant and in the Ilmen State Reserve at South Urals. The 13С/12С and 15N/14N isotopic ratios were analyzed in leaves of plants of different functional groups (with ecto-, ericoid, or arbuscular mycorrhiza; with nitrogen-fixing symbiosis, and non-mycorrhizal). The 13С/12С ratio did not change under technogenic pollution. The low isotopic 15N/14N ratio was established in ectomycorrhizal trees, while the high ratio was found in herbs with arbuscular mycorrhiza, nitrogenfixing symbiosis, and non-mycorrhizal groups. As compared to nonpolluted habitats, the 15N content in leaves near the copper smelting plant increases by 2.7‰ in the ectomycorrhizal trees and by 3.4‰ in undershrubs with ericoid mycorrhiza, and by 2.2‰ in herbs with arbuscular mycorrhiza. This indicates a significant change in conditions of mineral feeding of plants under heavy metal pollution of natural ecosystems.

Hypo-interventions: Intimate activism in toxic environments

Chemical toxicity is part of everyday life in Puchuncaví. The most polluted industrial compound in Chile, Puchuncaví is home of fourteen industrial complexes, including the largest copper smelting plant in the country and four thermoelectric plants. Stories of biological mutation, corrosion and death among plants, humans, fishes and cattle are proliferate in Puchuncaví. Engaging with the growing interest in care and affective modes of attention within STS, this paper examines how ill, intoxicated or otherwise affected people in Puchuncaví act upon and know about their chronic sufferings. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I focus on what I call ‘hypo-interventions’, or the minimal and unspectacular yet life-enabling practices of caring, cleaning and healing the ailments of their significant others, human and otherwise. By minutely engaging with somatic and affective alterations in the domestic spaces of the body, the home and the garden, Puchuncavinos render industrial harm visible and knowable, and hence a type of political action is invoked. While outside technical validation and alien to conventional politics, these actions have proved crucial for people in Puchuncaví striving to persevere in the face of industrial violence and institutional abandonment. I coin the term ‘intimate activism’ to describe the ethical and political affordances of the subdued doings and engagements deployed in Puchuncaví. Intimate activism, I claim, draws its political power on its capacity to create minimal conditions for ethical and material endurance.