Assessing the Anthropogenically Caused Pollution of Water Bodies Within the Selenga River Basin on the Territory of Mongolia and Russia

Abstract

Presented are the results from studying the current state, modeling and forecasting of the transboundary transport of pollutants with the flow of the rivers within the Selenga river basin. The method for calculating the pollution coefficient was used to assess the degree of pollution of the Selenga river basin on the territories of Mongolia and the Republic of Buryatia (RF) on the linear sections of the river and its tributaries within the boundaries of the adjacent river sections according to data of state monitoring observation in both countries. Results from assessing the impact of economic entities located within the transboundary Selenga river basin on the streams according to the α-indicator of the pollution coefficient and subsequent ranking by four levels of pollution indicate that the catchment and Lake Baikal itself continue to be polluted by insufficiently treated wastewater from industrial enterprises and housing and communal services. Calculations showed that the aquatic ecosystems of the Kyakhtinka (Khiagt), Modonkul’ Selenga rivers in the border zone along the border of Russia and Mongolia in the area of Naushki – Sukhbaatar and Kyakhta ‒ Altanbulag, and in the area of the settlement of Novoselenginsk are most disturbed. On the territory of the Russian part of the basin, the Selenga river downstream, the degree of water pollution is increasing in the areas of industrial centers, such as Gusinoozersk and Ulan-Ude. The average indicator of the pollution coefficient as calculate for the Russian part of the Selenga river basin was higher than that for the Mongolian part, which suggests the conclusion that the degree of pollution by the pollutants under consideration is higher on the Mongolian territory than on the Russian territory.