At Lake Baikal

Abstract

The Central Committee of the Communist Party, subsequent to the original publication of the following article and the January 1969 decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, "On Measures for the Preservation and Rational Use of the Natural Ecologies of the Lake Baikal Basin," added its authority to that of the USSR Council of Ministers in a joint decree published by the Soviet press on September 24, 1971. The decree, titled "On Supplementary Measures to Assure the Rational Use and Preservation of the Natural Resources of the Lake Baikal Basin," ordered a wide range of environmental protection measures, including the following which have special relevance to the article translated below: — the ministries and agencies using the Baikal area's natural resources, as well as the USSR Academy of Sciences, are to accelerate development of measures to create a water protection zone and water use rules; — the Ministry of the Pulp and Paper Industry was ordered to "complete fully" the construction of purification equipment at the Baikal'sk Cellulose Factory by the end of 1971; — the same ministry was to assure that equipment be put into operation in 1971 that would use the production wastes of the factory; — the same ministry was forbidden to put the Selenga Cellulose and Cardboard Combine into operation until "full completion" of the construction of its purification equipment; — the RSFSR Council of Ministers and individual industrial ministries having plants in the Baikal area were ordered to: (1) verify the construction of purification equipment treating effluent bound for the Selenga River, (2) set deadlines of not later than the end of 1972 for the construction of purification installations in all enterprises subordinate to them, and (3) complete construction by the end of 1973 of municipal purification installations for the wastes of Ulan-Ude, the Buriat Autonomous Republic capital, which has been dumping its untreated sewage into the Selenga River feeding into Lake Baikal; — the Siberian division of the USSR Academy of Sciences was commissioned to conduct research aimed at organizing the rational use and preservation of the lake area's natural resources; — the RSFSR Council of Ministers was charged with responsibility for guaranteeing such use and preservation of resources; — the USSR People's Control Committee was instructed to set up an organizational framework to monitor the effectiveness of environmental efforts in the area and was ordered to make periodic reports to the USSR Council of Ministers on the situation; — the Buriat, Irkutsk, and Chita party regional committees, the Buriat Republic Council of Ministers, and the Irkutsk and Chita regional soviet executive committees were instructed to intensify their monitoring of environmental measures taken by enterprises and organizations within their territories.