OJSC “Cherepovetsky “Azot” is located in the Northwestern part of the industrial area of the town of Cherepovets. An important aspect of the enterprise production activity is the ecological control system. The program of stage-by-stage reduction of emissions and discharge of contaminants into the environment are worked out and are successively being implemented at the plant. The enterprise spends more than 250 million rubles for operation of waste disposal units and reconstruction of nature-conservative installations.

Protection of Industrial Environment

The enterprise worked out a draft of the maximum permissible emission standards which includes technical measures on reduction of emission into ambient air. In 2005, the enterprise accomplished implementation of the Sanitary and Protected Zone Project which includes estimation of risks caused by the production activity of enterprise OJSC “Cherepovetsky “Azot” upon health of the population of Cherepovets. As prescribed by the normative documentation, the enterprise has a system monitoring the industrial environment condition within the sanitary and protected zone of the enterprise. All stationary sources emitting contaminants are equipped with up-to-date and highly efficient gas and dust collecting plants. The enterprise employs the homogeneous and catalytic gas cleaning installations. So, cleaning of exhaust gases in the ammonia plants is performed by the homogeneous gas cleaning units, while the weak nitric acid installations employ the catalytic gas cleaning which uses aluminovanadium alloy as the catalytic agent.
During production of complex mineral fertilizers, to clean the air discharged from the grantower use is made of wet cleaning by means of acid solution with additional filtering on a filter cloth. The emissions of carbonic acid from one ammonia plant are reclaimed as the secondary raw-materials at the neighboring plant.

Protection of Surface and Underground Water

An external source of river water for the enterprise are the systems of enterprise OJSC “Severstal”. The enterprise employs biological waste disposal plants. The waste disposal plant complex includes a unit for biological and a unit for mechanical purification of waste water. The mechanical waste disposal plants are designed to purify storm waste water flowing from the territory of the enterprise industrial area, drainage waste water, bleed water of rotation cycles, and flows form water treatment of the enterprise. The biological waste disposal plants are designed to purify chemically contaminated and household waste water. The capacity of the plants for biological purification of industrial and household waste water is 10,000 m3/day. Waste water is discharged via one arranged outlet No. 1, the main one, into the Sheksninsky stream section of the Rybinsk water-storage reservoir. In addition, the enterprise is provided with two reserve outlets for waster water. One reserve outlet leads to river Koshta and the other, coastal one, leading to the Sheksninsky stream section, is located close to outlet No. 1. As to the design respect, outlet No. 1 is a dispersing outlet with five-fold dilution, while outlets Nos 2 and 3 are concentrated coastal outlets.

Arranged at the enterprise is a system consisting of 49 observation wells, which is used to estimate influence of the enterprise upon pollution of underground and surface water.
The enterprise observes the hydrochemical regulations, water samples are taken twice a year, the analyses are made in the departmental industrial and sanitary laboratory. A draft of maximum permissible discharge standards which includes the measures on reduction of discharge of contaminants into the environment has been worked out. One of the measures, namely: “Use of Purified Waster Water for Making-up Water Rotating Cycles instead of Potable River Water”, was included into Federal target Program of nature-conservative measures. The measure was implemented in 2004, its implementation made it possible to reduce the consumption of river water for technical needs by 1.3 million m3 per year. In 2004, the transfer of a part of storm discharge from the production area of ammonia shop No. 2 to biological waste disposal units of the plant was implemented thus making it possible to reduce the amount of ammonia nitrogen discharged into water reservoirs by 3.4 times in the total output of the enterprise. So, if such discharge made up 18.8 tons per year in 2003, it amounted to 5.6 tons per year in 2004.

Management of waste generated by enterprise

The production activity of enterprise OJSC “Cherepovetsky “Azot” results in waste of hazard class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The industrial area of the main production line is provided with 47 grounds for temporary storage of waste. Waste is shipped for processing to special-purpose enterprises and to municipal ground of household waste by means of vehicles of the enterprises accepting the waste. Operated as part of the enterprise is a dump of solid production waste. A water drain is arranged from the dump territory to waste disposal plants of the enterprise. The enterprise has worked out a draft of standards for generation and disposal limits of waste. In 2004, the enterprise got the License for activity on handling hazardous industrial waste. Certification of industrial waste not entered in the Federal classifier of industrial waste was carried out and accomplished. The enterprise has worked out, and successfully implements, the program of production updating. All measures included in this program have the ecological constituent. At present, the work is carried on at the enterprise on preparation to introduction of the ecological management system in compliance with international standard ISO 14001-2004.