Editorial: The Unknown Environmental Tragedy in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan

Ecotoxicology, 12, 505±508, 2003 # 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The Netherlands.

Editorial: The Unknown Environmental Tragedy in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan JOHN W. BICKHAM,1 COLE W. MATSON,1 ARIF ISLAMZADEH,2 GILBERT T. ROWE,3 K. C. DONNELLY,4 CAROL D. SWARTZ,5 WILLIAM J. ROGERS,6 JEFFREY K. WICKLIFFE,7 ROBIN L. AUTENRIETH,8 THOMAS J. MCDONALD,9 DMITRI POLITOV,10 GRIGORIY PALATNIKOV,11 ARIF A. MEKHTIEV,11 AND RAFIK KASIMOV11 1 Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2258, USA 2 Sumgayit Centre for Environmental Rehabilitation, 16 Nizami St., Sumgayit, 373200, Azerbaijan 3 Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, P.O.Box 1675, Galveston, TX 77553, USA 4 Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4458, USA 5 Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA 6 Department of Life, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX 79601, USA 7 Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA 8 Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3136, USA 9 School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, University Park Plaza, College Station, TX 77802-1266, USA 10 Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, 3 Gubkin St., GSP-1, Moscow, 119991 Russia 11 Karaev Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan Republic, 307100 Baku, Sharifezade 2, Azerbaijan Accepted 17 March 2003 Keywords: Azerbaijan; Sumgayit; environmental pollution; social and economic factors

Azerbaijan is one of the independent republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Like the other recent member states of the FSU, it now faces a difficult struggle as its economic, social, and political organizations adapt to a global market economy and democracy. At the same time, Azerbaijan is faced with severe pollution as a result of the poor environmental protection practices during the Soviet era. Most of the pollution problems result directly or indirectly from the oil industry, such as contamination associated with field development, extraction,

refining, and disposal. This is especially concentrated in the harbor of the capital city Baku where the benthic community is absent and as much as two meters of petroleum contamination lies on the bottom of the harbor (Bickham et al., 1998). The city of Sumgayit, located on the north shore of the Apsheron Peninsula and adjacent to the Caspian Sea (Fig. 1) is another area where environmental contamination is a concern. Sumgayit is the site of a remarkable concentration of 23 factories that at one time was a major site for the

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Figure 1. Map of Azerbaijan showing locations of the cities of Baku and Sumgayit.

production of industrial and agricultural chemicals for the Soviet Union. These factories provided a variety of products including chlorinated pesticides and other agricultural, domestic, and industrial chemical products. As with the Soviet oil industry, the chemical industry did not practice adequate environmental safeguards and the areas in and around the industrial sector of the city are heavily contaminated. An extensive dead zone in the Caspian Sea off the north shore of the Apsheron Peninsula has been attributed to contamination from Sumgayit. A few reports of the contamination problem at Sumgayit have reached the western press (Dumont, 1995; Cullen, 1999) but no scientific studies have been conducted to confirm its extent, nature, or possible ecological impacts. The paper by Swartz et al. (2003) in this issue presents

the first study of chemical contamination and its potential effects in wildlife from one of the most polluted areas in the industrial sector of Sumgayit. The results are remarkable both for the high levels of contaminants found in the sediment and wildlife tissues and for the wide diversity of contaminants detected. The purpose of this editorial is to comment on the social context, the potential for human health impacts, and the overall scope of the pollution problem in Sumgayit. Several social and economic factors in conjunction with the severe pollution problems create a potentially disastrous ecological situation in Sumgayit. Azerbaijan is a country of approximately 8 million people. Since 1994 Armenia has occupied the western 20% of Azerbaijan, displacing nearly 1 million Azeris from

The Unknown Environmental Tragedy in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan 507

available including the Sumgayit River that receives untreated waste directly from many of the factories. We visited a pond in the industrial sector, which was obviously highly contaminated with oil, during our field season in May, 2001. The pond had no visible insect, plant, or vertebrate life (Fig. 2D). In the landfill area surrounding the pond, we observed two men and two women digging (Fig. 2E). They informed us that this was the site of the old landfill for the glass factory. Two of them were refugees and two were local residents employed in one of the few still active factories. They told us that they could earn up to $1 (USD) per day mining glass nodules. This represented a source of considerable income because the average income for factory workers today is about $30 (USD) per month. It is difficult to describe the terrible conditions under which these people were working and they told us that at times they have to stop or move because the ``acid'' burns their eyes and skin. We were further saddened when three of their children arrived to help them dig.

their homes and creating an enormous refugee problem in the country. An estimated 30,000 refugees live in and around Sumgayit, which has a resident population of about 350,000. Many of the refugees, as well as some residents, live within the industrial sector of the city and graze sheep and cattle in some incredibly contaminated areas. The industrial sector makes up about one-third of the 95 km2 area of the city and some of it is suitable for agricultural uses. For example, Fig. 2A shows a view of the ponds adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant studied by Swartz et al. (2003) with cattle grazing on grasses and other emergent vegetation in and around the ponds. We have observed goats, sheep, and cattle using this area for grazing and watering on several occasions. In the Caspian Sea adjacent to these ponds people regularly fish from the edge of the jetty. Refugees or locals similarly use other contaminated sites in the industrial sector. Cattle and sheep are grazed throughout the area, wherever grass is found. Those animals are watered in whatever freshwater sources are

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Figure 2. (A) Cattle grazing in the ponds adjacent to the industrial wastewater treatment plant in Sumgayit studied by Swartz et al. (2003). (B) Cultivated field in the Sumgayit sludge pit. (C) Ponds adjacent to the industrial wastewater treatment plant showing dead Caspian seals in the foreground. (D) Picture of oil contaminated pond where we observed. (E) Local residents and refugees mining glass from the land fill.

508 Bickham et al. People are potentially exposed to the industrial contaminants through a variety of routes including direct contact, eating fish from the Caspian Sea, and eating domestic animals that graze throughout the industrial sector. In addition, much of the land surrounding the factories is used to grow crops. We do not yet know how contaminated are the agricultural fields, but it is likely that aerial transport has spread contaminants from the factories onto these lands. We visited the sludge pits in which the solid waste from the industrial wastewater treatment plant is deposited and were shocked to see that one of these pits is being used as a cultivated field (Fig. 2B). The farmer informed us that he had recently harvested tomatoes and replanted with watermelons. He explained that it was all right to plant there because the factories have mostly shut down due to the slowdown in the economy and no longer deposit sludge in the pits. Herein shows the unfortunate level of misunderstanding of the local populace regarding the potential dangers they face from the contaminated environment in which they live. Contaminants from Sumgayit potentially are having effects far from the immediate environs of the city. Fig. 2C shows another view of the contaminated ponds studied by Swartz et al. (2003). Three dead Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) are visible in the foreground. We observed scores of dead seals along the beaches of Sumgayit during our fieldwork in May of 2001 and 2002. Recent viral epidemics in 1997, 2000, and 2001 have resulted in the loss of many thousands of Caspian seals and it has been reported that high levels of contaminants might have played a role in their decline (Kajiwara et al., 2002; Stone, 2002). Similarly, declines in sturgeon (Acipenser spp.) and beluga (Huso huso) populations are giving rise to calls for a moratorium on fishing and consideration for listing some of these economically important species as endangered (Stone, 2002). Sumgayit is clearly one of the most important sources of contaminants for the Caspian Sea that serves as a conduit to spread its contaminants, and their effects, into the territories of all of the states surrounding the sea. Notwithstanding the potentially tragic state of affairs facing the city of Sumgayit, there are some hopeful signs. The Sumgayit Centre for Environmental Rehabilitation (SCER) has made good progress in documenting the extent of contamination in the city and in educating the people and the city government about the potential dangers of the contamination.

SCER is also working with the government to try to attract new industry to the area that will provide jobs and operate without damaging the environment. We are presently conducting human health and ecological risk assessments, and an epidemiological study of birth defects, at Sumgayit that we hope will help to guide future cleanup and medical improvements in the city. The World Bank is currently funding an extensive cleanup of the chlor-alkali plant in which an estimated 1,566 tons of mercury have been spilled. And in Baku a new International Ecological University has been established with the mission of educating future scientists, government workers, and industrialists who will have a sound background in ecological principles. For these reasons and the high motivation of the Azeri people to solve these problems, we are cautiously optimistic about the ecological future of the country. We thank Amoco for funding our initial fieldwork in Azerbaijan. We also thank the World Bank for their support. Our ongoing studies are funded by National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences grant ES04917. This publication is contribution number 113 of the Center for Biosystematics and Biodiversity at Texas A&M University. Further information about the city of Sumgayit can be obtained from the SCER web site hosted at the senior author's home page: http:// people.tamu.edu/bickham/index.htm References Bickham, J.W., Rowe, G.T., Palatnikov, G., Mekhtiev, A., Mekhtiev, M., Kasimov, R.Yu., Hauschultz, D.W., Wickliffe, J.K. and Rogers, W.J. (1998). Acute and genotoxic effects of Baku Harbor sediment on Russian sturgeon, Acipenser guildensteidti. Bull. Environ. Contam. Tox. 61, 512±18. Cullen, R. (1999). The rise and fall of the Caspian Sea. Natl. Geogr. 195, 2±35. Dumont, H. (1995). Ecocide in the Caspian Sea. Nature 377, 673±74. Kajiwara, N., Miimi, S., Watanabe, M., Ito, Y., Takahashi, S., Tanabe, S., Khuraskin, L.S. and Miyazaki, N. (2002). Organochlorine and organotin compounds in Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) collected during an unusual mortality event in the Caspian Sea in 2000. Environ. Pollut. 117, 391±402. Stone, R. (2002). Caspian ecology teeters on the brink. Science 295, 430±3. Swartz, C.D., Donnelly, K.C., Islamzadey, A., Rowe, G.T., Rogers, W.J., Palatnikov, G., Mekhtiev, A.A., Kasimov, R., McDonald, T.J., Wickliffe, J.K., Presley, B.J. and Bickham, J.W. (2003). Chemical contaminants and their effects in fish and wildlife from the industrial zone of Sumgayit, Republic of Azerbaijan. Ecotoxicology 12, 511±23.