Thousands of rockets against Soviet concrete: why Bortnytska Aeration Station is impervious to enemy ballistic attacks

Attempts by Russian propaganda and enemy aviation to frighten Kyiv residents with a humanitarian catastrophe from the destruction of the capital’s sewage system have run up against harsh Soviet engineering and backup generators. As housing and communal services experts explain, Bortnytska Aeration Station was built with such a safety margin that the enemy would need thousands of precision-guided missiles to destroy it completely. Against the backdrop of all key pumping stations already having backup power, the main infrastructural threat to ground-floor Kyiv residents is not a mythical strike but the everyday habit of pouring food scraps and fat down the sink.

If the rashists decide to destroy Bortnytska Aeration Station in Kyiv, a few rockets won’t be enough, says housing-and-utilities expert and founder of the public organization “UPS! Life in My City” Kristina Nenno on the air of Ukrainian Radio. She explains that to destroy all the concrete would take thousands of weapons. If there are damages at Bortnytska Aeration Station, they will be repaired promptly because everyone is prepared for that. The main task is to ensure that all pumps that move sewage have alternative power sources, the expert says. She concludes that today all sewage pumps are supplied with such power.

Spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Lykhoviy 5 June of this year refuted information from some Ukrainian bloggers about a nighttime strike on Bortnytska Aeration Station. “We are not insured against that either. But as of now — it’s fake. Kyiv residents, it would seem, have more than enough real strikes and their consequences,” Lykhoviy wrote on Facebook.

Processes millions of cubic meters of water per day

How does Bortnytska Aeration Station in Kyiv work? How indispensable is it to Kyiv residents?

It is the only station in Ukraine by volume that processes millions of cubic meters of water per day. It treats everything we discharge from our households. Downstream below Kyiv they take this water, clean and process it and then use it. Bortnytska Aeration Station was commissioned before the start of the Cold War. Everyone understood it had to be extremely durable. That the rashists want to destroy it and cause a humanitarian catastrophe in Kyiv is no secret. It has been in their plans for many years.

To destroy Bortnytska Station, thousands of strike means are required

Why do we have only one such station?

Because one was enough. Bortnytska Aeration Station was not built on the opposite bank of the Dnipro for no reason. It is located low. Water flows from apartments into the yard network. Then water moves by gravity to the collectors — street or trunk collectors. In other words, water flows from a lower point to a lower point. Our network has over 4300 kilometers of sewage network, where pumping stations help raise water to higher levels so it can reach Bortnytska Aeration Station. There are many such pumping stations. The station itself is hundreds of kilometers of water-treatment structures. They say you would have to hit it with 1-2 rockets to destroy it. But water won’t burn. To destroy all the concrete would take thousands of strike means. If there are damages at Bortnytska Aeration Station, they will be repaired promptly because everyone is prepared for that. The main task is for all pumps that move sewage to be able to operate and be provided with alternative power sources.

Bortnytska Aeration Station. Pre-war photo from open sources: wikipedia.org

All sewage pumps are supplied with alternative power

What is the risk of ground-floor flooding with sewage in the event of a power outage and, consequently, the cessation of pumping stations’ operation?

Theoretically this can happen if the pumps stop working. When a pump doesn’t operate, forced discharge stops. Then the buildings connected to the network of a particular pumping station are at risk. Today all pumps that move sewage are supplied with alternative power.

Basements are the first to be hit, along with all the plumbing in basements. Then the first floors will suffer. It certainly won’t reach the 25 floor.

Bortnytska Aeration Station block No.3

Insulate buildings as much as possible and watch what you pour into the sewer

How can residents of ground-floor apartments protect their homes?

Even if you seal the toilet with cement, water will always find another way out. The only thing you can do is prepare for the next heating season. Insulate buildings as much as possible, especially all pipes, particularly in the basement. Even if there is no emergency, this will help save on heating.

You also need to watch what we pour into drains, for example food leftovers. It’s not hard to collect them and throw them away instead of clogging the sewer. That harms not only the entire system but your own apartment building. Not everything that flushes down the toilet or goes down the sink drains out smoothly into the basement slopes. In pipe bends a highly polluted environment forms. That pipe diameter after 5 years becomes half as large. Fat from frying pans accumulates in pipes and causes local failures in the building.

Follow only official reports

If Bortnytska Aeration Station stops, what danger would that pose to settlements located downstream?

That’s a bad scenario. Water will stop being taken and there will be no water in the taps of large cities located downstream on the Dnipro where intake is from the Dnipro. If anything happens and the water becomes unfit for use, local authorities immediately announce it. Therefore, follow only official reports and adhere to all necessary recommendations.

Authors: Nataliya Sokolenko, Serhiy Stukanov