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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
10 millions of inhabitants of Ukraine and Moldova risk poisoning from the water of the Dniester, where deathly hazardous wastes of hexachlorobenzene from Kalush may enter.
From 2011 to 2013 year, Israeli company SI Group Convort Ltd won a series of tenders totaling over 1 billion hryvnias to clean hazardous wastes from a landfill near the Carpathians in western Ukraine.
The government project was intended for the safe disposal of chemicals that cause cancer and are stored near Kalush, a city of 67 thousand people, near the Lnya river, a tributary of the Dniester.
The chemicals were a byproduct of potash mining in the region, accumulating for almost 30 years. Ecologists say the hazardous mixtures include the known carcinogen hexachlorobenzene (HCB).
SI Group Convort Ltd claimed the pollution site was successfully cleaned, and this was confirmed by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. Nevertheless, the ministry’s laboratory test results of soil samples from the proclaimed cleaned area were never published.
However, independent tests conducted at the end of 2014 year, funded by the Center for Investigative Reporting of Corruption and Organized Crime (OCCRP), showed that the level of HCB contamination was several thousand times above the norm. This raised questions about what exactly SI Group Convort Ltd did to clean the Kalush territory of hazardous wastes.
Starting from 1976 year, large volumes of HCB waste (their exact amount is a matter of debate) were stored at a so-called “landfill,” a massive pit dug specifically for safe storage of toxic materials. It was precisely for removing these wastes that the state paid the Israeli firm, and now company representatives claim the work was done well.
Ecologists, however, say the work was not done well enough, since some quantity of chemicals was not removed beyond Ukraine’s borders, and thus may enter groundwater and Dniester tributaries, endangering water supplies used by about 10 million people in western Ukraine and Moldova.
Israeli purifiers
The company SI Group Convort Ltd was founded in 5 October 2008 of the year by Israeli businessman Yehiam Jacks Avissar, who is today the director of the company. But it is Israeli Illya Marchevsky who currently owns 77,5% of the company; Avissar’s share amounts to 15%; another 7,5% belongs to Israeli lawyer Assassin Cohen.
In January 2011 year, the Tel Aviv court found Illya Marchevsky guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him to seven months in prison, later reduced to three months of community service by the Israeli Supreme Court.
Illya Marchevsky
Tax evasion occurred in 2002-2003 years, when Marchevsky together with Vladimir Libman owned and managed Israeli company Yavits Finance International Ltd, which imported lumber. The company went bankrupt and Marchevsky left it, but failed to provide the state with the necessary tax reports or to pay his debts to the tax authorities. This was reported by the Israeli Tax Authority’s legal department handling the case.
“The defendant chose to renounce his obligations as director of the company… he left the company which was loaded with debt and evaded responsibility for it,” says the verdict.
In January and February 2012 year Marchevsky repeatedly tried to stay the execution of the verdict in the Supreme Court, on the grounds that he was needed to fulfill a contract for waste removal in Ukraine. But the court rejected his request.
In September 2013 year the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine opened a criminal case against “SI Building System” (the subcontractor of SI Group Convort Ltd), accusing it of inflating the cost of its services.
The police suspected that the Ukrainian subcontractor “forged documents for waste transportation” and gave “false” information about the actual volume of transported wastes.
Wastes said to have been removed
At the beginning of 2014 year the Ministry of Ecology announced that 33,5 thousand tons of soil had been collected and exported from Kalush during 2010-2013 years. It was reported that the HCB share accounted for 50%.
In January 2014 year the Ministry of Ecology announced that the Kalush cleanup was successful and noted that 14 soil samples were sent for expert analysis to the Environment Geochemistry Institute of Ukraine to check HCB content in this soil.
The Ministry of Ecology promised to publish the results of these studies within a month, but never did.
In August 2014 year, an OCCRP journalist handed two soil samples from the Kalush landfill to the Ukrainian Laboratory of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine for analysis.
The HCB level in the first soil sample exceeded the norm by 1856 times, and in the second sample by 3200 times. The samples — one kilogram of soil in each case — were taken at a depth of 30 cm in the part of the landfill not covered by grass or water. Officials from the Ministry of Ecology refused to comment on the OCCRP results.
Galyna Balan, a specialist at the Scientific Center for Preventive Toxicology, Food and Chemical Safety named after Academician L.I. Medved, says such indicators are unacceptable.
“If (hex)achlorobenzol enters the body with water, it can lead to blood disorders and promote the development of malignant tumors,” she says.
While Balan was skeptical about the OCCRP results, the institute where she works also refused to test Kalush soil for HCB and did not want to explain the reason on the record.
Public documents do not clarify what exact works were carried out at the Kalush landfill. Reports show that SI Group Convort Ltd received funds from the state, but the company did not explain to the State Financial Inspection of Ivano-Frankivsk region what exactly the 97% of money was spent on.
Other independent state bodies that studied the wastes found that SI Group Convort Ltd apparently distorted the nature of the material that was removed from the toxic waste site.
SI Group Convort Ltd sent the majority of wastes abroad. Officials expected extremely high soil contamination, but this was not always the case. A check by the British Environment Agency, which regulates the waste and ecology sector in the UK, showed that the HCB content in Kalush soil exported by SI Group Convort Ltd amounted to not 50% as previously tested, but on average only 14%.
The HCB concentration in soil sent to Poland for disposal was even lower. Poland’s Chief Environmental Inspector documented that the HCB content was 1,6%, or almost 31 times lower than expected.
Meanwhile Illya Marchevsky, the main shareholder of SI Group Convort Ltd, denied any violations and declined to comment on the OCCRP test results.
“We can prove every step with documents, and this indeed allowed SI Group Convort Ltd to successfully resolve all issues with law enforcement,” he said.
At the same time, Marchevsky provides no additional documents to journalists.
Bad traces
Now the landfill has acid lakes measuring 10-30 meters in length, as well as empty rusty barrels in which deadly chemicals were previously stored.
Local residents still gather mushrooms and berries in the nearby forest. They do not understand that hexachlorobenzene can spread through the body via air or skin contact and remain in the body for many years.
Many speak of the region’s terrifying plague — cancer. People say that none of the authorities ever told them that HCB can cause cancer.
“In every fourth house someone dies of cancer,” says Vasyl Shapko from the village Sivka Kaluska, a few kilometers from the landfill. “My mother died six days ago from brain cancer. My cousin died of bone cancer,” tears welling in the man’s eyes.
While Ivano-Frankivsk region, where Kalush is located, boasts some of the lowest cancer rates in Ukraine (223-244 cases per 100 thousand people), in Kalush and its surrounding area the figures are among the worst — 293 cases per 100 thousand people.
Doctors at the city’s central clinic say many residents also suffer from respiratory diseases.
Lidiya Kharkevich, a therapist at Kalush polyclinic, sees a link between chemical wastes and respiratory problems. “Every second Kalush resident suffers from respiratory diseases: asthma, bronchitis, infections,” she says, adding that she is convinced it is connected to buried chemical wastes.
The trouble is that proving that chemical wastes cause health problems is very difficult; proving it requires extensive epidemiological testing that could take many years. But the local authorities have no plans to conduct such tests in Kalush.
Ecologists predict that poison from the landfill will reach groundwater in the Lymnytsia and Sivka rivers, which flow into the Dniester and then into the Black Sea.
“Kalush’s ecological problems will turn into a cross-border catastrophe,” says Kalush ecologist Mykhailo Dovbenchuk.
“Moldovan authorities are deeply concerned … (since) 80 percent of the country’s population uses water from the Dniester. River pollution threatens water resources and winegrowing. If this happens, Moldova will sue the Ukrainian authorities for millions of dollars, but the Ministry of Ecology seems not to realize this,” Dovbenchuk adds.
Waste business
In 2014 year the State Financial Inspectors of Ivano-Frankivsk region noted that SI Group Convort did not have the qualifications to collect and export toxic wastes from Kalush, as it lacked the proper license to manage hazardous waste; thus, the company should not have won tenders.
The company claimed that such a license is not required in Israel, where it is registered.
In response to OCCRP’s request, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection disputed this claim and stated that all parties handling hazardous waste must have a special permit (Poisons Permit) and a ministry permit if the company transfers hazardous substances to treatment facilities outside the country.
Interestingly, in 2011 year the tender committee of the Sumy regional state administration did not accept the Israeli company’s proposal because it could not prove it had equipment, staff, or experience in handling hazardous waste in Ukraine.
Yet, despite this, SI Group Convort Ltd continued to win tenders. Some figures, however, do not add up.
In 2011 year the state paid SI Group Convort Ltd 331 million hryvnias for collection and removal of 9500 tons of soil contaminated with HCB. These wastes were exported to Poland.
Wastes brought from Ukraine lie just on the bank of the Baltic Sea.
Under the contract, all wastes were to be destroyed within 365 days. But SI Group Convort Ltd sent the wastes to a combustion plant in Gdansk, which can process only 1000 tons of waste per year. As a result, tons of poisonous wastes remain near the plant, leading to accusations against Krzysztof Puz, the Polish official responsible for the operation of waste incinerators in Gdansk.
A year after signing the contract with the Israeli company, Ukrainian politicians began to ask questions.
In February 2012 year Ukrainian MP Yuriy Kamazyn asked the General Prosecutor’s Office to look into what is going on with SI Group Convort Ltd and how Kalush is being cleaned of hazardous wastes. Then Deputy General Prosecutor Viktor Zanfirov replied that the investigation moved slowly because the company continues to win contracts.
21 February 2013 year regional department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kalush opened a criminal case about embezzlement by officials of the Main Directorate of Regional Development and Construction of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, specifically during Kalush’s cleanup from HCB wastes.
In summer, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Yuriy Boyko ordered state agencies to build in Ukraine a plant for destroying hazardous wastes so that the state would not spend hundreds of millions of hryvnias on disposal of toxic substances abroad.
In July 2013 year central executive authorities of Ivano-Frankivsk city state administration held a meeting to discuss the Kalush environmental situation. Sitting at the same table with SI Group Convort’s shareholder Illya Marchevsky, who at that time was already involved in two criminal cases, Ukrainian officials rejected the idea of building a plant and asked the state for more money to process HCB wastes.
For unknown reasons Boyko retreated. Within a month he instructed the relevant ministries to find additional funds for disposal, transport, and destruction of hazardous wastes from the Kalush region.
And in November 2013 year SI Group Convort Ltd won another tender for 172 million hryvnias.
Other contracts, other poison
Not only residents and government officials in Ivano-Frankivsk region criticize SI Group Convort Ltd. In 2012 year the company won a tender in Vinnytsia region for 35 million hryvnias to remove and destroy about 1024 tons of toxic substances from Europe’s largest chemical landfill at the Jaurin landfill near the village of Dzhurin.
Local authorities say the Israeli firm removed only about 30% of the wastes.
Anatoliy Ishchenko, a specialist at the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of Vinnytsia Oblast, explains that the actual amount of wastes turned out to be much larger than the contract anticipated.
Serhiy Honcharuk, head of the village council of Dzhurin, recalls how SI Group Convort Ltd left a waste pit open, and months later local officials had to fill the toxic cemetery with their own funds.
In September 2014 year OCCRP handed samples of soil from a field near the toxic cemetery to the Kyiv City Laboratory Center. Specialists found that the DDT concentration in the soil exceeded the norm by three times.
While many residents worry about possible exposure to toxins, there is a lack of official data about the region’s ecological situation. “We have not conducted any studies on the health impact of chemical substances on local residents,” states Oleksandr Nahorny, chief physician of the Dzuryin hospital.
But residents of villages near the poison dumps are convinced that chemical burial sites are the cause of their illnesses. “People lose their hair and die of cancer; cattle die of leukemia,” says Maria, who does not want to reveal her surname. She lives in the village Rusava (population 1200), several kilometers from the Dzuryin toxic cemetery.
According to the head of the Ukrainian Association of Toxicologists, Mykola Prodanchuk, the pesticide DDT, banned in most countries, can damage the immune system and cause cancer.
Nevertheless, at least one farmer continues to grow raspberries and wheat within 50-meter distance from the Dzuryin cemetery. He ignores government directives about a protective zone of at least three kilometers around the toxic waste burial site. The only way to know whether the raspberries and wheat contain DDT is to conduct laboratory tests. Yet farmer Mykola Kuba, owner of this field, says he has no time for such nonsense.
First Deputy Head of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kravchuk, says that in this case responsibility for illegal cultivation of wheat and raspberries in the sanitary zone lies with the farmer, as there is a moratorium on inspections of entrepreneurs by regulatory bodies.
“Legally we do not have the right to go and see whether raspberries are being grown in the sanitary zone,” Kravchuk says. “All responsibility lies with the farmer. But any citizen can go to the police and sue the farmer.”
However, local residents say they have no plans to sue their neighbor, because they do not buy products from his farm and do not want to spoil relations.
Waste returns?
SI Group Convort Ltd appeared in three criminal cases of embezzlement of budget funds by high-ranking officials of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast’s Department of Construction and Architecture. While the criminal cases are under investigation, Marchevsky freely travels from Ukraine to Israel and back.
Moreover, his company demands 294 million hryvnias as compensation for a debt that the state supposedly owes to SI Group Convort Ltd.
Marchevsky warned that if the debt is not paid, he may soon return more 8000 tons of hazardous wastes back to Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Ecology says it has no plans to pay.
Despite this, in 7 July the Higher Antitrust Court of Ukraine ruled that Ivano-Frankivsk authorities must pay the company 294 million hryvnias.
The Israeli company continued exporting wastes until the end of 2014 year.
In Kyiv city administration, it is noted that over 2013-2014 years the company exported about 300 tons of hazardous wastes from the Kyiv plant “Radikal.”
Text: Liubov Velychko (Ukraine), Yossi Melman (Israel)
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мільярд на вітер: після офіційного завершення очистки у Калуші залишився гексахлорбензол, люди масово вмирають від раку". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Bihus.Info.
