Eerie-looking black snow has blanketed portions of Siberia.
The director general of a coal processing factory told a local TV station that a shield that is supposed to keep the coal powder from escaping had failed, resulting in the landscape’s odd appearance, The Siberian Times reported.
Images posted to social media show scenes that look more like ash blanketing the streets after a volcanic eruption.
But local prosecutors are continuing to look for the source of the problem beyond the failed shield. It has affected the cities of Prokopyevsk, Kiselyovsk, and Leninsk-Kuznetsky in the Kemerovo region of Russia, according to The Siberian Times.
#Russia is a country of outstanding natural beauty and diversity. But the sheer lack of environmental regulations is a devastating effect for residents in #Kuzbass, where last night there was BLACK SNOW. pic.twitter.com/zMiEWBJbnh
— Khodorkovsky Center (@mbk_center) February 14, 2019
Some think that Russian authorities have turned a blind eye to the problem and allowed companies to continue mining without addressing their ongoing safety violations and failures to meet regulations. Another issue is that open pit mines in Russia are often located too close to the populations in towns and villages, The Guardian reported.
The deputy governor of the Kemerovo region, Andrei Panov, is meeting with environmentalists who are unconvinced that the problem stems from any one factory, The Siberian Times reported. Panov said the problem could stem from coal-burning factories, pollution related to transportation, and unspecified businesses, according to The Guardian.
The Moscow Times reported on Dec. 19 that authorities painted over black snow with white paint in one town. Local media showed images of a local reaching into the snow and coming out of it with a sticky white residue.
“I apologize to the townspeople whose New Year’s mood was spoiled by this,” Dmitry Ivanov, the head of the town, said in a statement published by The Moscow Times.
With the large number of open pit mines in the region not following regulations, local environmentalists say that such conditions create health problems, and puts the life expectancy of people in the region at three or four years lower than the average for people in Russia. Cancer, child cerebral palsy, and tuberculous rates are also above the national average.
View this post on Instagram#внашейдеревне #экология #blacksnow Наглядный пример из чего состоит воздух в городе.
An environmentalist told The Guardian that the black dust in the air was a year-round issue.
“It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter,” said Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the Ecodefense environmental group. “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year but it is still there.”
Russian environmentalists say the black dust contains dangerous substances, including harmful heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, The Guardian reported.
The coal dust also escapes into the environment because it is loaded onto open train cars where wind and rain can distribute it to towns and rivers along the train’s path.
LOOK: This Siberian town is getting black snow allegedly caused by coal dust from local processing plants pic.twitter.com/cypKY3Mxkm
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) February 18, 2019
Protests are on the rise, which were almost nonexistent in the past, The Guardian reported.
A report by Ecodefense says that the region is the coal heart of Russia and the largest coal mining area in Russia. The report says that the Russian coal mining industry has been devastating to the local environment, but that local residents are accustomed to living in such a situation.
Eerie black snow falls over Siberian region triggering acute pollution concerns from locals. Ghostly pictures of dark snowscapes – which should be pristine white – as blame pointed at failure to filter fumes at coal plant https://t.co/yh15JjJN2n pic.twitter.com/NNJbyK6bvP
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) February 15, 2019
Earlier this month, Associated Press reported accidents at coal mines in the region. In one case, a section of a coal mine collapsed, trapping four miners. One died and the other three were rescued.
In another incident, a truck carrying miners fell off a road and down a slope. Six were killed and 16 were injured. The governor of Kemerovo said that the accidents bring attention to the need for improved safety standards in Kemerovo’s mines.
