The need to build a new evaporation pond is due to the impossibility of completing the reclamation of the old settling pond.
As a reminder, a project to reclaim the 1,336.2-hectare left-bank evaporation fields known as “Rotten Beam” began in 2021. These fields, along with the right-bank “Square” evaporation field, were identified as one of the main sources of foul-smelling emissions into Atyrau’s atmosphere.
Since 1945, the “Tukhlaya Balka” (Turn-Turned Beam) has received factory discharges, and later, all the waste from the city’s left bank. Therefore, as part of the project (called Tazalyq), the sedimentation basin was divided into two sections—the “factory” section and the “city” section—and divided into sectors for their gradual drainage.
Reclamation work on the urban portion of Tukhla Balka was completed on schedule in 2023, costing 961.02 million tenge from the National Fund and the national and local budgets. The general contractor was JSC Pavlodar River Port. At the same time, the protracted construction of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on the left bank was completed. It now receives all waste from the left bank and, after treatment, discharges it into the reclaimed portion of the evaporation field. However, the factory portion of the Tazalyq project has been stalled for a long time.
As previously reported , the plant managed to reclaim only two of its four sectors. The left-bank wastewater treatment plant, managed by the Atyrau Oblysy Su Arnasy State Enterprise, refused to accept the plant’s wastewater due to its non-compliance with technological processes. The wastewater treatment plant is designed to receive domestic wastewater, which is significantly different from industrial waste. As a result, reclamation efforts have stalled, as there is simply nowhere to discharge the plant’s wastewater during the work.
According to an official statement from the management of ANPZ, the wastewater treatment plant resumed accepting plant wastewater last summer. However, in September, the plant received a letter from the regional Department of Energy and Housing and Utilities refusing to accept the wastewater “due to a malfunction of the treatment facilities and the inability of biological processes to adapt to the composition of the wastewater.”
During discussions with the Akimat of the Atyrau Region regarding possible solutions to the current situation, the Atyrau Oil Refinery decided to build a new evaporation pond (approximately 500 hectares in area), install a four-kilometer pipeline from the wastewater collector, and install geomembrane insulation in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Code.
Plant specialists are currently developing design and estimate documentation (DED). Construction of the new evaporation pond and its associated infrastructure is planned for 2026-2027, after the DED receives a positive assessment from an external expert review. Only then will it be possible to return to the Tazalyq project.
“After the evaporation pond is completed and wastewater is routed to the new site, it is planned to begin the phased drainage and reclamation of the third and fourth sectors of the existing evaporation fields. Reclamation activities are planned for the period 2027-2029,” stated ANPZ LLC in response to a request from Ak Zhaiyk.
Lev GUZIKOV
Photo by ANPZ and from open sources
Google machine translated