Notable case, Karabaš, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia
Karabash
Карабаш
A small town in the southern Urals that grew around a copper smelter operating since 1910. More than a century of sulphurous fumes and metal dust has stripped the slopes around the town and contaminated soil and water; in 1996 it was declared an ecological disaster zone.
At a glance
- Status
- Not addressed
- Activity
- since 1910
- People affected
- 10,339 (2023)1
- Media
- air, soil, surface water, groundwater
- Kind of site
- smelter, mining
- People affected. Estimated population of the town (Wikipedia); it was 17,006 at the 1989 census.
Contaminants
Status
Not addressed
The smelter is operating; since 2004 it has been run by the Russian Copper Company, which began modernising it. In 2009 the ministry removed Karabash from the list of most polluted cities, and in 2020 the regulator Rosprirodnadzor placed the plant under special monitoring for violations. The sources read (2026) do not report any clean-up of the soils already contaminated; this needs checking.
Story
The present Karabash copper smelter was built in 1910 by an English joint-stock company headed by Leslie Urquhart; by 1915 it supplied a third of the copper smelted in Russia. For decades the smelter gases left untreated: in 1996 sulphur dioxide emissions exceeded 118,000 tonnes a year, about 7 tonnes per inhabitant. Russian Wikipedia gives more than 14 million tonnes of harmful emissions in total up to 1989.
The Soviet authorities closed the plant in November 1989; in 1998 it was bought by private owners and restarted. On 25 June 1996 the Ministry of Natural Resources classified Karabash and the surrounding territory as an ecological disaster zone.
According to figures given by Russian Wikipedia, copper, lead, arsenic and manganese in soil, surface water and groundwater exceed the limits hundreds of times over, and mercury, cadmium, nickel and antimony several times over; sulphates are also high. The Sak-Elga River takes the run-off and the industrial discharges and carries them to the Argazi reservoir, which feeds Chelyabinsk's water supply. On the slopes of the hill above the town the vegetation has not grown back.
Timeline
- 1910The present copper smelter is built.
- 1989November: the Soviet authorities close the smelter.
- 199625 June: Karabash is declared an ecological disaster zone.
- 1998The plant, now privately owned, resumes production.
- 2004The Russian Copper Company takes over the smelter and starts modernising it.
- 2020Rosprirodnadzor places the smelter under special monitoring for environmental violations.
Health
A 1994 regional health study, as reported by Wikipedia, found birth defects 3.5 times, skin diseases 2.7 times and digestive disorders 2.1 times more frequent among Karabash children than in the reference population. The original study was not consulted.
Remediation
- 2004emission controlGradual modernisation of production by the Russian Copper Company to reduce emissions.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Phytolacca americanaAmerican pokeweedEvidence: field
- Pteris vittataChinese brake fernEvidence: field
- Ricinus communisCastor beanEvidence: field
- Robinia pseudoacaciaBlack locustEvidence: field
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaeEvidence: greenhouse
- Paxillus involutusBrown roll-rimEvidence: greenhouse
- Pisolithus albusEvidence: greenhouse
- Rhizophagus irregularisEvidence: greenhouse
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Sources
- Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Wikipedia, 2026
- Карабашмедь, Wikipedia (ru), 2026
- Карабаш, Wikipedia (ru), 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.