How to Breathe Sulfuric Acid / The Most Polluted City on the Planet

Описание: Karabash is a city in the Chelyabinsk region with a population of 15,000 people. The word "Karabash" means "black peak" in Tatar. The name turned out to be prophetic, everything there really became black and lifeless.

The history of this place began in 1775. The development of an iron ore deposit in the Soymanovskaya Valley began there. However, the official year of the foundation of Karabash is 1822. Copper smelting and iron smelting plants began to be built, the settlement gradually developed. Owners changed, more and more new plants were built, new mines appeared, workers arrived, the range of extracted minerals expanded. Mining became the main business.

By 1915, the plant smelted a third of all copper produced in Russia. However, with the advent of the revolution, everything collapsed. Only in 1925 was the plant reopened. In 1933, the settlement of Karabash received the status of a city. During the entire period of development, ecology was not particularly thought about. For 100 years, the plant successfully burned and covered a huge area around itself with waste. Thus, the city of Karabash turned into a real ecological disaster zone: huge toxic waste heaps, contaminated soil, almost complete destruction of vegetation, polluted air, poisoned rivers, reservoirs and underground waters.