Analysis of environmental activities of mining enterprises on the example of PAO Severstal

The authors analyzed the environment protection measures and effectiveness of the environmental activities atCherepovetsiron and steel works which is situated vitally close to the specially protected natural area of international importance Darwin Nature Reserve. They show that the measures taken cover all essential issues to decrease the negative impact of the iron and steel works on the local ecosystems and human health according to the modern world practice. The measures include defining the basic pollutants and monitoring their release, modernizing manufacturing equipment to reduce contaminated wastewater discharges, air and soil pollution, safe disposal of industrial waste and diversified monitoring of the local environment. The above mentioned activities resulted in significant reduction of industrial waste, reduced water consumption and decrease in wastewater and soil pollution. After analyzing data of the independent monitoring of the environment the authors noted high efficiency of environment protection activity carried out in different years atCherepovetsiron and steel works. The results of the studies and the authors’ field research inDarwinnature resort showed improvements in the environmental conditions in the local area including improvement of the general state of the nature resort’s ecosystems. The state of the environment has basically improved, for example, in the past 5 years the air inCherepovetshas become cleaner, the pollutant content in soil and vegetation inDarwinnature resort area has also reduced.