Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and natural resources 2017 number 1

An analysis is made of the ecological status of the Baikal natural territory. The main sources of influence on natural en vironment components. The role of the power industry in atmospheric emissions of pollutants is assessed for each ecological zone. It is shown that in the ecological zone of atmospheric influence the main influence comes from large power generation enter prises, i.e. thermal power stations of the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo industrial center; in the central ecological zone, they are repre sented by numerous large and small boilers located in the coastal zone of Lake Baikal both on the territory of Irkutsk oblast and in the Republic of Buryatia. In the buffer zone, the main sources of emissions include large thermal power stations: Gusinoozersk GRES, and Ulan-Ude CHI-1 and CHI-2. An assessment of the contribution from the power generation facilities to atmospher ic emissions showed that a decrease in emissions of sulfur oxides must be the priority direction of minimizing the anthropogenic load on the atmosphere in the ecological zone of atmospheric influence, and a decrease in the amount of solids (ash and black carbon) emitted by the boilers directly into the ground layer of air in the central ecological zone; in the buffer zone, it is neces sary to arrange a monitoring of pollutants emissions from high energy sources in order to explore the possibility that they can be involved in the distant transport of gaseous emissions. The estimates obtained show that for the Baikal natural territory as a whole, the contribution from the power generation facilities to the pollutants emissions into the atmosphere varies from 60 to 70 %. Main directions are suggested for minimizing the anthropogenic impact of the power generation facilities on the natural environment of the study territory.