Word: baikal
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...plant's output showed that this hypothesis was unfounded. More important, the aviation industry switched from rayon cord to metallic cord. Whatever rationale the Baikal complex may once have had -- and it never offset the potential harm to the lake -- vanished. Construction nevertheless went ahead, with whole armies of officials defending their decision and saving face by insisting on the complex's importance for the defense of the country, the usual clinching argument...
...swallow up 35 acres of shoreline in the 19th century; it was a seismically active region. But instead of canceling the project, the authorities transferred responsibility to the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. One scientist taunted me: "Do you know who's in charge of the murder of Baikal? Your own Slavsky!" New plans were drawn up for earthquake-resistant aluminum-and-glass buildings supported by steel piles. But the buildings are still vulnerable to the major earthquakes that have occurred there once or twice a century...
...problem now was treatment of toxic waste. The pollution caused by floating logs down the rivers that empty into the lake kills the spawn of most fish, including the Baikal omul, which a century ago rivaled beef as a source of food for all Russia. The accidental discharge of effluents, deforestation and fire also threatened the fragile ecological balance of the region. We proposed that the lakeshores be closed to new industry and existing enterprises be moved...
...meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, who was handling the Baikal project, asked Mstislav Keldysh, president of the Academy of Sciences, "What does the academy recommend? If the safeguards aren't reliable, we'll stop construction." Keldysh quoted a report that the water-purification system and other safeguards were completely reliable. He may have been acting in good faith. Still, my feeling is that his stand was greatly influenced by the academy's dependence on the bureaucratic machine, and that he was predisposed to respect the wishes of this machine and to ignore the warnings...
Only a couple of years after these events, a Komsomol expedition brought back photographs showing the massive destruction of Baikal's fish and plankton caused by toxic wastes. No accidental discharges had been logged. As always, everything was fine on paper...