Large Paper Mill Closed on Russia’s Lake Baikal

The Baikalsk pulp and paper mill, the largest source of pollution on Russia’s Lake Baikal, will close immediately, a decision hailed by environmentalists who have sought for decades to shut down the plant. For more than 40 years, the mill — now owned by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska — dumped thousands of tons of dioxins and other pollutants into Lake Baikal. Yet because the lake is the world’s deepest — it is more than a mile deep in some places — and holds 20 percent of the world’s above-ground freshwater supplies, it managed to absorb the pollution and still remain one of the most pristine bodies of water on the planet. Plant officials said the mill was closing because recent pollution controls made it difficult to operate profitably and because the global economic crisis had slowed demand. The plant had employed 1,400 people. After learning of the closure, one local environmental activist said, “Now the lake can begin to heal itself.”