Illegal Toxic Waste Dump Sparks Anger in Russia

Russian authorities said Wednesday they planned to start cleaning up toxic waste that was illegally dumped near a town after outraged residents appealed to the Kremlin.

A chemical company dumped 163 tons of carbon tetrachloride in an abandoned asphalt plant near the small town of Balezino in the Udmurtia region of central Russia.

The town's residents late last week wrote a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev asking him to intervene and accused the regional government of putting 40,000 people at risk.

"The (regional) administration had known about the crime since the end of December but had thoroughly covered it up until March 14, 2012, when the information was revealed on national television," said the letter posted online.

"No practical measures had been taken over that period to eliminate the danger," it said, adding that investigators only began looking into the illegal dumping on March 14.

"The lives and health of nearly 40,000 residents of the district are in extreme danger."

When heated to high temperatures, tetrachloride can generate poisonous phosgene gas, which was used as a weapon during World War I.

The regional government of Udmurtia claims the deadly substance was put in a pit under a 30-centimeter layer of ice and therefore does not pose a health risk.

The chief of staff of the deputy head of the regional government, Robert Bogdanov, said work to remove the waste from the plant would begin Friday.

"We've adopted a plan. We are planning to begin the work on Friday," he told Agence France Presse after the authorities held an emergency meeting earlier on Wednesday.

The chemicals will be loaded into plastic containers and moved to a specially designated waste dump, Bogdanov added.