Parkovy Residents Rebel Against Smoke-Belching Garages
Residents of the Parkovy microdistrict are unhappy with the neighboring garages. It«s all because of the smell of burning, which, they say, penetrates into apartments. This happens when the garage boxes start heating in the cold, and it worsens in windy weather, with the foul smoke drifting towards houses No. 8, 10, and 12 on Krasnopolsky Avenue. People are writing appeals to the regional Ministry of Ecology, the city hall, and even the police. But the problem remains unresolved.
«They Said It Was Just for Storing Cars»
The «Voyazh-2» garages in question are on Professor Blagikh Street, opposite the relatively new «Krasnopolsky» residential complex. Residents are, to put it mildly, not pleased with this proximity.
«For nine months of the year, there»s thick smoke, you can«t breathe,» Olga told 74.RU. «It stinks terribly, there»s barely any oxygen, the smell gets into the apartments, especially when the wind blows our way. When people bought apartments, they were told the garages were just for storing cars, but in fact, commercial activity is going on, which the developer and city administration conveniently kept quiet about. Either don«t grant building permits, or deal with the garage owners.»
Disgruntled residents appealed to the regional Ministry of Ecology, but they say they only received formal replies (available to the editorial office). Below is one of the responses from department representatives:
«Access to the territory of individual garage boxes is restricted. The Ministry of Ecology of the Chelyabinsk Region does not have the right of unimpeded access to the territory of private garage boxes. At the time of the on-site inspection, waste burning was not recorded. On the adjacent territory, no violations of environmental legislation requirements, monitored by the ministry, were identified.»
«In these garages, they burn furniture boards and other junk. And it really smells of acrid toxic smoke,» insist the residents of the «Krasnopolsky» residential complex.
«Let Them Close Their Windows If They Don»t Like It«
Journalists from 74.RU visited the site and saw the very thick smoke that apartment owners are talking about. And, of course, experienced all the aromas, the most tolerable of which was like the smell of a sauna.
We entered many garages; in almost every other one, there were auto repair shops. They are heated mainly with makeshift stoves. Naturally, not all box inhabitants agreed to speak with us.
«It all depends on what people use for fuel—in the stoves, they burn everything imaginable. Who knows what they»re burning, that«s why it smokes; a wood stove smokes,» mused Ivan. «Ours doesn»t smoke much, we have a boiler heated with used oil.«
«This is my garage, it»s cold, surely I have the right to light a stove in my own garage to keep warm,« protested Anton. »They saw when they bought the apartments that there«s a garage cooperative here. Let them close their windows if they don»t like it. What questions can they even have for us? There«s a private sector in the city, after all, where people heat their saunas—on Chaikovskogo Street, for example.»
«We use briquettes—eco-fuel, what they»re smelling, we don«t know. There are just harmful people who always dislike something, just to file a complaint,» snapped another box owner.
The most willing and detailed conversation was with the owner of an auto service center, who has a calorifier in his garage, or more simply, as he says, a stove with a certificate.
A calorifier is a device that heats air. A heat exchanger through which air passes, heated by a heat carrier (water, steam, electricity, or gas).
«Residents come to us, the local police officer comes, so to avoid questions, we installed a calorifier,» said Alexander. «It»s a stove that runs on used oil. Oil and electricity—that«s all. It has an efficiency of 97 percent, it doesn»t smoke, only steam comes out—everything burns completely. In the evening, I take out a cup, and all the soot settles there.«
Alexander used to heat with a wood stove, but now it sits idle.
«As soon as the houses were built, they came to us immediately, wanted to write up a report, so we specifically went to Naberezhnye Chelny for this calorifier,» he continued. «They»re made there, it«s not cheap—112,000 rubles (about $1,100 at current rates), but the fine is bigger—around 200,000 rubles (about $2,000 at current rates).»
«Use of Heating Is Not Prohibited»
The Ministry of Ecology of the Chelyabinsk Region confirmed to 74.RU that they have received complaints from Parkovy residents. Specialists visited the site and assessed air quality.
«According to laboratory tests, no exceedances of maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants in the atmospheric air were recorded,» commented the Ministry of Ecology. «The specified garage boxes are owned by individuals. In accordance with current legislation, the use of stove heating in facilities belonging to citizens is not prohibited.»
The Chelyabinsk Police Department reported that they respond to signals from apartment owners, visit the site, and talk with garage owners. But changing the situation is not within the police«s power.
We have also made an inquiry to the city hall and will publish the response as soon as we receive it.
