Toxic elements leaked from bottom of reservoir due to undermining of Kakhovka HEPP by russians - study

The Kakhovka HEPP dam undermining not only destroyed local ecosystems, but also contaminated them with heavy metals and other toxic elements that had been stored in sediment at the bottom of the reservoir, according to a study published in the journal Science.

The scientists came to their conclusions by analyzing the level of contamination with these elements before the disaster and modeling their spread after the russian federation's war crime.

According to the researchers, because some local residents still use water from the lakes left after the dam was blown up, toxic elements could pose a serious threat to their health.

Scientists say that the operation of many upstream plants over a long period of time has polluted the waters of the Kakhovka reservoir with elements such as nickel, cadmium, and lead. Scientists have estimated that this could have led to the accumulation of approximately 83,000 tons of these and other toxic elements in a layer of sediment about 1.5 meters thick at the bottom of the reservoir.

The scientists noted that after the dam was blown up, this contaminated sediment spread both downstream and upstream through turbulent flows that mixed different layers of water. Currently, less than 1% of the almost two cubic kilometers of sediment has been washed downstream, but seasonal floods are washing toxic elements out of the dried sediment at the site of the former reservoir and returning them to the waters of the Dnieper.

Another threat to the affected area is that over time these toxic elements accumulate in plants and animal bodies, which can also reach the human body.