A new look at the dependence of the pollution of Orenburg water objects on the intensity of motor transport traffic

The article presents the materials of research work related to a non-standard methodological approach to assessing the contribution of pollution from motor transport, which became possible due to the pandemic that broke out on the planet and restrictive measures on COVID-19. A new approach to the assessment of pollutants from automobile emissions entering surface water bodies from the atmosphere was considered, based on a comparison of monitoring data for the period: 2019 – 2020. The work reflects the results of the analysis of the dynamics of the air and water state in the Ural river, as well as its right-hand tributary – the Sakmara river near the town Orenburg in the period 2019-2020. The impact of restrictive measures on COVID-19 on the degree of air pollution in the town Orenburg and water in the Ural and Sakmara rivers is estimated. Studies have shown that in 2020, compared with the previous year, the traffic intensity of cars decreased by 20%, and during the lockdown period (April – May) by 60%, which led to a reduction in the air content of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide, and in the water of both rivers: suspended solids; common iron; nitrite and nitrate nitrogen. A comparison of the data obtained allowed us to apply a new approach to assessing the specific contribution of one conditional car to the pollution of the Ural and Sakmara rivers. This contribution, consisting in the insufficient intake of absolute values of pollutants into the water of rivers, due to the conditional downtime of 1 car in 2020 due to restrictions on COVID-19, amounted to 175.0 and 696.5 kg/year for the Ural and Sakmara rivers, in particular, for suspended solids, respectively; for general iron – 0.545 and 0.727 kg/ year; the sum of nitrite and nitrate nitrogen – 0.657 and 0.923 kg / year. It is noted that these are estimated calculations that demonstrate how to use the unique data that have developed as a result of the announcement of restrictive measures for the outbreak of a pandemic to assess difficult-to-diagnose diffuse effluents.

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