Editing Bratsk (section)

==Pollution==



Bratsk has often attracted negative attention due to the reported pollution levels of the city. The city was among the Blacksmith Institute's "Dirty Thirty", the thirty most polluted places in the world.<ref name="Blacksmith">The Blacksmith Institute. [http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/ten.php The World's Top Ten Toxic Pollution Problems 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026012447/http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/ten.php |date=October 26, 2006 }}</ref>

[[Bratsk Reservoir]] is one of the world's largest, and has been at the centre of repeated claims about its level of pollution. According to Yuri Udodov, head of the Federal Committee on Ecology (FCE) in [[Irkutsk Oblast]], the reservoir has "the highest rate of discharge of metallic mercury into the environment [in] all of Siberia."<ref name="earthisland.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/winter99/wn_winter99merc.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018051220/http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/winter99/wn_winter99merc.html|url-status=dead|title=Earth Island Institute: Earth Island Journal - World News (Winter/Spring 1998-1999)<!-- Bot generated title -->|archivedate=October 18, 2007}}</ref> The extent of mercury pollution in the ground around the nearby Usolye chemical plant is equal to half the total global production of mercury in 1992.<ref name="earthisland.org"/>

Bratsk Reservoir is the main source of drinking water for the city of Bratsk, and surrounding area. The drinking water is drawn from the part of the reservoir categorised as 'clean'. Due to a number of factors, both man-made and natural, the quality of the water from Bratsk reservoir ranges from 'clean', down to 'dirty'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://water-rf.ru/%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8A%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%8B/877/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%85%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%89%D0%B5|title=Bratsk Reservoir |access-date=1 June 2021}}</ref>