Bukhtarma reservoir

Located in the East Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan.

It occupies a large part of the Bukhtarma depression .

The reservoir area is 5490 km², volume - 49.6 km³, length - 425 km, maximum width - 35 km ^[1] , average depth 9.6 m ^[2] . In the valleys of the Bukhtarma , Narym and Monchekur Depression there are bays 30–50 km long and up to 10 km wide. The reservoir creates a deepwater path and improves the navigation conditions of ships on the Irtysh.

Also used for irrigation ^[1] .

The filling of the reservoir began in 1960 with the help of the dam of the Bukhtarma hydroelectric station ^[1] . Since 1966, it has been carrying out long-term regulation of runoff. The reservoir consists of 2 sections: river - along the Irtysh river valley, and Zaysan lake, on the site of which a wide stretch has formed.

On June 23, 2013, an unknown spot of white-gray color was discovered in the reservoir, which stretched for 7 kilometers. Samples were taken for analysis in the laboratory and analytical control department of the Department of Ecology. On July 2, according to the results of analysis in water samples, an excess of salt ammonium content by 37 times and nitrates by 136 times was found. According to the environmental prosecutor's office, the pollution on the reservoir went from above, from the Bukhtarma river. As it turned out, near the village of Turgusun in the Altai (Zyryanovsky) district , a dam is being built on the river bank, the construction of which uses soil from the dump of a former mine ^{[3] [4] [5]} .

With the collapse of the USSR and the further liquidation of state sanitary supervision and control in the country, the Bukhtarma reservoir became polluted by sewage. Since 1998, the treatment facilities of the Blue Bay holiday home have not been working, sewage from the recreation center house is discharged from a pipe located at a depth of 15 meters ^[6] .

Local residents have repeatedly paid attention to sewage pipe waste that enters the Bukhtarma reservoir, however, government officials from the Department of Ecology stated that the water meets sanitary and environmental standards ^[7] . In July 2019, a water study was conducted, which recorded the presence of 24 thousand bacteria of E. coli per liter of water ^[8] . Currently, a criminal case has been instituted against the administration of the Blue Bay for violating environmental laws ^[9] .

In August 2019, local residents hired professional divers, who dived six times under the water of the reservoir, walked along the pipe to the very end, where sludge with a persistent smell of sewage was taken for analysis. As a result of the study of samples, independent experts revealed an excess of bacteria of 70 thousand units, with a norm of 5 thousand units ^{[10] [11]} .

In the western foothills of the Narym ridge, on the eastern coast of the Bukhtarma reservoir, two Paleolithic sites were discovered - Kurchum-1 and Kurchum-2. The buffy clay deposits where artifacts were discovered correspond to the Ust-Ubinsk Formation, the upper boundary of which dates from approx. 1.8 million liters n The underlying red-colored clay may belong to the Pavlodar or Vtorushkinskaya suite of the Pliocene ^[12] .

• Virtual tour of the Bukhtarma reservoir (neopr.) (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment October 19, 2010. Archived July 13, 2011.