The article describes different methods of heat treatment of wastewater sludges from plants and factories and gives the results of studies of convection heating and microwave heating of sludges of waste water from food production facilities. R&D activities alongside with analysis of foreign press on similar topics have resulted in determination of the optimal temperature of heating of wastewater sludges, as well as the relationship of heating temperature and microwave treatment time and treated liquid volume. Changes in wastewater sludge properties (sedimentation, transparency, COD) during the treatment and aerobic stabilization are identified.

Environmental risks – mud springs and losses associated with ineffective measures – lead to environment pollution, increased costs of works, poor economic performance and increased number of technical risks of construction of passages. The consumption of bentonite and the volume of grout to be recycled grow, as well as the amount of works on containment of mud springs and recultivation of disturbed lands. Foam systems and discharge headers are considered as means of mud sping and loss prevention.

The results of remote sensing have shown long-term trends in the transformation of local ecosystems on the mined-out grounds of the Irsha-Borodino and Azey coal fields. Plantation forests in the course of forest recultivation are gradually turning into mixed forests with birch trees, willows etc.

The results of forest recultivation on waste dumps generated during the development of the Irsha-Borodino and Azey brown coal fields. The ideally planned surfaces of waste dumps are gullied, and growing gullies partially destroy the results of forest recultivation activities. Agroecological data on the soil and structure of the vegetation in the areas of forest recultivation are presented.

Technologies of formation of terrain of waste dumps at the open pit coal mines are briefly described. Engineering solutions for earthworks with the use of drag line strippers are developed, and the geometry of waste dumps filled by railroad and road transport is explained. Recommendations on planting trees on slopes of waste dumps by making openings with bulldozers or hydraulic excavators are made.

To prevent underflooding of SDW polygons with geomembranes in the foundation, a design procedure of admissible water ingress into the exploited polygon has been developed. The admissible annual settled sludges is within 12 – 50 mm. To remove surcharge water, it is offered to take away snow from the polygon in the winter time and to raise the filtrate evaporation during its recycling in the summer season. The mathematical model is developed and design dependences for drop evaporation rate are obtained. The sufficient filtrate evaporation degree is reached in its spraying with drop diameter of 0.12 mm from height of 5 m. Recycling allows reducing the filtrate contamination as well. It is denoted the necessity of the upper waterproofing of the polygon after its filling. The developed procedures will be beneficial in designing SDW polygons.

The possibility of using slags as recultivating material, defining, primarily, by the water solubility of the composition components, has been studied. From the results of the investigation of various types of slag materials, their compositions and aqueous extracts in distilled water, the data on variation of pH-value and element migration into quarry and distilled water are obtained. The recultivation process of mined-out space is developed with the use of technogenic waste materials as stowage mixtures on the basis of the results of the investigations taking into account the engineering-geological conditions of the plant and feedstock provision.

Lake Kenon in the city of Chita is a major recreational location. The man-induced load on the water-shed area and basin of the Kenon is caused by exploitation of the territory, i.e. placement of industrial facilities, residential areas, railroads and highways within the water-shed area. The logn-term man-induced load has led to geochemical anomalities in the soil, water and bottom deposits. The results of the comprehensive environmental and geochemical mapping have shown that practically the whole examined area suffers a significant human impact – in the north, there are diverse effects of TPP-1; along the eastern, south-eastern, western and south-western coasts there are a number of smaller-scale threats to the lake's ecosystems; along the southern coast of the lake there is the Trans-Siberian railway. The ecologically significant factor is high pollution of some recreational territories.

The influence of distiller liquid – waste production of soda ash in the watercress Lepidium sativum, alga Scenedesmus quadricauda and the lowest crustaceans Daphnia magna is considered. It is shown that the various test objects differently react on distiller liquid. Harmless times of dilution is for watercress – 43, for algae – 130 and for lower crustacea – 150. To compare the toxic effects of various waste products on the test objects you must select one test object.

The article analyzes the motor vehicle taxation system in the RF and in some leading foreign countries. Against the increasing motor vehicle fleet in the RF, which leads to increased air pollution in large cities, current international and statutory documents governing the emission of harmful substances in motor vehicle exhausts are analyzed. Release of solid particles (SP) in exhausts is compared to the amount of solids generated by tyre wear. Tyre wear particles are significantly more (26-60 times with vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes and 150 times with trucks) than exhaust particles. The author proposes to reconsider the annual ecotax on the basis of environmental damage determined by the procedures of the State committee for environmental protection (1999).

Definition of the development stability is carried out by morphogeometric method with the use of Procrustean analysis by the value of fluctuating asymmetry (FA). Three populations of English oak (Quercus robur) in inundated oak forests of the Klyazma river have been studied. In the population being under the effect of anthropogenic stress (Vladimir city), the FA value is higher than that in Kovrovsky and Melenkovsky districts with less industrial and motor transportation load. Thus, the fluctuating asymmetry can serve as bioindication characteristic of the ecological state of English oak populations.