The Shava River is a tributary of the Volga. It flows through the Kstovo District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, where it joins the regionally significant natural monument Shava Marsh".
The mouth of the Shava is located 2.8 km along the right bank of the The Kudma River.
The river is 31 km long, with a drainage basin area of 239 km².
Three dams.
Shava. Data from the state water register
Belongs to the Upper Volga basin district; the river's water management section is the Volga from the mouth of the Oka to the Cheboksary hydroelectric complex (Cheboksary Reservoir), excluding the The Sura River and Vetluga rivers; the river's sub-basin is the Volga from the confluence with the Oka to the Kuibyshev Reservoir (excluding the Sura basin).
The river basin is the (Upper) Volga down to the Kuibyshev Reservoir (excluding the Oka basin).
- Water body code in the State Water Register — 08010400312110000034394
- Hydrological survey (GI) code — 110003439
- Basin code — 08.01.04.003
- GI volume number — 10
- GI issue number — 0
Ecological catastrophe in the Volga river basin, 19 March 2007
On 13 March 2007, press reports appeared about an accident on the "Almetyevsk–Nizhny Novgorod" oil products pipeline (diameter 530 mm, static diesel fuel pressure 13 atm, pipeline burial depth – 2 meters).
Owner – OAO Srednevolzhsky Transnefteprodukt (Middle Volga Oil Products Transportation Company).
The presumed cause of the leak was damage to the pipeline from subsided ground; the pipeline's owners also floated another version – an illegal tie-in. As a result of the damage to the oil products pipeline near the village of Slobodskoye (Kstovo District), diesel fuel spilled into the soil and then into the Shava River (a second tributary of the Volga).
Downstream, 2 km from the spill site, are the ponds of the Borok fish farm. According to official reports, up to 140 cubic meters of diesel fuel entered the river and moved toward the fish farm.
Staff of the Coordination Center of the "Let's Help the River" movement went to the accident site on 17 March, the eleventh day after the incident. At the fish farm everyone was issued rubber boots and driven to the cleanup site, which had to be reached knee-deep in water through a peat bog. The eleventh day of the accident looked like the first — diesel fuel was everywhere, an enormous amount of it. About 10 pieces of equipment and roughly 15 workers with shovels were working on the river. To keep less diesel fuel from reaching the ponds, the riverbed was blocked off with an earthen embankment and boom barriers.
The "water-diesel" emulsion is being pumped out into two reservoir tanks, then into tanker trucks and sent for processing. Five bags of sorbent that could help clean up the river have been lying unopened for many days now. Shoveling the diesel fuel by hand is apparently more convenient.
It turns out that not 140 but around 2,000 cubic meters of diesel fuel were spilled. This was stated by one of the private contractors involved in the cleanup. The owner of the fish farm believes the same. The figures and the scale of the accident reported officially are strongly understated. Nor is the hasty claim true that the oil products will not reach the Volga. Time will very soon show this. A genuine ecological catastrophe has occurred — not of local but of regional significance, and in our estimation, for the Volga as well.
As a result of the accident, the fish-breeding ponds turned into sludge settling tanks. The ice has not yet broken up, but it is already clear that all the fish have died. And fish farming will not be possible here for many years to come. Because the spring flood had begun, the oil products were carried by the free-flowing water across the whole area; among those affected was the Shava Marsh", and the The Kudma River and Volga rivers and their banks will also be affected. The contamination will get into the groundwater and will keep "working" for years to come. At the accident site there is practically no water left in the river, only diesel fuel a meter deep. Access is being restricted to prevent information from spreading, but staff of the "Let's Help the River" movement managed to take several photographs of the "diesel" river.
The strong smell of oil products caused headaches and nausea, and the cleanup workers were operating without personal protective equipment.
Alexander Anatolyevich Krupin, director of OOO Rybkhoz Borok (Borok Fish Farm LLC), understands that the contamination will leave its mark for many years and that his operation has been ruined. Experts from GosNIORKh are now assessing the damage done to his operation. A criminal case has been opened over the accident. The only question is whether those responsible for the accident will pay the damages in full.
Website of the "Let's Help the River" society
Interesting facts
- In its upper reaches the river is called "Shavka".