How did hydropower station dams affect the Angara water quality?
The river Angara, its fauna, the main part of which contained endemic baikalian species, have dramatically changed. The major factors are: sharp retarding of the current and pollution, coming from industrial centres – Irkutsk, Angarsk, Usolye- Sibirsk, Bratsk, Ust-Ilimsk – where different industries are developed, including the paper and pulp industry, which is poisoning greatly the Angara waters. The Angara fauna has become much poorer, since many baikalian endemics were replaced by some species widely spread in eutrophic lakes. In the water thickness of the reservoir there occurred much zooplankton, primarily Daphnia, phytoplankton biomass considerably increased, there appeared “in mass” blue-green algae. Water quality continued to be degraded.
