Scrutiny over waste, gay rights hampers Russia's Olympics prep

Moscow's preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics faced further scrutiny this week amid a newly announced plan to hold "gay games" in response to legislation barring "gay propaganda." In addition, Russia faces allegations it has been illegally dumping waste in a water protection zone that seeps into the river that supplies half of Sochi's water.

Viktor Romanov, the chairman of the board of the Russian LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Sport Federation, said Russia's amateur gay Olympics are set to open in Moscow on Feb. 26, three days after the closing ceremony of the Sochi Olympics.

"We will be grateful to any official or any famous figure who comes to support us," Romanov told Agence France-Presse in an interview late Monday.    

Romanov insisted the group was not breaking a controversial law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June that bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors.

"The law does not cover us, because we are not doing propaganda of homosexuality, but propaganda of sport and a healthy lifestyle," Romanov told the AFP.

The San Francisco-headquartered Federation of Gay Games' spokesman Kelly Stevens confirmed to Al Jazeera that Romanov's organization was a member of the federation, but said that the Moscow event would not qualify as an official Gay Games. 

The Gay Games, launched in 1982, are sporting events of "tens of thousands of people," Stevens said. "This will be a few hundred." 

There are some concerns that Romanov's event will provoke the ire of Russian authorities. 

"There is always a risk with being publicly gay in Russia at this point. I think that the international pressure is on Russia to give basic human rights to gay and lesbian people," Stevens added. 

Compounding pressure from domestic and international parties over gay rights, The Associated Press also revealed Tuesday that Russia had broken its promise to keep Olympic preparations cleaner than ever.

In Sochi, the AP reported, trucks rumble to the edge of a gigantic pit filled with spray cans, tires and foam sheets and dump a stream of concrete slabs that send up a cloud of limestone dust. Other trucks pile clay on top, and a bulldozer mixes everything together in a rudimentary effort to hide the mess. This landfill is smack in the middle of a water protection zone where dumping industrial waste is banned.

As a centerpiece of its Olympic bid, Russia trumpeted a "Zero Waste" program that promised the cleanest games ever, saying it would refrain from dumping construction waste and rely on reusable materials. But on a visit last week to Akhshtyr, just north of Sochi, the AP found that Russia's state-owned rail monopoly is dumping tons of construction waste into what authorities call an illegal landfill, raising concerns of possible contamination in the water that directly supplies Sochi.

The finding shows how little Russia has done to fulfill its ambitious green pledges. Its $51 billion budget for the Olympics contains no provisions for treating construction waste.

In a letter obtained by the AP, the Environmental Protection Agency in the area where Sochi is located told the Black Sea resort's environment council in late August that it had inspected the Akhshtyr landfill and found "unauthorized dumping of construction waste as well as soil from excavation works." The agency said it fined Russian Railways, whose Sochi project costs billions of dollars, $3,000 for the dumping. It didn't order the dump closed.

The EPA's Sochi representative visited the site earlier this month and insisted it was being cleaned up, villagers and activists who were present at that meeting said. The agency was unavailable for comment this week.

The main health concern surrounding the landfill is to the water supply.

Authorities confirm that Russian Railways operates the Akhshtyr dump without a license — but it wouldn't be able to obtain one even if it tried. That's because the village lies in an area where dumping construction waste and soil is forbidden under the Russian Water Code. Moisture from the landfill seeps through porous karst rocks into underground springs that feed the nearby Mzymta River, which provides up to half the water supply in Sochi.

"Water from here will be contaminating Sochi's fresh water springs for the next 10 to 15 years," said Vladimir Kimaev, a member of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus.

Boris Golubov, a geologist with the Russian Academy of Sciences, said it is impossible to accurately judge the impact of the Akhshtyr dump without a chemical breakdown of the waste and a full geological survey of the rocks. He said, however, that the landfill's location on karst is potentially hazardous.

"Whenever you start dumping something or dig, you've got to think twice," Golubov said.

Russian Railways is building the most expensive piece of Sochi infrastructure, a 30-mile highway and railroad link between the airport and the Alpine venues that has already cost the government 270 billion rubles ($8.5 billion). Putin was in Sochi this week to inaugurate a train station that serves as a hub for the link ahead of celebrations Tuesday marking exactly 100 days before the opening ceremony.

Massoud Hayoun contributed to this report, with wire services.