Executor department: EGD CENS
Duration (Years): 2006 - 2007
Contractor: OSCE office in Yerevan

Since the former USSR disintegration, a depot of components of rocket fuel – a liquid oxidant called melange (872 tons) has remained in Kaltakhchi military base located on Armenia’s territory. Acid melange is a highly toxic, aggressive, incombustible, fire risk inducing mixture of acids. In certain conditions the mixture of nitrates and organic matter may dra­ma­ti­cal­ly add to fire risks. While in contact with many combustibles, the mixture provokes their spontaneous ignition. In this respect, melange threatens both the populace and the environment. For this reason the RA Ministry of Defense adopted resolution on melange utilization. The OSCE Office in Yerevan provided technical and financial support to the melange utilization project, and on November 7, 2005 OSCE and the RA Ministry of Defence signed an agreement on implementation of treatment process – obtaining a nitrogenous fertilizer for agriculture. Synchronously with technical works on melange utilization, a program was developed on controlling the quality of the fertilizer and ecological monitoring of plausible environmental effects when applying it. The basic research was to complexly assess ecologically significant impacts while implementing the project on melange treatment and applying the obtained mineralized product as Fertilizer in agriculture.