Environmental Impact Assessment of Copper Production: A Case Study on Alaverdi Copper Factory in Armenia

Alaverdi is located in the northern Armenia within the Debed River Valley. The ACP copper-smelting plant is the only functioning factory in the town and provides jobs for 500 people. The factory was closed during the collapse of the USSR and some year after that, it was privatized and restarted. However, Production was substantially decreased and as a consequence, the environmental impact got worsened as there is no any filtration for off-gases and the side acid factory is not operating anymore to use the emitted gasses and waste materials of the smelter. The aim of this book is to investigate and evaluate the environmental impacts of copper production in Alaverdi. Although the comprehensive environmental impact assessment needs all the pollutants and pollutions to be defined, this book is limited to assessment of local copper production. It includes a comprehensive study of available data and statistics about environmental status of Alaverdi region and the copper smelter. An statistical analysis to show the effect of industrial polluted water on fertility of agricultural soil is performed which can be easily extended to other polluted media such as air.