From time to time, residents of different regions of Russia become witnesses of hard-to-explain anomalous phenomena. For example, residents of Omsk this year have already twice observed an incomprehensible type of precipitation - in the winter of 2012, black snow repeatedly fell in one of the villages near Omsk. And in August of the same year, residents of the city were surprised to see white powder appearing on the streets.
One day in August, residents of Omsk, going out into the street, found white powder and completely incomprehensible origin in the courtyards of their houses. The precipitation was very similar in appearance and particle size to ordinary washing powder. The substance lay in a thick layer on window sills, foliage, hoods of cars. City services in charge of environmental safety took samples of the unknown substance and transferred them to the Rospotrebnadzor laboratory for research.
The main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Omsk tentatively assumed that the source of abnormal precipitation was a release at a local thermal power plant or at one of the enterprises of an industrial zone located in the north of the city. Until the end of the study of the material, the Ministry of Emergency Situations recommended that parents and preschool institutions limit the walks of their children.
According to the results of laboratory research, it was found that the powder that fell out in Omsk is a fine-crystalline aluminosilicate that does not contain hazardous to health and environmentally harmful mineral phases and toxic inclusions. According to Rospotrebnadzor, air and soil samples also comply with sanitary standards.
Aluminosilicates are a group of non-toxic natural or synthetic substances that are widespread in nature and used in many industries. Presumably, the situation with exotic precipitation arose as a result of a violation of the technological regime at one of the industrial enterprises.
In the immediate vicinity of the powder fallout area there is an oil refinery and a synthetic rubber plant. The version that the powder was ash formed during the combustion of fuel at CHP-4 was refuted by the results of a laboratory study. The described fact is investigated by the relevant services in the manner prescribed by law.
