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IN FRONT:: Lake Baikal. in southern Siberia not far from the Mongolian border, contains more water than the Great Lakes combined. It stretches 450 miles and plunges 6,000 feet-making it the deep- est lake on earth. Baikal is home to more than 3,000 plant and animal species, 2,000 of which are found nowhere else on earth. Amongst the indigenous species are the nerpa, a freshwater seal. and the epishura, a bacteria-eating crustacean. The water is so clear that from the sur- face you can see to a depth of 140 feet-peering over the edge of a boat often causes vertigo. But this could all disappear. Every day for the last 35 years. a Russian pulp and paper mill in Baikalsk has pumped 140.000 tons of dioxin-laced waste water into Eurasia's largest supply of fresh water. When the Soviet government built the mill in 1966. it was hailed as an industrial triumph. It produced "super" cellulose used for aircraft tires and provided jobs in economically depressed Siberia. For 36 years the plant prospered. employing 3.500 people. but also befouling Baikal's waters with sulfur emissions. chlorine and dioxin. After decades of lobbying by environmentalists. Russian and foreign alike. the mill. old and obsolete. may finally close. But the battle has only just begun-environmentalists have recently identified another source of pollution. Biologists in the region found that pollution from the mill spread only 60 miles from the original dumping point. yet in the last 10 years. populations of nerpas. imperial eagles and mollusks in other parts of the lake have been showing increas- ing evidence of dioxin exposure. It didn't take long for them to pinpoint the reason. One hundred miles to the north. the Selenge (selen-GAH) River spills into Lake Baikal after winding through hundreds of miles of Mongolian steppe. Along its path. the Selenge streams through cattle fields and industrial towns collecting pesticides. silt and chlorine. Meat processing and tanning industries on the river's banks dump chemical and organic waste into the water. 'The river is rampant with pollution:' explains Gary Cook. director of San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute's Baikal Watch project. "But Mongolia's economy is so shaky right now. cattle is the only way to make money." Environmental regulation is nonexistent. The river fans into the Selenge Delta. on Lake Baikal's south shore. There. the omul. once the lake's most fecund fish . is now endangered. Nerpa populations have declined dramatically. Water temperatures have risen. causing epishura to dwindle. Residents living near the delta now boil lake water before drinking it-unthinkable 20 years ago. If the Selenge isn't detoxified immediately. scientists fear within 10 years Baikal may be irrevocably polluted . People with an economic stake in a clean Baikal may be the ones to save it. Locals. suffering from high unemploy- ment. are acutely aware that a polluted Baikal isn't much of a tourist attraction and are increasingly marketing the region's nat- ural wonders to travelers. Skiers can carve turns at a new resort just miles from the mill. Houseboats teeming with European tourists bob about the lake's choppy waters. With livelihoods now pinned to the lake's condition. local governments. with the help of NGOs. have started working with Mongolian industry to monitor emissions into the Selenge.-jordan Stolper