The Likhoborka River is located in Moscow, in the North-Eastern Administrative District. It is considered the right tributary of the Yauza, it is the longest of the small rivers of the capital. Its total length is more than 30 kilometers, while only 10.5 flow in an open channel, 17.5 - in an underground collector and a little more than two kilometers - in a bypass channel. Thus, it is also the longest underground river in Moscow. Its basin area is 58 square kilometers.
It originates in the area of the village of Novo-Arkhangelskoye, its mouth is located near the Botanichesky Sad metropolitan metro station, near the Yauza River. Since 1991, the mouth of this river has been officially declared a natural monument.
Geographic location
The source of the Likhoborka River is in the picturesque forests near the village of Novo-Arkhangelskoye. Not far from Korovino, it receives the right tributary - the Businka, and after that it flows alongunderground collector. It returns to the surface only in the area of Likhoborskaya embankment, crossing the Savelovskoye and Oktyabrskoye directions of the metropolitan railway.
After that, the path of the Likhoborka River runs directly under the depot of the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya metro line. Flowing along the northeastern outskirts of the Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it flows into the Yauza (near the Botanichesky Sad metro station).
The main use of the Likhoborka River is to flood the Moscow and Yauza rivers with Volga water, which is discharged from the Khimki reservoir through the Golovinsky Ponds.
Name
Most likely, the name of the river was given by the forests that surrounded it in the 16th century. The whole area was then covered with oak forests, hills and birch groves.
The Likhoborka River, the photo of which is in this article, could also get its name from "Likhoy Bor" - that was the name of the road to Dmitrov, which was considered extremely dangerous because of the robbers hiding in these dense forests. According to another version, it may owe its name to the villages of Upper and Lower Likhobory.
Under Emperor Peter I, it was planned to organize part of the waterway to the Volga along the bed of this river.
In 1765, the English merchant Franz Gardner built a porcelain factory in these places, which has survived to this day.
In Soviet times
During the Soviet era, the Likhoborka River in Moscow became shallow. On the map of 1952 we can meetonly a stream on the site of the Khovrinsky hospital, then there was a wetland.
During the Great Patriotic War, trenches were dug on the territory of the Botanical Garden, and artillery stood on the bank of Likhoborka itself.
In the 50s of the last century, work on uranium enrichment began in Moscow, which was carried out under the leadership of Beria. The goal was to create a nuclear shield and conduct research in the field of peaceful atom. At that time, radioactive dumps began to form in the area of the capital. According to historians, waste from hazardous production was brought outside the city, where it was covered with a meter-long layer of soil. The burial ground on the Likhoborka River is considered one of the most dangerous radiation dumps in Moscow.
Tributaries
The right tributary of the Likhoborka is the Businka River, which flows in the north of the capital. Its length is only 4.5 kilometers, moreover, part of it is in the collector. The river begins near two solid waste landfills, and under the Moscow Ring Road goes into the collector, leaving the surface only in the industrial zone. After that, she again returns to the collector - up to the confluence with Likhoborka.
The Zhabenka River connects the Nizhnye Likhobory and Petrovsko-Razumovskoe areas near Moscow. In high water, it overflows strongly, flooding the coastal villages. Deguninsky creek is also known as Spirkov vrazhek. Today, it is entirely in an underground sewer.
Left tributary of the Likhoborka - Cow Enemy stream. Also, the tributaries of this river include Aksinin, Beskudnikovsky, Bogoyavlensky streams, Golovinsky ponds.
Ecopark
In 2004, the city authorities created an ecological park called "Likhoborka". It has been declared a natural monument of regional significance. Soon they began to put in order the banks of several Moscow rivers at once, a plan for the improvement of the Likhoborka river embankment was drawn up. In addition, the channel was cleaned, parking lots and garages were removed from the adjacent territories, sports and entertainment, cultural and leisure facilities were erected.
Since 2014, when the management of Moscow parks received the right to independently distribute money for the repair and improvement of territories, the Likhoborka River Valley park was transferred to the management of Lianozovsky Park.
Now it is planned to create a specially protected natural area at this place. In the summer of 2017, work was carried out to deepen and clean the riverbed from debris, and coastal zones were equipped. It was noted that the previous cleaning was carried out only in 1939. At the same time, the Archnadzor issued an order anyway, noting that the pond was cleaned without all the necessary approvals, heavy tracked vehicles were used, which caused damage to the entire ecosystem.
The metropolitan government plans to organize a green area with places for cycling and walking. The park "Valley of the Likhoborka River" is located on Altufevsky Highway, 8a.
In 2017, it was planned to build the first Buddhist temple in the capital with a size of almost three thousand square meters on the banks of Likhoborka.
Coastal Development
In 2016, it became known that the banks of Likhoborka could be built up. The Moscow government decided to withdraw for these purposes the experimental fields of the Timiryazev Academy, which were located just on the river bank.
The problem was that groundwater, located directly under these fields, fed not only Likhobroka, but also the ponds of the Timiryazev Academy, reservoirs at VDNKh, connecting them with each other. It is expected that the development and drainage of these areas will cause serious damage to the adjacent forest, which is home to many animal species rare for the capital.
Now these places are under active development. The main disadvantages are the lack of a metro station in the area of Likhoborskaya Embankment, the metro lines do not pass even in the immediate vicinity of these places. The nearest station is the "Water Stadium", located on the Zamoskvoretskaya line. It's more than two kilometers from the waterfront, so it's closest to ground public transport.
At the same time, do not go public transport on the embankment itself, and the nearest stops are located in the area of Avtomotornaya and Onezhskaya streets. There are fixed-route taxis and more than a dozen large-capacity city bus routes.
Ecological status
Now the river valley is in a critical ecological state, it is simultaneously polluted by several dozen environmentally unfavorable enterprises, as well as snow-melting chambers of Mosvodokanal.
Since 2008 in the areaKhovrinsky industrial zone, just 50 meters from the river, there was an unauthorized dump of solid household waste, the area of which has now reached one hectare. To prevent further garbage dumping, round-the-clock environmental police posts were even set up on the territory. A few months later, another unauthorized dump in the area of the research and production base of Ornamental Plant Growing was placed by two enterprises at once, organizing the removal of solid waste. The capital's communal services began work on clearing the banks of the river from debris only in the autumn of the same year.
Fish resources
Fishing on the Likhoborka River has recently become very difficult. Especially after the mass death of fish was recorded here in the summer of 2008. Presumably, the cause was the release of hot water from one of the nearby thermal power plants. The study of water samples showed that the level of pollutants was not exceeded.
At the very end of 2014, the prosecutor's office found that the state unitary enterprise for the operation of the capital's drainage systems "Mosvodostok" discharged wastewater without conducting their preliminary treatment. Lawsuits have been filed to ensure that wastewater is treated and rendered harmless to pollutant limits.
In January 2014, all news feeds reported that the waters of Likhoborka had turned orange. Ecologists suggested that the cause could be the erosion of coastal clays after heavy rainfall andwarming.
At present, despite the heavy pollution with household waste and the discharge of waste into the river, a lot of diverse vegetation and animals are still preserved in the coastal areas. Now four species of leeches, molluscs, crustaceans, dozens of fish species live in the river. More than fifty birds nest on the shore. Many mallards were found in the Likhoborka basin in 2017.
Place in toponymy
You can meet in Moscow a lot of toponymic objects named after this river, even several Moscow streets. So, at the end of the 19th century, there were the First and Third Likhoborsky dead ends, as well as Verkhnelikhoborskaya, First and Fourth Likhoborsky streets.
And since 1950, Deforestation Street and Newly Designed Driveways have been renamed First, Second and Third Likhoborsky Drives. Nowadays, there is Likhoborsky Bugry Street, and there is also Likhoborskaya Embankment.
