Chusovaya River - Commercial Use

Commercial Use

The Chusovaya River is extensively used for water supply. In particular, water from Volchihinskoe reservoir is supplied to the Upper Iset Pond to serve the needs of Yekaterinburg and its suburbs. In order to improve the water supply, Nyazepetrovsk cascade was built in the mid 1970s. With this hydraulic system, Western Chusovaya was supplied with water from the Nyazepetrovsk reservoir on the Ufa River. There are 15 small reservoirs at the plants on the tributaries of Chusovaya.

The river basin contains numerous deposits of iron, chromium, platinum, gold, diamond and coal. They were developed since the 17th century, some have been depleted and some are still being mined. Major settlements on the river (from source to the mouth) are Revda, Pervouralsk, Bilimbai, Staroutkinsk, Kyn, Ust-Koiva, Chusovoy and Verhnechusovskie Gorodki.

River is navigable from the city of Chusovoy, but the navigation sees very little commercial use nowadays. The railway bridge at the river mouth limits the height of passing ships to 9.5 meters. Besides, between 1930s and early 1980s, the river basin was intensively used for logging; logs were rafted loose, i.e. neither guided nor bundled, that cluttered the river. The last such rafting was carried out on Chusovaya in 1973, and since 1990 it is legally prohibited in Russia.