--- title: Instagrammers Warned That Siberian Maldives Are Toxic Dump description: An important reminder that not everything on Instagram is real, warning that "Siberian Maldives" are a toxic waste dump can't stop selfies. canonical: https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-11T14:38:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:27.390Z og:title: People Taking Stunning Selfies Warned That Turquoise Lake Is a Toxic Dump og:description: An important reminder that not everything on Instagram is real og:url: https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73df99254320e430/6989ffddb3fce3ec7a0c5379/toxicwastedumpselfies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: Beach and sea og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Taking Stunning Selfies Warned That Turquoise Lake Is a Toxic Dump twitter:description: An important reminder that not everything on Instagram is real twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73df99254320e430/6989ffddb3fce3ec7a0c5379/toxicwastedumpselfies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Warning That Gorgeous Turquoise Blue Lake Is Actually a Toxic Waste Dump Doesn't Stop the Selfies > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b70981b3-7cdd-4e1f-aa7a-acfe927bb2d4&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 11, 2019 2:38 PM UTC  Beach and sea Beach and sea ansonmiao—Getty Images/iStockphoto by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 11, 2019 2:38 PM UTC [Instagram](https://time.com/5619999/instagram-mosseri-bullying-artificial-intelligence/) is filled with beautiful images of beautiful people standing in beautiful scenery captioned with beautiful, heartfelt words about living your best life. Of course, not everything on Instagram is what it seems and that is certainly apparent in the case of the so-called Siberian Maldives, near Novosibirsk, Russia. The images that populate the location’s Instagram page show a serene, turquoise blue lake offering a slice of a tropical paradise, but in Siberia. It’s easy to understand why would-be [Instagram](https://time.com/5619870/instagram-bullying-restrict/) influencers, travel bloggers, yoga models, and newlyweds stand alongside the iridescent blue waters, using the alluring lake as a backdrop for their FOMO-inducing photography. There’s just one small problem: It’s not a pristine wilderness, but a man-made toxic waste dump. [According to _The New York Times_,](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/world/europe/siberia-lake-instagram.html) the lake was built to house waste products from Heating and Electrical Station Number 5, a power plant. The water’s gorgeous aquamarine hue is in no way natural, but rather the result of “deposits of calcium salts and metal oxides” and completely toxic. This has not stopped people from flocking to the site to take photographs. As the site became increasingly popular as an Instagram backdrop, the operator, Siberian Generating Company, was forced to issue a [statement](https://vk.com/wall-69565444%5F11367) warning people to avoid, you know, touching the water. “It is not poisonous,” the company said, according to the _Times_, noting that while “the radiation level is normal” it has a “high pH value from the coal ash that is pumped into it” and “can cause allergic reactions.” The company strongly advised people to not fall in “while hunting for selfies” not only because of the water, but due to the lake’s muddy bottom, which makes it “almost impossible” to get out. This has not stopped Instagrammers from posing near the lake with [pink flamingo floats](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzW%5F-PsnjP4/) or on [paddleboards](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzPSpponlC9/) or stepping into the water with [a unicorn raft](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzfIhjynbZv/). The photos of this “tropical paradise” are a perfect cautionary tale to remind [social media users](https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/) that not everything you see on Instagram is real life. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/"},"headline":"Warning That Gorgeous Turquoise Blue Lake Is Actually a Toxic Waste Dump Doesn't Stop the Selfies","datePublished":"2019-07-11T14:38:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:27.390Z","description":"An important reminder that not everything on Instagram is real","url":"https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Instagram","influencers"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73df99254320e430/6989ffddb3fce3ec7a0c5379/toxicwastedumpselfies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73df99254320e430/6989ffddb3fce3ec7a0c5379/toxicwastedumpselfies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beach and sea","caption":"Beach and sea","creditText":"ansonmiao—Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5623538/toxic-waste-dump-selfies/","name":"Warning That Gorgeous Turquoise Blue Lake Is Actually a Toxic Waste Dump Doesn't Stop the Selfies"}}]}] ```