Fuel spills in the Russian Arctic have not been stopped by floating barriers



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“Behind the floating barriers we see a lot of melted [suspenduotų] The concentration of petroleum products, Julia Gumeniuk, Deputy Minister of Ecology of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, told the Interfax news agency.

The officer assumes that the barriers are ineffective or that they were installed late, when some of the contaminants had already spread downstream.

On May 29, during an accident, the NTEK Norilsk Thermal Power Plant 3 fuel tank exploded. Oil products initially flooded the technical path in which the car was started.

There were over 21,000 in the tank. t diesel. According to the Federal Office for the Supervision of the Use of Natural Resources, during the accident 15 thousand. tons of petroleum products entered the Ambarnaya river, and another 6 thousand. tons of contaminated soil.

NTEK, a subsidiary of the Russian mining conglomerate Nornikel, supplies electricity to the Norilsk industrial area, located outside the Arctic Circle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a federal state of emergency on Wednesday due to the Norilsk accident; A large-scale cleaning operation was started.

On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that the spread of pollutants in the Ambarnaya River had been “stopped”.

Russian authorities said on Friday that the spills likely melted under the permafrost under the fuel tank, and ordered inspections of “extremely dangerous buildings in areas where the permafrost could melt.”

Nornikel chief Vladimir Potanin told Putin last week that his company would pay for the environmental cleanup.

J. Gumeniuk pointed out that the concentration of pollutants in the samples taken by environmental specialists reaches 80-116 percent. maximum allowed rates.

He added that large amounts of pollutants were found in the large Piasina lake, from which the Piasina river flows, which is vital for the entire Taimyr peninsula.

Permafrost areas represent 65 percent. Russian territories. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment warned that the release of frozen soil would endanger pipes and other structures, and buried toxic waste could spread and contaminate water bodies.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Russian investigative committee, said the accident in Norilsk was attributed to Vyacheslav Starostin, the director of the plant, and that the investigation into the incident was ongoing. If Starostin’s guilt is proven, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

A total of four criminal investigations are currently underway into the accident.



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