A vast depollution campaign is carried out in the Arctic, after an accident which occurred on May 29: 20,000 cubic meters of diesel were poured into a river, giving the water a red tint. - Marine Rescue Service / TASS / Sipa / SIPA

Russia stepped up efforts on Thursday to clean up huge amount of oil spilled in Arctic river, worst incident in region, environmentalists say local official detained . Vladimir Putin intervened personally in the crisis on Wednesday, declaring a state of emergency and calling to order local officials. Additional cleaning crews were deployed on Thursday.

Noire Oil spill in the Russian Arctic #

20,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a @NornickelGroup tank 3 days ago and spilled into the Ambarnaya River.

A state of emergency was declared and the pollution contained with a floating dam.

Source: https://t.co/ysgi8GPHfg pic.twitter.com/efFGYADBDA

- Mikaa Mered ❄️🧊🔋 (@FranceArctique) June 2, 2020

As part of the investigation, Viatcheslav Starostine, an employee of the thermal power plant which belongs to NTEK, a subsidiary of the metal giant Norilsk Nickel, has been placed in pre-trial detention for one month, a city court in Norilsk told the TASS agency. One of the plant's diesel tanks collapsed last week, causing more than 20,000 tonnes of oil to leak.

A very large leak

According to the Russian Marine Emergency Service, which specializes in these accidents, the reinforcements deployed in this very isolated and marshy area of ​​the Far North are facing a complex challenge. “There has never been such a leak in the Arctic before. You have to work very quickly because the fuel is dissolving in water, ”said service spokesman Andrei Malov.

The ecological organization Greenpeace Russia claims that the accident "is the first on this scale in the Arctic" and compared it to the sinking of the Exxon Valdez off Alaska in 1989. The Ambarnaïa river, affected by this leak joined the Piassino lake, itself the source of a river of the same name which is capital for the Taimyr peninsula, a strategic region where Russia extracts precious metals, coal and hydrocarbons.

"Decades" to restore the ecosystem

According to Andreï Malov, six containment ramps have been placed on the river to block the flow of pollution to the lake, while fuel is pumped to the surface. "It is difficult terrain and everything that needs to be transported can only be transported by all-terrain vehicles", he stressed, the fuel collected must be stored on site until winter in special containers.

The difficulty of the operation prompted some officials to offer to burn fuel on the spot, which the Russian environmental agency excluded. Fisheries Agency spokesman Dmitri Klokov told TASS news agency that it would take "decades" to restore the ecosystem. "The scale of this disaster is underestimated," he said, adding that most of the fuel had flowed to the bottom of the river and already reached the lake.

World

Russia: Warning of serious diesel pollution in the Arctic, where the water has turned red

World

Russia: Muscovites rebel against 'crazy' road project on radioactive site

  • Planet
  • Diesel
  • Hydrocarbons
  • World
  • Arctic
  • Russia
  • Pollution