“Didn’t take proper measures”: a criminal case was opened against the mayor of Norilsk due to an accident at a thermal power plant

A criminal case was opened against the head of Norilsk, Rinat Akhmetchin, because of an accident at TPP-3, which caused a major oil spill. According to the Investigative Committee, Akhmetchin is accused of negligence.

“A criminal case was opened on the fact of negligence of the head of the city of Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Rinat Akhmetchin, expressed in the failure to fulfill his duties in an emergency caused by a spill of oil products in the amount of not less than 21,163 cubic meters. m from the diesel fuel storage tank in Norilsk, ”the UK said.

According to the investigation, Akhmetchin knew about the amount of fuel spilled and did not take the necessary measures in this situation. In particular, the UK reports that the head of the city “did not ensure the functioning and interaction of local authorities and officials.”

In addition, the investigation believes that Akhmetchin did not organize control and monitoring of the state of the environment, and also did not predict the development of the emergency and its consequences.

In the case of a fuel spill, the director of Norilsk TPP-3 Pavel Smirnov was also arrested. According to the decision of the Norilsk City Court, he will go into custody until July 31 inclusive. Smirnov passes under article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of the rules of environmental protection in the performance of work”).

Earlier, the UK said that along with Smirnov, the chief engineer of the power plant, Alexei Stepanov, and his deputy, Yuri Kuznetsov, were detained. The reason for the detention is “non-provision of safety during the operation of an industrial facility of category 2 negative impact on the environment”.

At the same time, investigators said that the design of the destroyed fuel tank required major repairs since 2018. However, the facility was commissioned in the absence of the required industrial safety review.

Even before this, the head of the CHP workshop Vyacheslav Starostin was detained and subsequently arrested. He was charged with violating environmental regulations during work.

Recall that on May 29 at the Norilsk TPP-3, owned by Norilsk Nickel, a diesel spill occurred. According to Rosprirodnadzor, the cause of the accident could be a subsidence of the concrete slab on which the leaked fuel tank is located.

The pollution area, according to the prosecutor's office, amounted to 180 thousand square meters. m. After the emergency, four criminal cases were instituted.

In early June, Vladimir Putin instructed to take the oil spill situation under special control, to understand this situation and assess the damage.

“I ask all the structures that should be directly involved in this work to take the situation under full special control. Of course, we need to understand the reasons, carefully and absolutely uncompromisingly, objectively assess the damage, ”the Russian leader said during a meeting with representatives of public organizations operating in the field of ecology and animal protection.

The head of state also praised the initiative of the head of Nornickel Vladimir Potanin to fully finance all the work to eliminate the accident at the expense of the company, but pointed out that such costs could have been avoided if the emergency tank was timely serviced.

“If they had changed in a timely manner, and there would have been no environmental damage, and such expenses would not have been borne by the company,” Putin concluded.

Liquidation work

In the emergency response response operations headquarters, they reported on the progress of work on eliminating the consequences of a fuel spill. To date, more than 12.5 thousand cubic meters of fuel-water mixture have already been collected.

“Over the past day, 3574 cubic meters of the fuel-water mixture were collected by joint efforts, which is an cumulative total of 12 530 cubic meters,” RIA Novosti quoted the press service of the Ministry of Emergencies.

According to the agency, 687 people and 264 pieces of equipment were involved in the aftermath of the accident in Norilsk.

In addition, almost 50 thousand square meters have already been treated with sorbents that absorb substances.

“For a day, 9,000 square meters of contaminated territory were treated with a sorbent, a total of 49,600,” the Ministry of Emergencies said.

According to RIA Novosti, with reference to emergency services, experts delivered 70 tanks to the scene of the accident with a total volume of 17.5 thousand cubic meters to collect spilled fuel.

Among other things, about 38 thousand tons of contaminated surface soil were transported to an industrial dump. During the day, this figure increased by 7.7 thousand tons.