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Agence France-Presse

Russian investigators on Wednesday detained three staff of a power plant over a huge fuel spill in the Arctic, as response teams warned a full clean-up would take years.
The spill of over 21,000 tonnes of fuel took place after a fuel reservoir collapsed last month at a power plant operated by a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel in the city of Norilsk.
It is the largest ever to have hit the Arctic – an incident Greenpeace compared to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.
Those working at the site have already seen the first effects of the spill on the local ecosystem, said Viktor Bronnikov, general director of Transneft Siberia oil and gas transportation company involved in the clean-up.
They included dead muskrats and ducks, he said.
The Investigative Committee looking into the accident said it had detained the director of the power station, Pavel Smirnov, and two engineers on suspicion of breaching environmental protection rules.
If convicted, they would risk up to five years in prison.


“The company considers this measure to be unjustifiably harsh,” Norilsk Nickel said in a statement, citing vice-president Nikolai Utkin.
All three “are cooperating with law enforcement authorities and now they would be much more useful at the scene of the clean-up operation”, he added.
At the scene at a remote area in the Norilsk industrial district, Bronnikov of Transneft Siberia said that the situation was stabilising, but that the clean-up team had seen animals and birds apparently killed by the spill.
Over 50 polar bears gather outside village in Russia, as Arctic sea ice shrinks
“Today I myself saw dead muskrats,” he said, adding that workers had seen ducks killed by the fuel.
“If a bird lands on the diesel fuel or a muskrat swims through it, it is condemned to death,” he said.
He added however that he had not seen “a huge number” of any animals dying there.
Workers in waterproofs were using booms to contain the reddish-brown diesel on the surface of a river and pump it into tanks on the bank.
“We will be removing diesel fuel from the Ambarnaya River for at least eight to 10 days,” Bronnikov said.

“We will need years to completely clean up,” he added.
The teams have set up tents on the river bank and are using helicopters to bring in equipment and survey the vast flat area of grass and sparse trees.
After this “mechanical” stage, other methods will have to be used to absorb the rest of the diesel or cause it to break down, Bronnikov said.
Russia says melting permafrost caused massive Arctic oil spill
Norilsk Nickel head Vladimir Potanin said the company would pay for clean-up efforts estimated at US$146 million after President Vladimir Putin backed a state of emergency in the Arctic city.
The Investigative Committee said the power plant’s fuel tank had required major repairs from 2018 but the suspects “continued to use it in breach of safety rules.”


“As a result, the accident occurred,” the investigators’ statement said.
Norilsk Nickel said that the fuel reservoir was built in 1985 and underwent repairs in 2017 and 2018 after which it went through a safety audit.
Regional officials have said that despite efforts to contain the fuel leak using booms on the river surface, it has now reached a freshwater lake that is a major source of water for the region.
Scientists warn of ‘zombie fires’ in the Arctic
The pollution could now flow into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia, which Greenpeace Russia expert Vladimir Chuprov said would be a “disaster”.
But in a conference call on Wednesday, Norilsk Nickel’s first vice-president Sergei Dyachenko denied the spill had reached the lake, saying the company had not found contamination there.

The metals giant has said the accident could have been caused by global warming thawing the permafrost under the fuel reservoir.
It has acknowledged it did not specifically monitor the condition of permafrost at its sites in the past and said it would do a full audit shortly.
The massive clean-up involves nearly 700 people, according to the emergencies ministry.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Environment

Massive fuel spill in Russian Arctic could take ‘years’ to clean up

About 6,000 tonnes of diesel seeped into the ground and another 15,000 ended up in nearby waterways. Photo: AFP

A dead fish is seen on the shore of the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk on June 10, 2020. - Russian investigators on June 10, 2020 detained three staff at a power plant where thousands of tonnes of diesel leaked into the soil and waterways of the Arctic region. The spill of over 21,000 tonnes of fuel, which environmentalists say is the largest ever in the Arctic, took place after a fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant operated by a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel in the city of Norilsk beyond the Arctic Circle. (Photo by IRINA Yarinskaya / AFP)

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 5, 2020 shows satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and released by the European Space Agency of the extend of an oil spill after some 20 000 tonnes of diesel oil leaked into a river within the Arctic Circle. - Environmentalists said the oil spill, which took place last May 29, was the worst such accident ever in the Arctic region. (Photos by - / EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO /EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY " - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Those working at the site have already seen the first effects of the spill on the local ecosystem. Photo: AFP

Scientists warn of ‘zombie fires’ in the Arctic

Smoke from Arctic wildfires spreading across Alaska and Canada in 2019. File photo: Nasa

An aerial view taken from onboard a helicopter shows smoke from forest fires rising above the Boguchansky district of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai on August 4, 2019. (Photo by Ekaterina ANISIMOVA / AFP)

Russia says melting permafrost caused massive Arctic oil spill

An aerial view of the large diesel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk, taken on June 4. Photo: Planet Labs Inc / AFP

This handout photograph released by the Marine Rescue Service of Russia on June 5, 2020, shows a rescuer as he pumps out pollutions of a large diesel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk. - Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 3, ordered a state of emergency and criticised a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel after a massive diesel spill into a Siberian river. The spill of over 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel took place on May 29, 2020. A fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant near the city of Norilsk, located above the Arctic Circle, and leaked into a nearby river. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / Marine Rescue Service / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / MARINE RESCUE SERVICE OF RUSSIA " - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

epa08466850 A handout picture made available by the press service of the Public Joint Stock Company 'Transneft' shows rescues who pump out oil-water mixture from the water surface at the site of oil products spill into the Ambarnaya river outside of Norilsk, Russia, 05 June 2020. About 20,000 tonnes of oil products leaked 29 May 2020 and soiled the waters of Ambarnaya and Daldykan rivers after an accident at a heat and power station (a Norilsk Nickel subsidiary) in industrial city of Norilsk located above the Arctic Circle. EPA-EFE/Transneft PJSC press service/ Handout HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Workers pump out oil pollution from the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk on June 5, 2020. Photo: AFP

Over 50 polar bears gather outside village in Russia, as Arctic sea ice shrinks

More than 50 polar bears have gathered on the edge of a village in Russia's far north, unable to roam because of weak coastal ice. Photo: AFP

This handout photo taken on December 3, 2019 and released by the World Wildlife Fund - Russia (WWF-Russia) shows polar bears outside the village of Ryrkaypiy in the Chukotka region. - More than 50 polar bears have gathered on the edge of a village in Russia's far north, environmentalists and residents said, as weak coastal ice leaves them unable to roam. (Photo by Maksim DYOMINOV / World Wildlife Fund - Russia / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / World Wildlife Fund Russia / Maksim DYOMINOV" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS --- NO ARCHIVE ---

- AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2019 - A stray polar bear walks on a road on the outskirts of the Russian industrial city of Norilsk on June 17, 2019. - A hungry polar bear has been spotted on the outskirts of Norilsk, hundreds of miles from its natural habitat, authorities said on June 18, 2019. (Photo by Irina Yarinskaya / Zapolyarnaya pravda newspaper / AFP)

News

World

Russia & Central Asia


Fuel spill pollutes major freshwater lake near the Russian Arctic city of Norilsk
Russian President Vladimir Putin labelled incident a national emergency



Some 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked into rivers and subsoil in the Russian Arctic – an incident Greenpeace compared to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.


Russia

Vladimir Putin

Massive fuel spill in Russian Arctic could take ‘years’ to clean up

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Fuel spill pollutes major freshwater lake near the Russian Arctic city of Norilsk Russian President Vladimir Putin labelled incident a national emergency

Fuel spill pollutes major freshwater lake near the Russian Arctic city of Norilsk

Russian President Vladimir Putin labelled incident a national emergency