Norilsk fuel spill won’t reach Kara Sea, expert vows

NOVOSIBIRSK, June 9. /TASS/. Oil products spilled near Norilsk will dissolve in water, rather than penetrate the Kara Sea, head of the water ecology laboratory of the Water and Environmental Problems Institute Vladimir Kirillov said on Tuesday in the TASS press center. "The total limit value override is significant and will the river handle it? I believe it will cope with that," Kirillov said. "Diesel fuel that penetrated these water basins is a soluble fraction quickly carried by the stream. It will partly settle on the bottom and this will be the secondary contamination for a long time. The distance from the [Lake] Pyasino to the Kara Sea is 800 km; it [the pollution - TASS] will not reach; there will be the dilution," the expert said. The loss of containment of the diesel fuel tank occurred on the territory of the combined heat and power plant CHPP-3 in Norilsk on May 29. About 21,000 tonnes of fuel were spilled in total on the area of 180,000 square meters of soil and penetrated water objects, causing pollution and damage to the environment. Read more