Investigation of new fuel spill near Norilsk is held by prosecutor's office

A new fuel spill occurred on the evening of November 11, several kilometers from Norilsk. After the messages of eyewitnesses posted on social networks, representatives of emergency services left for the scene of the accident.

“It has been established that the diesel fuel spill originated from the ATZ Ural fuel tanker belonging to the Taimyr Fuel Company JSC (part of Norilsk Nickel), more than 2 tons of fuel spilled onto the roadway”, - the Prosecutor's Office quotes Kommersant.

The alleged culprit of the state of emergency - JSC "Taimyr Fuel Company" is engaged in the elimination of the consequences of the ecological disaster.

“Upon completion of the inspection, if there are grounds, measures of prosecutor's response will be taken. The progress and results of the check have been put under the control of the regional prosecutor's office”, - the prosecutor's office said.

This is the second major incident associated with oil spills in Norilsk over the past six months. In May, an oil spill occurred at TPP-3, owned by Norilsk Nickel, which led to the introduction of an emergency regime. Then water and soil were poisoned over a large area, into which more than 20 thousand tons of diesel fuel spilled.

As Taiga.info reported with reference to the assessment of Rosprirodnadzor, about 15 thousand tons of liquid could get into the water, including the Ambarnaya River. Diesel fuel went into Lake Pyasino, later it could get into the Pyasina River, which flows into the Kara Sea.

Scientists called the incident the largest environmental disaster in the Russian Arctic, and the damage was estimated at 148 billion rubles.

After a series of major emergencies related to fuel spills, Rosprirodnadzor proposed to increase the size of fines for causing harm to the environment. According to representatives of the supervisory authority, tougher penalties will force company executives to take environmental issues more seriously.

As Yelena Yesina, a member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, a forensic expert on ecology, told Sputnik radio, the regularity of environmental emergencies in Russia has its own explanation.

“It began a few years ago, in fact, a kind of regulatory guillotine, when they began to change the order of inspections of Rostekhnadzor facilities, because at that time, facilities such as oil depots and similar facilities were under the authority of Rostekhnadzor,” the expert explained.

According to her, up to a certain point, a clear and correct system of control and supervisory measures was built.

“After that, changes were made in terms of easing control at such facilities. The inspections became planned, only with the notification of the prosecutor's office, so industrial enterprises began to prepare in advance and show some “Potyomkin villages””, - Yesina is convinced.

She added that the negative result of such work was not long in coming.

“As a result, literally not a week goes by when something is not spilled or spilled somewhere. A huge number of normative acts, various methodological instructions that are needed by designers and ecologists are being canceled. And the new one is not issued, or is issued as a new regulation on the state ecological expertise - it is much worse and its enforcement will be ineffective”, - said Yelena Yesina.