Russia has finished clearing fuel from the surface of a river hit by a massive diesel spill in the Arctic region, but the full clean-up could take years, officials said Wednesday. After more than 700 people were deployed to clear the pollution, officials said the operation had removed the main spill from the surface of the most-polluted waterway, the River Ambarnaya.
The Marine Rescue Service told RIA Novosti news agency: “We have completed the active phase of collecting petroleum products.” Krasnoyarsk regional governor Alexander Uss said Wednesday a state of national emergency situation would be lifted from Saturday and regional officials would take charge. “I imagine it could take years, but this task of completely regenerating the territory is completely doable,” he said.
Natural Resources Minister Dmitry Kobylkin said the clean-up on the River Ambarnaya had stopped diesel fuel from flowing into a lake, where it could have spread into other waterways and “the fragile ecosystem would have been destroyed”. Regional governor Uss said the operation had “managed to minimise the amount of fuel that entered the Lake Pyasino,” a crucial water source in the region. The natural resources minister warned against a repeat of the disaster, saying companies were ignoring official warnings and “infrastructure built 30 or 40 years ago has every chance of repeating this incident.”
Source: Digital Journal
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