First samples from Kolva River show oil exceeding max concentrations, but not by 1,000 times like in Norilsk - watchdog
MOSCOW/NARYAN-MAR. Oct 22 (Interfax) - The results of tests on the first samples taken at the site of the contamination of the Kolva River due to an oil spill at Lukoil's Kharyaga field in the Nenets Autonomous District show maximum allowable concentrations are being exceeded, but not by a thousand times, the head of Russian environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Radionova told reporters.
"What needs to be done is being done. We flew over, looked at the contamination. We already have the first samples [...] We see [maximum allowable concentrations] being exceeded, they're not by a thousand times, but they're there," she said.
Lukoil "played it safe and placed a fifth containment line, a sixth containment line," but the lines "are not fulfilling their functions yet, because there's nothing to speak of there yet," she said.
"We're taking samples near every boom, before the boom and beyond the boom, and seeing how effective it is. Plus, we have a different fraction, which can quite easily settle on the bottom, se we will also take riverbed deposits around every boom. But based on what we're seeing, we understand that nothing has reached the fourth, fifth or six booms in such form," Radionova said.
The scale of the oil spill near the Kharyaga field is smaller than the spill at mining giant Nornickel's TETs-3 power plant in Norilsk earlier this year, she said. "We have a different situation from the one we've been discussing for the past several months. [...] These concentrations [have been exceeded] not by a thousand times, like in Norilsk," Radionova told reporters in Naryan-Mar on Wednesday.
The active phase of the clean-up of the spill in the Nenets Autonomous District will take one to two weeks, she said. "The standard is a week, two with today's capabilities and resources. If we're talking about cleaning the bed, this is samples for 10 days plus however long the company needs to do the work there," Radionova said.
"The situation is as simple as two times two. It is primitively simple. There's no global conspiracy here. [...] We clean up, do tests, booms, bed, results, the soil is presented, calculation of damages, fines, penalization of the company, the relevant conclusions," Radionova said.
She said there have not been any recorded deaths of fish in the river. If necessary, the damaged will be calculated by the Federal Fisheries Agency and research institutions.
She also said that Lukoil is undergoing unscheduled inspections ordered by the president.
Nenets Autonomous District Governor Yury Bezdudny told reporters that the company has the means and resources to clean up the spill, and also said it will undergo an inspection.
Radionova and Bezdudny visited the site of the spill on Wednesday along with representatives of the Emergency Situations Ministry, prosecutors, the All-Russia People's Front, Lukoil and environmentalists.