Support Greenpeace!
Several oil leacks heve been discovered yesterday in the center of St. Petersburg
August 28, 2009
The discharged substances were similar to black oil, run from the pipe belongs to Vodokanal of St. Petersburg on the Arsenal’s embankment close to Liteyny’s Bridge. The oil was discharged during the whole day. Due to rough estimations not less than 1 ton of oil products have been dumped into Neva river.
The city agency for oil spills clean up worked until very late at night with special boats and technology. They collected at least 1,5 tons of oil mixed water. But Greenpeace has found out that a big part of oil went to the river sediments, and this will lead to future contamination of Neva river waters for next years. Today at 10 in the morning Greenpeace experts went to check out the place, and found out that the pollution has gone down by the river’s course, and can be seen from Sampsonievsky Bridge.
In the River Ijora, Greenpeace activists found a big accumulation of white foam, which indicates the surfactants discharge to the river. And there’s a big probability that these pollutants come from inside the Ijorsky’s Factory territory.
Another chemical spill took place in the River Monastirka, just in front of Aleksander Nevsky’s Monastery. Yesterday, through the pipe, which usually doesn’t work a very high stream of synthetic smelled waters were discharged. In about 30 m. upstream a water shell with a 1m diameter was found. This was an indication that not yet investigated industry in the area used a big amount of water for probably some cleaning of their tanks next to the embankment. Probably, the waste waters comes from the Polzunov Institute for turbines and boilers.
During the last days, Greenpeace volunteers from Finland also took part in the Water patrol. They were surprised that such situation is common for St. Petersburg. “I expected to see something like the actual situation, but I didn’t expect to see such pollution. The discharges to St. Petersburg’s rivers is also a problem for all Finnish population, because this contamination goes to the Baltic Sea. Finish Government were sponsoring some projects for modern waste water treatment plants construction here. But this investments doesn’t seem to be effective. This is a big problem, because the Baltic Sea is the most polluted in the world”, - said Greenpeace volunteer Antti Korhonen, who also works in the Research Center for the Sea Ecology in The University of Helsinki.
Today Greenpeace sent a letter with all the findings to the local environmental protection authorities, demanding a deep investigation and punishment to the bodies responsible for this threat to St. Petersburg’s rivers.
Notes to the Editor
Illegal discharges of oil and other hazardous substances is very common in St. Petersburg. According to the regional environmental authority, the frequency of illegal discharges is increasing year by year. For instance, in 2008 they registered 85 such cases. Even if the investigation of responsibles for the contamination isn’t so hard, the real problem is the sluggishness of the authorities in charge of controlling.
Oil and oil products are very dangerous for human beings, affecting the circulatory system and the nervous system, and even causing cancer.
The city agency for oil spills clean up worked until very late at night with special boats and technology. They collected at least 1,5 tons of oil mixed water. But Greenpeace has found out that a big part of oil went to the river sediments, and this will lead to future contamination of Neva river waters for next years. Today at 10 in the morning Greenpeace experts went to check out the place, and found out that the pollution has gone down by the river’s course, and can be seen from Sampsonievsky Bridge.
In the River Ijora, Greenpeace activists found a big accumulation of white foam, which indicates the surfactants discharge to the river. And there’s a big probability that these pollutants come from inside the Ijorsky’s Factory territory.
Another chemical spill took place in the River Monastirka, just in front of Aleksander Nevsky’s Monastery. Yesterday, through the pipe, which usually doesn’t work a very high stream of synthetic smelled waters were discharged. In about 30 m. upstream a water shell with a 1m diameter was found. This was an indication that not yet investigated industry in the area used a big amount of water for probably some cleaning of their tanks next to the embankment. Probably, the waste waters comes from the Polzunov Institute for turbines and boilers.
During the last days, Greenpeace volunteers from Finland also took part in the Water patrol. They were surprised that such situation is common for St. Petersburg. “I expected to see something like the actual situation, but I didn’t expect to see such pollution. The discharges to St. Petersburg’s rivers is also a problem for all Finnish population, because this contamination goes to the Baltic Sea. Finish Government were sponsoring some projects for modern waste water treatment plants construction here. But this investments doesn’t seem to be effective. This is a big problem, because the Baltic Sea is the most polluted in the world”, - said Greenpeace volunteer Antti Korhonen, who also works in the Research Center for the Sea Ecology in The University of Helsinki.
Today Greenpeace sent a letter with all the findings to the local environmental protection authorities, demanding a deep investigation and punishment to the bodies responsible for this threat to St. Petersburg’s rivers.
Notes to the Editor
Illegal discharges of oil and other hazardous substances is very common in St. Petersburg. According to the regional environmental authority, the frequency of illegal discharges is increasing year by year. For instance, in 2008 they registered 85 such cases. Even if the investigation of responsibles for the contamination isn’t so hard, the real problem is the sluggishness of the authorities in charge of controlling.
Oil and oil products are very dangerous for human beings, affecting the circulatory system and the nervous system, and even causing cancer.
Join Greenpeace!
