In Norilsk, Russia, the second-largest oil spill in modern Russia history happened on May 29, 2020. About 22,000 U.S. tons (21,000 cubic meters) of diesel fuel was spilled. Norilsk is on the Arctic Coast of central Siberia. It is one of the world’s northernmost cities, and the only one built on permafrost. (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska is built on permafrost, but with about 3,000 residents, it’s not a city of more than 100,000.)
Global warming was blamed for melting the permafrost beneath the storage tank, causing it to open and gush out diesel fuel. “Due to a sudden subsistence of support which served for more than 30 years without problems.”
Diesel fuel spread over 44 acres of the immediate area, flowed out to the Ambarnaya and Daldykan Rivers to contaminate 135 square miles. There being no roads, soft boggy ground, and the rivers too shallow for navigation, clean-up will be difficult, expensive, and take five to ten years.
On the Ambarnaya River, by June 4, diesel oil has been contained by a series of specially constructed booms. The government has ordered safety checks at all installations built on permafrost.
Norilsk is known for nickel mining and smelting, as well as for severe pollution. Smog and acid rain have earned Norilsk a reputation for contributing one percent of all global sulfur dioxide emissions. Smelting…
