MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has ordered to check media reports suggesting that hazardous substances have leaked into the Neva River, spokeswoman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office Marina Gridneva said on Wednesday.
"Under the instructions of the Russian prosecutor general the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office is checking the media reports about the possible hazardous waste leak from the Krasny Bor landfill into the Neva River," she said.
According to Gridneva, this issue was discussed at a meeting of the prosecutor general with St. Petersburg’s vice governor Igor Divinsky at which a decision was made to jointly monitor the progress and results of the work to eliminate the possible violation of the law and rectify the situation.
"The check involving experts of the Northwestern Federal District’s department of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) will assess the completeness of measures taken by the city’s executive power bodies, including the Environmental Management, Protection and Ecological Safety Committee and its subordinate enterprise - St. Petersburg-based State Unitary Enterprise Polygon Krasny Bor for ensuring compliance with the environment protection legislation", the spokeswoman said.
"The inspection will be completed as soon as possible and the appropriate prosecutorial response measures will be taken," Gridneva said.
A number of media reported previously that due to the heavy precipitation and warm weather the landfill’s pits with 2 million tons of hazardous waste were filled with water, which has started to spill over into the landfill’s territory. "The poisonous water may through the Bolshoi Izhorets tributary get into the Neva River - the main source of drinking water for the city of St. Petersburg", the reports said.
The Environmental Management Committee says that it is premature so far to speak of an ecological disaster. At the same time, environmentalists say that it’s an emergency situation.