TASS, February 3. The Norilsk Nickel Company in 2021 will make a program to monitor water bodies and soils near the fuel spill in the northern Krasnoyarsk Region, the company’s Senior Vice President Andrei Bugrov said on Wednesday at a foresight session with involved parties, which was organized as a part of preparations for the company’s sustainability report for year 2020.

"This year, 2021, and further on to 2023, the company plans to make a program to monitor water bodies and soils and to plan revegetation of contaminated soils and shorelines," he said. "Along with that work we shall begin the implementation of this plan."

According to him, the company will undertake measures to restore biology resources, and to organize disposal of separated water and contaminated sorbents and soils.

Nornickel will begin revegetation of affected soils, the company’s representative said. The plan for this work has been filed with the Russian environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, he added.

In late May, 2020, some 20,000 tonnes of fuel spilled at a thermal power plant at Nornickel subsidiary’s facility due to a storage collapse. Rosprirodnadzor estimated the damage at 148 billion rubles ($2 billion). Nornickel, however, disagreed with the applied estimation methods, claiming the damage at 21.4 billion rubles ($282,000).