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Cleanup in Taimyr nature reserves may continue for decade

Earlier reports said about a site with empty barrels from oil products near Lake Ayan in the Putorana Nature Reserve

KRASNOYARSK, April 5. /TASS/. Optimistic forecasts say it may take 5-10 years to remove all the waste barrels from Taimyr’s nature reserves. Within the current year, the reserves will put together a plan to collect and transport to the mainland the barrels, which remain on the peninsula since the Soviet times, the reserves’ Director Konstantin Prosekin told TASS.

Earlier reports said about a site with empty barrels from oil products near Lake Ayan in the Putorana Nature Reserve. The barrels have remained there after geology expeditions, before the nature reserves were organized in 1988. The barrels are more than 30 years old, and specialists fear they may begin to leak.

"We have ordered a cleanup project for the Putorana and Taimyr nature reserves," the official said. "This year, we expect specialists will analyze the situation… <…> As for the Putorana Nature Reserve, the work (to remove the waste - TASS) could be done within a year. As for the Taimyr Nature Reserve, there the situation is more complex, as the distances are bigger, the weather conditions are more complicated, and the works will take longer. The most optimistic forecasts say this work will take minimum five to ten years."

In June 2020, the director told TASS removing the waste from the Putorana Plateau may cost at least 25 million rubles ($327,000).

The Taimyr nature reserves take an area of almost 12 million hectares.