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Scientist: Upper limit of damage to water reservoirs from Norilsk accident is $884,000

Following the oil spill that occured in summer 2020, a big scientific expedition was dispatched to the Taimyr Peninsula to conduct a large-scale examination of the area

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. The damage to water reservoirs from the fuel spill in Norilsk is preliminary estimated at less than 68 million rubles ($884,000), leader of the Great Norilsk Expedition’s hydrobiology team, Mikhail Gladyshev of the Biophysics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch said in an interview with TASS.

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“We have sent the first preliminary estimation to the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch, where the calculation was made under the methods approved by Rosrybolovstvo [Russian fishery authority - TASS],” he said. “The damage is 68.4 million rubles ($884,000) – this is the top limit. In reality, our estimation regarding the Daldykan, Ambarnaya and Pyasino will be lower, since we can see living organisms in some of the samples we have taken.”

According to the plan, the institute will finalize the calculation by the end of November, he continued. It will not include expenses on restocking the water with fry, because the reception capacity of the water reservoirs considering their feed base and water qualities are actually close to zero.

“Regardless of the oil contamination, released fish would simply die of hunger there,” he said. “The water quality there is very low, and it has nothing to do with this accident. After the 1980s, Lake Pyasino not only badly lacks fodder, but is even dystrophic, thus stocking it with fish would be throwing money away, and throwing fry to death.”

Expedition to Taimyr

The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the first time in recent years, at the invitation of Nornickel, sent a big scientific expedition to the Taimyr Peninsula to conduct a large-scale examination of the area. Scientists will use the expedition’s results to present suggestions for industrial companies, working in the Arctic, on how to preserve the nature.

The expedition’s key points were watersheds of the Rivers Pyasina, Norilka and Ambarnaya and Lake Pyasino. The expedition’s term is five months – from July to November. Before the end of August, experts from 14 research institutes of the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch collected samples of soils, plants and sediments and are now conducting tests at the institutes’ labs.

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