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Russia declares state of emergency after 20,000 ton Siberian oil spill

Marine Rescue Service
Marine Rescue Service

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a state of emergency following a huge oil spill inside the Arctic Circle.

A power plant just outside the Siberian city of Norilsk saw 20,000 tons of diesel spill into the nearby Ambarnaya River.

The plant's fuel reservoir - run by energy company NTEK, a subsidiary of conglomerate Nornickel - collapsed on Friday.

In a press conference with Putin broadcast on live television on Wednesday, Russia's head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations accused the power station's employees of originally trying to contain the spill on their own and not reporting the incident to emergency services for two days.

The Russian premiere himself attacked the company for failing to report the incident soon enough

He said: “Why did government agencies only find out about this two days after the fact? Are we going to learn about emergency situations from social media? Are you quite healthy over there?”

The country's president said he called the state of emergency as it was needed in order to call in more resources for the clean-up effort.

An environmental group has already described the damage as "catastrophic".

Russian environmental agency Rosprirodnadzor has reported concentration of contaminants surrounding water is now tens of thousands of times over safe levels.

But local media is reporting there will be difficulties in starting a clean-up in the river due to the remote location and shallow water.

Sergey Verkhovets, coordinator of Arctic projects of Russia's World Wildlife Fund (WWF) branch, said in a statement: "The incident led to catastrophic consequences and we will be seeing the repercussions for years to come... We are talking about dead fish, polluted plumage of birds, and poisoned animals."

The foundation of the fuel reservoir storage tank possibly sank due to thawing permafrost, which also highlights the threat global warming poses to Arctic infrastructure and ecosystems, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

The volume of the spill is vastly larger than the 2007 Kerch spill, which involved 5,000 tonnes of oil, according to the WWF.

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