Indigenous groups paying the price for Russia's massive Arctic fuel spill

Jul 14, 20200

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A dead fish is seen on the shore of the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk, Russia, on June 10. A spill of more than 21,000 tonnes of fuel, which environmentalists say is the largest ever in the Arctic, took place after a fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant operated by a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel. (Irina Yarinskaya/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2017, the New York Times called Norilsk "Russia's coldest and most polluted industrial city." It may not be getting colder but it's certainly now much more polluted than before.

The Arctic town, built on the site of a former gulag, is the site of a massive fuel spill that environmentalists have compared to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

On May 29, an aged fuel tank at the Norilsk Nickel plant lost pressure and released 21,000 tonnes of diesel into the Arctic subsoil and the waters of the nearby river Ambarnaya.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/norilsk-nickel-russian-fuel-spill-consequences-1.5645408