Russia is currently under a state of emergency following an oil spill that has leaked 21,000 tons of diesel outside the northern Siberian city of Norilsk. The accident occurred on May 29 when a storage tank collapsed at a power plant operated by Norilsk-Taymyr Energy Company (NTEC), a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel. Red diesel has spread out over a 135-square-mile area that is visible from space, with 6,000 tons spilled onto the ground and another 15,000 tons into the Ambarnaya and Daldykan rivers. Russia's environmental authorities have stated that the spill could take five to ten years to clean up, and could cost as much as 100 billion rubles (or USD $1.5 billion).
Environmental groups warn that cleanup will be difficult based on the scale of the spill. The geography of the landscape also poses challenges, with the river being too shallow for barges and the remote region being tough to access due to its lack of roads. Several cascades of containment booms are currently being deployed to collect oil and stop the spill from spreading further—although these have been unable to keep toxic elements like benzol, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene from mixing into Lake Pyasino. Cleanup teams have already pumped out 338 tons of diesel fuel and removed 1,500 cubic meters of contaminated soil. Russian ministry officials are cautioning against burning off such a vast quantity of oil, and are instead proposing to dilute the oil with reagents.
Greenpeace has compared the accident to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which resulted in 10.8 million gallons of crude oil being spilled off the coast of Alaska. Interestingly, it is not Norilsk Nickel's first oil spillage. In 2016, another one of its plants was found responsible for turning a nearby river red.
What caused Russia's May 29 oil spill?
The accident appears to have been triggered by melting permafrost that caused the posts supporting the diesel reservoir to collapse. While Norilsk Nickel have affirmed that their tanks were inspected every second year as per schedule, they have stated that abnormally mild temperatures may have caused the thawing of the permafrost.
Permafrost refers to frozen soil that is found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, varying in depth from a few meters to hundreds of feet. Around 55% of Russia's territory, predominantly Siberia, is covered in permafrost—which, until recent events, was as strong and permanent as concrete.
The rate of global warming in the Arctic is twice as fast as the rest of the world. According to a 2017 report to the Arctic Council, foundations in permafrost regions may no longer be able to support loads they did as recently as the 1980s, presenting a serious threat to infrastructure.
According to an article by Science Alert, the melting permafrost poses additional problems. Permafrost, generally being thousands of years old, has an estimated 1.7 trillion tons of carbon locked within it in the form of frozen organic matter. Thawing permafrost causes this matter to warm up and decompose, eventually converting its carbon to carbon dioxide and methane—resulting in the acceleration of global warming.
The melting of the permafrost also threatens to unlock dormant pathogens long trapped in the ice, such as the giant Pithovirus sibericum virus which until 2014 had been locked in Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. And we would want to avoid another major virus now, wouldn’t we?