05/06/2020 - Environment

IAS Parliament 4 years

KEY POINTS

A power plant fuel leak in its Arctic region caused 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil to escape into a local river, turning its surface crimson red.
The Ambarnaya river, into which the oil has been discharged, is part of a network that flows into the environmentally sensitive Arctic Ocean.

Reason

The thermoelectric power plant at Norilsk is built on permafrost, which has weakened over the years owing to climate change. This caused the pillars that supported the plant’s fuel tank to sink., leading to a loss of containment.

Impacts

The heavier oils cover the surface of the water and affect the respiration ability of marine mammals. The lighter oils, on the other hand, blend with the water and get absorbed into their organs, affecting their functioning.
Not only this, but the oil contaminates the food of the marine animals, causing their death. Oil spills can also have an effect on breeding as exposure to oil can affect fish eggs.
While oil spills have a direct impact on marine life, they also have an indirect effect on humans. Spilt oil can percolate through land surface and can get accumulated on groundwater, polluting it.
This can lead to increased levels of water pollution. When consumed, this contaminated water can cause diseases. Humans can also face health issues after they consume animals that died due to an oil spill.

What are the clean-up measures being suggested?

Scientists opposed setting the vast quantity of oil afire and recommended diluting the layer with reagents.
An expert suggested that the clean-up effort could take between 5-10 years, bio remediation would be the solution.

Aradhana Tiwari 4 years

Russian President Putin approved a state of emergency in the Arctic city of Norilsk- the world’s leading nickel and palladium producer, after a huge leak of fuel into a Ambarnaya river - turning its long stretches crimson red.

The Ambarnaya river flows to the Pyasino lake and river Pyasina, which connects it to the Kara sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean.

>>> Environment Concerns :

- Impact on Ecology : The diesel leak can have a serious impact on the local ecology. The local ecosystem sustains damage as there are notable changes in species composition, dominance and biomass.

- Habitat loss : Such incidents destroys all aspects of the environmental integrity of the marine ecosystems including fisheries, marine mammals, corals, ocean and shorebirds, and the coastal wildlife.

- This hurts the growth and reproduction of the native species and also leads to behavioural changes seen reflected in the feeding, activity of the marine birds and animals.

- Impact on food chain : - The oil spill will likely disturb the Arctic food chain for decades, perhaps forever. Oil spills in ice are more complicated to address than oil spills in open waters.

- Long recovery period : The effect of oil in ice-covered environments may lengthen the contamination time in such a manner that even after several years of an oil accident, the recovery process of littoral or benthic ecosystem may still be incomplete and, in the worst case, may not ever reach the original state.

>>> Mitigating Challenges :

- Difficulty in cleaning- given its shallow waters as well as the magnitude of the spill.

- Rehabilitating wildlife affected by an oil spill in the Arctic is complicated by remote location, adverse conditions, and safety concerns.

- - High clean up costs, nearly 10 billion rubles ($146 million), on top of any fines.

>>> Way forward :

- More research along with a better real-time data and forecasts of sea ice coverage and thickness- is needed to understand how oil behaves in an Arctic environment.

- need for public-private partnerships and community engagement to address the challenges of dealing with an Russian Arctic spill.

>>> Conclusion :

While mankind is still struggling as to how best to combat climate change, there comes environmental disaster of mammoth proportions, considered as the second-largest known oil leak in modern Russia’s history in terms of volume.