Freshwater Lake

---

The oil spill now threatens a vast, untouched area of The Arctic wilderness.

Diesel-oil from a huge oil spill in Russia's Arctic North, has polluted a large fresh water lake and there is a risk of it spreading in the Arctic Ocean could be Said that a high Russian official.

emergency-try teams, to contain the oil, which is now traveled approximately 20 km (12 miles) North of Norilsk, of a collapsed tank.

It is the worst accident of its kind in Modern Times in The Russian Arctic, environmentalists and officials say.

The oil began to lick and 29. May.

So Far , around 21,000 tonnes of the Ambarnaya river and the surrounding ground have been contaminated.

the investigators believe that The Storage tank fell in the vicinity of Norilsk, because of the melting Permafrost , supports leading to a weakening of the. The Arctic has weeks of unusually warm weather, probably a symptom of Global Warming .

The Power Plant , where it happened, is a daughter company of Norilsk Nickel, The World 's leading nickel and palladium producer.

Lake Pyasino serves as a collection basin for the Pyasina river, which flows to the Kara Sea , a part of the Arctic Ocean . From October to June, the river is generally bound in ice.

"The fuel has, the in the Lake Pyasino ", Said Alexander Uss, the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk region.

"This is a beautiful lake, approximately 70km [45 miles] long. Of course, there is fish and a good biosphere has," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

"Now, it is important to prevent it from getting in the Pyasina river, which flows to the North. This should be possible. "

officials say booms have not prevented that the oil drifting

Clean-up teams have removed approximately 23,000 cubic meters (812,000 cubic meters) of contaminated soil, Ria Novosti news reports.

The pollution of the environment "will have a negative effect on the water resources, The Animals , the Said drink the water, to the plants, to The Banks ," Vasily Yablokov of Greenpeace Russia

Greenpeace, Exxon is in comparison to the 1989 Valdez disaster in Alaska .

Russian state checked have ordered lawyers in the case of "especially dangerous objects" built on the Permafrost .

and the Power Plant 's Director, Vyacheslav Petrovich Starostin, was taken into custody.

The Russian investigative Committee has opened a Criminal Case on environmental pollution and the alleged negligence.

What is Permafrost ?

The term is used for the soil is frozen continuously for two or more years.

approximately 55% of the territory of Russia, mainly in Siberia, Permafrost and home to its major oil and gas Fields .

an international forum, warned that includes Russia, that due to Global Warming and the melting of the ice, foundations in Permafrost regions could not support any longer, the loads that they did, as least in the 1980S .

storage tanks on the Yamal Peninsula , for example, are mounted on stilts.

The leaked oil, turned over a wide stretch of the Ambarnaya river of crimson Red .

experts have warned that the clean-up operation poses great challenges

In a statement, Norilsk Nickel Said The Incident was reported in a "timely and properly". The Company is committed to estimated figures for the clean-up, the $146m.

Norilsk is already a known contamination hotspot, because of the contamination from the industry that dominates The City .

was responsible for turning a nearby river Red .

Julia Gumenyuk, Deputy Minister of the environment for the region of Krasnoyarsk, Said the boom had not yet of the oil-dispersion flow stop down.

"We see a large concentration of the diluted oil products beyond the boom," She Said .

environment, russia, pollution, arctic

Source of news: bbc.com