Russia removes toxic wastes from Arctic
We will be able to remove all the polluting waste materials from the Franz Josef Land in the course of the next 10-15 years, leader of the Russian Arctic national park says.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday, leader of the Franz Josef Land national park Gennady Danilov confirmed that all the polluting equipment and substances can be removed in the course of the next 10-15 years. –I would really like the Arctic to be clean, he underlined, RIA Novosti reports.
Read also: Enviro-cleanup at Franz Josefs Land started
The waste material all stems from the military base which in the Soviet period was based in the archipelago. About 250 thousand barrels of oil products, as well as the about one million empty barrels, and old military equipment like cars, aircrafts, radar installations and more are left rusting in the area, posing a serious environmental threat to the local Arctic environment.
Clean-up underway
As reported by BarentsObserver, the Russian federal government has committed itself to follow up the clean-up operations with fresh funding. A total of 740 million RUB (18.5 mill EUR) will alone in 2012 be spent on clean up operations at the Franz Josef Land.
The waste is located on four of the 191 local islands, Danilov said. The extent of the pollution has now been determined and pilot projects on its removal have been conducted. The operations will require the establishment of a local service base and both icebreakers, helicopters, aircrafts and modern technology on ground re-cultivation will be needed, he added.
Novaya Zemlya
Not only the Franz Josef Land suffers from Soviet period pollution. Also the heavily militarized Novaya Zemlya is seriously affected by human activities in the Soviet period. From 1955 to 1990, more than 220 nuclear detonations were conducted in the area.
Deputy leader of the federal State Nature Control Agency, Amirkhan Amirkhanov, in the same press conference confirmed that also the nuclear test sites are included in the Arctic areas which are to undergo clean-up and environmental re-cultivation.
-We can not say exactly how much money we will need for this work, but we can only assume that the total sums will amount to billions, Amirkhanov said.
Read also: Are the dumped nuclear reactors leaking?
Russian authorities in 2009 decided to establish the “Russkaya Arktika” national park, which includes the northern parts of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, as well as the Franz Josef Land and adjacent waters.
