Arctic river turns red again - two years after ‘pollution problem' supposedly fixed 08-11

Shocking : Water  turns red,as nearby nickel processing plant says cause is decades of contamination in Soviet times which company is working to overcome.

The ‘river of blood’ has appeared again, two years after the plant was fined by an eco-watchdog.

Nornickel, owner of Nadezhdinsky factory, also known as Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, says it has taken major action to clean-up the environment around Norilsk and in particular around the controversial Daldykan River.

Nikolay Utkin, director of the Polar Division of Norilsk Nickel, told The Siberian Times: 'The reason why the water in the Doldykan River got the reddish-brown colour is the active melting of snow, a powerful flood, which washes off the stuff that had been gathering here for decades.

'Unfortunately, during the Soviet era, the environmental issues were resolved on a residual basis. 

'At present, Norilsk Nickel is making serious efforts to solve this problem.'

Critics have suggested a dammed slurry lake appears to be leaking again into the Daldykan River, so much so that the sight is visible from space satellites, but this is denied by the company. 

In the lake are ‘tailings’, the residue of ore after processing, it has been reported. 

The red tinge of the Arctic river, in the north of Krasnoyarsk region, is also seen on a video that has appeared on local news sites.

The press service of the plant said there was 'no emergency' but initially did not comment further, said local reports. 

Nornickel empire, better known as Norilsk Nickel, has $16.5 billion in assets.

Dammed slurry lake appears to be leaking again into the Daldykan River, so much so that the sight is visible from space satellites. 

In 2016 ecological watchdog - Rosprirodnadzor - announced an 'administrative fine' had 

been imposed over the ‘river of blood’.

The exact amount of the fine was not divulged but it could not be higher than 40,000 roubles - or $650. 

The fine was criticised at the time as too small but there were also understandings that the problem of pollution leaking into the river would be solved. 

Sergey Dyachenko, Chief Operating Officer of Nornickel, was on record saying: ‘We hope that it will not happen in future.’

Now Mr Uktin has revealed: 'In 2016, the slurry pipeline from Nadezhdinsky Metallurgical Plant to tailings was completely replaced, which helped to eliminate the main cause of the (problem).

'Daily monitoring of this facility allows us to say that there are no leaks. 

'For two years of intensive use the pipeline has proved its reliability.

'The results of environmental monitoring of the territory, both visual and in the lab, confirm a significant improvement compared to the situation during the flood in the past year.

'In 2017, as part of the implementation of the three-year plan for the containment and cleaning of the spills, Norilsk Nickel began to clean up the area adjacent to the pipeline. 

'In total, 84,000 tons of spills, a considerable amount of scrap metal and various garbage were removed. 

'Totally more than 2 million square metres (227.89 hectares) was cleared. 

'The cost of the cleaning in 2017 amounted to about 150 million roubles ($2.4 million).

'In the years 2018-2019  more than 220 million roubles ($3.5 million) will be allocated to the cleaning of the long-term pollution. 

'We expect that, after carrying out all the planned works, the colouring of the Doldykan River in the period of heavy rains or high water will be minimised.' 

Regional deputy leader Anatoly Samkov warned in 2016: ‘Such violations are one of the facts of environmental mismanagement. 

'The administrative sanctions imposed on the company cannot serve as a serious preventive measure and we will demand the tightening of existing legislation for such cases. 

'We will keep the situation under control.'

Previously Alexei Kiselyov, of Greenpeace Russia, blamed iron salts.

'It was impossible to say if there was damage to local fauna without investigating the site, he said. 

'Results of the tests are needed,' he said.

Locals say the river frequently turned red in Soviet times, but there were no eco-campaigners then to point to environmental damage. 

'It spring, that means the Daldykan turns red', said one longtime resident. 

Others questioned the company's claims that the water was clean.

View at the original source

These Indian fishermen take plastic out of the sea and use it to build roads 07-20

Every one of India’s 1.3 billion people uses an average 11kg of plastic each year. After being used, much of this plastic finds its way to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, where it can maim and kill fish, birds and other marine wildlife.

Fisherman in India’s southern state of Kerala are taking on the battle to cut the level of plastic waste in the oceans.

When the trawlers drag their nets through the water, they end up scooping out huge amounts of plastic along with the fish. Until recently the fishermen would simply throw the plastic junk back into the water.

But last summer Kerala’s fisheries minister J. Mercykutty Amma started a scheme to change this. Under her direction, the state government launched a campaign called Suchitwa Sagaram, or Clean Sea, which trains fishermen to collect the plastic and bring it back to shore.

In Suchitwa Sagaram’s first 10 months, fisherman have removed 25 tonnes of plastic from the Arabian Sean, including 10 tonnes of plastic bags and bottles, according to a UN report on the scheme.

From waste to roads

Once all the plastic waste caught by the Keralan fishermen reaches the shore, it is collected by people from the local fishing community - all but two of whom are women - and fed into a plastic shredding machine.

Like so many of India’s plastic recycling schemes, this shredded plastic is converted into material that is used for road surfacing.

There are more than 34,000km of plastic roads in India, mostly in rural areas. More than half of the roads in the southern state of Tamil Nadu are plastic. This road surface is increasingly popular as it makes the roads more resilient to India’s searing heat. The melting point for plastic roads is around 66°C, compared to 50°C for conventional roads.

Using recycled plastic is a cheaper alternative to conventional plastic additives for road surfaces. Every kilometre of plastic road uses the equivalent of a million plastic bags, saving around one tonne of asphalt. Each kilometre costs roughly 8% less than a conventional road.

And plastic roads help create work. As well as the Keralan fishing crews, teams of on-land plastic pickers across India collect the plastic waste. They sell their plastic to the many small plastic shredding businesses that have popped up across the country.

Plastics ban

The need for schemes such as Suchitwa Sagaram is emphasised by research that shows 90% of the plastic waste in the world’s oceans is carried there by just 10 rivers - two of which are in India.

According to a study by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, India’s Indus and Ganges rivers carry the second and sixth highest amounts of plastic debris to the ocean. The Indian Ocean, meanwhile, is choked with the second highest amount of plastic out of all of the world’s oceans. 

Like Kerala’s fisheries minister, Indian politicians appear to be taking action in the face of this mounting crisis.

This month India’s prime minister Narendra Modi pledged to eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022, starting with an immediate ban in urban Delhi.

The move came just three months after India’s western state of Maharashtra issued a ban virtually all types of plastic bag, disposable cutlery, cups and dishes, as well as plastic containers and packaging.

Residents face fines from 5,000 rupees (US$73) for a first time offence to 25,000 rupees ($367) and jail time for repeat offenders, while the state’s Environment Department is also encouraging people to recycle bottles and milk bags through a buy-back scheme.

While’s India’s plastic problem is substantial due to the size of its population and its rate of economic growth, schemes such as those in Maharashtra, Delhi and Kerala set an example to western nations.

In the US, for example each person on average generates up to 10 times the amount of plastic waste generated by their Indian counterpart.

If western nations followed India’s lead of combining political pressure with entrepreneurial ventures, perhaps the world will stand of a chance of avoiding the predicted catastrophe of there being more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. 

View at the original source

How Soda Caps Are Killing Birds 06-28

How Soda Caps Are Killing Birds

Remember those haunting images of animals stuck in plastic soda rings? This is worse. Since 2009, photographer Chris Jordan has been documenting birds on Midway Atoll way out in the Pacific Ocean — near what's known as the "Pacific Garbage Patch" or, essentially, a swirling heap of plastic the size of Texas.

What Jordan found on those islands were carcasses of baby birds that have died an unnerving death:According to the BBC, "about one-third of all albatross chicks die on Midway, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents."

• 
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

View slideshow

Jordan was a runner-up this year for the Prix Pictet, a prize in photography and sustainability, for a morose series that shows plastic guts spilling from dead birds. His photos, and others from the Prix Pictet contest, are currently touring various museums. He is also producing a film about his journeys to Midway Atoll, where the photos were taken.

"For me," Jordan writes in an artist statement, "kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth."

They are hard to look at, but it's even harder to confront that this is not fiction.

View at the original source