Arctic River Will Take Decades To Recover From Fuel Spill: Russia

"MOSCOW - Russia’s state fishing agency said on Tuesday an Arctic river would need decades to recover after 20,000 tonnes of oil products spilled out of a power station in the industrial city of Norilsk last week.

A fuel tank at the power station lost pressure on May 29 and leaked out fuel and lubricants, causing a fire and spreading across an area of 350 square metres, the Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said.

The spill leaked into the river Ambarnaya, something that Dmitry Klokov, a spokesman for the Rosrybolovstvo state fishing agency, described as an ecological catastrophe."

Tom Balmforth reports for Reuters June 2, 2020.