Word: spills
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...spill raises specters of the Exxon Valdez disaster...
...maybe not. The Russians insist that the real figure is only a one- twentieth as large, and no one has been able to prove them wrong. Bad weather closed area airports for most of last week, while a persistent cloud cover prevented orbiting spy satellites from photographing the spill. But even if the Russian estimates are accurate, says William White, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy, "that...
Whatever the volume of escaped petroleum, the spill is just part of a much bigger problem. Russia has more than a million miles of gas and oil pipelines, many of them poorly maintained and some in very bad shape. Every year, up to a fifth of Russia's total oil production is lost -- partly to theft, but much of it through leakage. Komineft, the company whose oil is now polluting the northern terrain, is one of the most consistent offenders. For six years, says Stephen MacSerraigh of the oil industry magazine Nefte Compass, "the Komineft pipelines have averaged about...
News of the spill was contained much more effectively than the oil. It wasn't until weeks later, when an American oil-company worker was brought in to consult on the cleanup, that the rest of the world learned what had happened. The U.S., Germany and Denmark have offered to help, but by week's end the Russians had not responded. To hear Bibikov talk, they won't have to. He claims that the oil fouled only a few miles of the nearby Kolva River and that the water has been 90% cleaned up. The remaining oil, he says, covers...
...river used to have lots of fish," said Vyacheslava Topova, who lives in Kolva, a river town in the region. "Now there are hardly any fish at all, and when we cook them, they smell bad. People here survive, but they are really worried about the future." This spill may be cleaned up by spring, as Bibikov insists. But unless Russia overhauls its aging, corroding pipelines, they will keep springing leaks and spoiling the landscape...