Putin declares emergency after Siberia fuel leak

The spill took place at a power plant in an outlying section of the city of Norilsk situated 2900 kilometers northeast of Moscow. No cause for the accident has been determined. The damage to fish and other resources could exceed 13 million US dollars.

Norilsk:Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a state of emergency in a region of Siberia after an estimated 20,000 tons of diesel fuel spilled from a power plant storage facility and fouled waterways.

The spill took place on Friday at a power plant in an outlying section of the city of Norilsk, 2900 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

Booms were laid in the Ambarnaya River to block the fuel; the river feeds a lake from which springs another river that leads to the environmentally delicate Arctic Ocean.

A visibly irate Putin held a video link meeting with local officials about the spill on Wednesday and asked why the authorities had only learned about the spill two days after it occurred.

"What, are we going to learn about emergencies from social media now? Are you in the right mind over there?" he asked regional governor Alexander Uss, before ordering officials to minimize the consequences of the spill.

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Local emergency officials at the site of the clean-up told Russian television that the area's seclusion meant that it was hard to bring large boats in to pump out the oil.

"It's a secluded area. There's no transportation by road or railroad," said Alexander Lobach, an official involved in the cleanup.

Alexei Knizhnikov of the World Wildlife Fund's Russian operation told that the damage to fish and other resources could exceed 1 billion rubles (13 million US dollars).

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He went on to estimate that as much as 90 percent of the oil products from the plant had made their way into nearby waterways.

"The problem is that this oil spill that is large in itself got onto the water's surface rather than the soil and has spread," Knizhnikov said.

The plant is operated by a division of Norilsk Nickel, whose factories in the area have made Norilsk one of the most heavily polluted places on Earth.

No cause for the accident has been determined, but a company statement said it was concerned about facilities constructed on sinking soil above permafrost.

(AP)