On November 15, deputy chairman of the Committee for the Salvation of Pechora Ivan Ivanov informed about oil spill in the village of Nizhny Odes, the Sosnogorsky district.
"Reported an oil spill in 500 meters from my house, right in the village. A lot [of oil] got into the stream," Ivanov wrote. Activist assumes that the breakthrough occurred on the old pipeline, currently dismantling by the "Lukoil-Komi" contractors.
"According to the latest police information, contractors have hired someone else for cleaning, and the spill happened during work," Ivanov said. He is sure that the accident occurred in the same place where the oil spill happened last fall, since in July of this year he filed a complaint to the Ministry of Industry of Komi that a lot of oil pollution was left on the accident scene.
On the morning of November 16, a commission, included representatives of the administration of the village of Nizhny Odes, the "Lukoil-Komi" company, the regional Department of Civil Defense and Emergencies and the Ministry of Industry, Natural Resources and Transport of the Republic and police officers arrived to the accident scene. One of the workers of "Lukoil-Komi" told Ivanov that the contractors reported the depressurization of the pipe immediately, after which the company allocated employees to help in the liquidation of the spill. According to him, most of the spilled oil was removed on November 15, "all forces were thrown". The liquidation of the accident is handled by a Moscow company with one of the branches in Ukhta, rescuers from Moscow and Arkhangelsk are involved. Now the oil-containing liquid is collected in the place of depressurization and in two places of the stream. The commission was able to inspect four places where the stream intersects with the road.
"The spill occurred in fifty meters from the stream of Nizhny Odes, which flows through the whole village," Ivan Ivanov said. "This is our only waterway, which "Lukoil" pollutes every year. The pipe goes through the garden plots, maybe unauthorized, I don’t know, but people have been farming there for decades."
The head of the Sosnogorsk city committee for environmental protection Irina Dikunets said that, according to preliminary estimates, about four cubes of oil could spill. Ivan Ivanov doubts this figure, because he saw at least ten bottles of water only in one place of collection.
"The diameter of the pipe is half a meter, the length of the pipe is 4,000 meters, which means that its volume is 785 cubes," he counted. "How much oil remained — no idea".
Roman Polshvedkin, the first deputy minister of Industry and Natural Resources of the republic, said that he would be able to comment on the situation with oil spills not until the evening, after the ministry employees return.
Sergei Makarov, deputy general director of "Lukoil-Komi" for public relations, was not available for comment at the time of publication. There are no reports of oil spills on the company's website.
In April 2016, a large oil spill occurred on the Yarega River, not far from Ukhta and Sosnogorsk. Three days later, an emergency regime was announced. Company "Yareganeft", a subsidiary of "Lukoil", was blamed for the accident. A year later, the oil flew along the Ukhta River again.
On November 14, 2017, the legal management and document support of the Komi State Council rejected the question of old oil pipelines proposed by the Komi environmentalists for the referendum. On the same day, the head of the department of the republican Rosprirodnadzor, Alexander Popov, reminded deputies about the importance of replacing old pipelines.
Elena Solovyova, photo by Ivan Ivanov, «7x7»
