Cost of oil spill to grow 10-fold
Russia’s nature supervision watchdog RosPrirodNadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources Usage) increased fines for spills of oil and oil products 10 times from July 20, 2007.
The method for calculation of harm to water bodies caused by violation of water legislation (registered by the RF Ministry of Justice, decree No 9471 dated May 15, 2007) approved by the RF Ministry of Natural Resources (decree No 71 dated 30.03.07) was put into practice a week ago, PortNews IAA learnt from Roman Baluev, deputy head of the North-West Department of RosPrirodNadzor. According to Baluev, the size of penalty to be imposed on those guilty in oil spills has been increased 10-fold. According to calculations made by the North-West Department of RosPrirodNadzor the claim against the parties guilty of oil spills within the water area of the Baltic Sea will make some RUR 600,000 for 100 kilograms of spilt oil products. The sum will depend not only on volume but on the time needed for response activities as well. The new document will be applied for calculation of harm done to environment in case of oil spills at both water territory and on the shore.
The reason for introduction of a new method appeared on July 26. At the estuary of the Neva-river, within the harbor waters of the port of St. Petersburg (downstream Tuchkov bridge), an oil slick was found drifting to the port. Under preliminary estimations the slick contains some 30 liters. The North-West Department of RosPrirodNadzor tries to determine the party in fault.
Oil spills within the harbor waters of the port of St. Petersburg and the Neva-river happen every month. In the first half of 2007, St. Petersburg Sea Port Administration registered 13 oil spills, while throughout the year of 2006 there were 17 oil spills. In January-June 2007, 15 oil spills were registered at the rivers of St. Petersburg.
Sea water suffers mainly from oil spills caused by onboard tank-to-tank transfer of oil products, St. Petersburg Sea Port Administration informs. The incidents related to bunkering operations make less than 50%. Sometimes oil slicks enter the port territory from the Neva-river. In such cases the party to blame is difficult to determine. In H1 2007, RUR 325,000 in fine was charged in relation to all violations of environmental legislation regulating marine activities. As Roman Baluev told PortNews IAA, RUR 234,000 was collected from the fined parties. The amount claimed for damage to water bodies totaled RUR 976,798 (RUR 489,960 was collected). The amount claimed for environment pollution (in relation to oil spills) totaled RUR 168,000 (completely collected).
The majority of incidents are traditionally caused by industrial enterprises and public sewers, and cases when oil products enter the Neva waters directly from the embankment lining. In such situations it is difficult to determine the party in fault. Thus, RosPrirodNadzor checks potential sources of city water area pollution: in H1 2007 it checked TPP-2, TPP-5 and TPP-17 as they have direct outlets to the Neva.
Detailed review of all ecological incidents registered within the water area of the port of St. Petersburg and the review of the market of marine waste collection and utilization is available in the magazine of PortNews IAA "Bunkering market. Semi-annual report - 2007".