Deadly smoke over Nikel
Every summer, the residents of Nikel, the Russian town located close to the border to Norway and Finland, worry about the wind. Once every three days, winds from the north bring major amounts of sulphure over the town streets.
-Last summer, Nikel residents called us to complain that it was difficult to breathe and that the rain was burning holes in their umbrellas, said Nina Lesikhina from the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental organization with a branch in Murmansk, said to newspaper the Moscow Times.
-Every time the wind blows north or northeast, it brings sulphur dioxide into town, local resident Denis Shershov said in an exclusive report by the newspaper. -In the summertime, that’s about once every three days, he added.
Getting worse
The situation this year looks no better. The mining and metallurgy appears to pay no attention to the serious local air problem. While the company earlier reduced production on the days with northern winds, it now keeps up full production on all days, thus aggravating the problem, a local inhabitant earlier said to BarentsObserver.
The Pechenganickel plant, a key unit in the Kolskaya GMK company, a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, emitted 108,000 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2006, or more than four times the emissions of all Norway. At the same time, the company is making better money than ever. In 2007, the company’s net profits amounted to more than 5 billion EUR.
Norwegian pressure
Norway has for years pushed on the company to improve environmental standards and in 1991 allocated 300 million NOK for environmental upgrades. Since then however, nothing has happened with the plant, which remains a huge regional polluter. Head of Kolskaya GMK Sergey Potapov has since confirmed that the Norwegian money will have no impact on whether upgrades will be made on plant or not.
In a meeting with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Norway’s Jonas Gahr Store in Kirkenes, Norway, this June, Mr Potapov said however that plant will be closed and production moved to the town of Monchegorsk further south in the Kola Peninsula.
The statement, if being followed up with real action, could mean an end to the serious emissions in Nikel. What will happen to the local population when the key work place disappears is another question.
Read more:
Norilsk Nickel to close smelter in Kola Peninsula 10 June 2008
Nikel on the foreign ministers agenda 3 June 2008
What will be the future of Nikel? 28 February 2008
Extreme pollution in Nikel 13 July 2007
