Environmentalists criticize governor
The five leading environmental organizations in Murmansk Oblast criticize Murmansk Governor Dmitry Dmitrienko for not showing interest in protecting environment in the region.
The Northern Coalition, a group of five leading environmental organizations in Murmansk Oblast, maintains that Governor Dmitriyenko has failed to take on the environmental challenges in the region. Since his appointment in March last year, Dmitriyenko has turned down all requests for meetings with environmental organisations, writes at Bellona.org.
In addition, the regional leader has shown a lack of understanding for the environmental problems in the region, Bellona claims. When asked by the press late December last year about the environmental situation in the region, the governor only highlighted the garbage problem.
Considering that this is a region with a nuclear power plant, a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, the nuclear icebreakers, as well as a number of big industrial plants, that answer is remarkable, the environmentalists argue.
The Northern Coalition calls for the governor and his administration to take measures in a number of issues, among them the protection of the Khibiny mountains, improved understanding of the risks connected with the projected Shtokman gas condensate field and the Teriberka-Volkhov gas pipeline, the decommissioning of the old reactors of the Kola NPP, improved focus on alternative energy sources and fresh water quality around the region’s industrial plants.
