On Thursday, July 30, a meeting was held in Moscow with the participation of representatives of PJSC GNK Norilsk Nickel, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia and Rosprirodnadzor. This is stated in the message received by Izvestia.
The parties discussed the issue related to the damage caused to the environment as a result of the accident at the TPP-3 in Norilsk. Earlier, Rosprirodnadzor estimated it at 147.7 billion rubles. At the meeting, representatives of Norilsk Nickel could not name their version of the amount of damage caused.
It is noted that the company’s representatives appealed to the Ministry of Natural Resources with a request to create a working group to prepare a roadmap for the implementation of measures aimed at eliminating the consequences of the accident.
Depressurization of the diesel fuel storage tank on the territory of CHPP-3 occurred on May 29. Initially, it was reported that more than 20 thousand tons of fuel were spilled, which got into two rivers – Ambarnaya and Daldykan. On July 14, the Norilsktransgaz company, which is part of MMC Norilsk Nickel, announced that about 44.5 tons of fuel had spilled.
Three criminal cases were initiated under articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: “Damage to the land”, “Violation of environmental protection rules during work” and “Water pollution”, which were combined into one production.
As part of the investigation, the head of the CHPP-3 workshop Vyacheslav Starostin, the CHPP-3 director Pavel Smirnov, the chief engineer Alexei Stepanov and his deputy Yuri Kuznetsov were arrested. The defendant in the negligence case was the mayor of Norilsk, Rinat Akhmetchin, who resigned on July 20.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia believes that the emergency happened due to subsidence of the soil. Rostekhnadzor admits the version of equipment deterioration.
Rosprirodnadzor has estimated the environmental damage from the oil spill at 148 billion rubles. Norilsk Nickel planned to challenge the amount of damage, confirming the obligation to eliminate the consequences of the accident at its own expense.