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For those who noticed, 2013 was Russia’s year of the environment – Murmansk polluters lost the memo

“We are surprised that Green Patrol when speaking of cross-border pollution doesn’t speak in term of tons or kilograms of emissions – this is some kind of new unit of measurement for pollution migration,” said Zolotkov. “My subjective opinion is this is a new smoke screen to avoid a discussion of emissions reductions in favor of saying ‘our neighbors are polluting us.”

MURMANSK – As the end of Russia’s year of the Environment draws to a close, Bellona Murmansk held an event to tally up who in the region has been naughty and who’s been nice.

MURMANSK – As the end of Russia’s year of the Environment draws to a close, Bellona Murmansk held an event to tally up who in the region has been naughty and who’s been nice.

In the heavily industrialized swathe of Northwest Russia, there were plenty of opportunities to hand out lumps of coal – and many would have received them if they had actually showed up for Bellona Murmansk’s round table discussion on Tuesday.

The Bellona hosted discussion did bring together members of the Murmansk area government and the area’s biggest environmental organizations. But the companies and factories representing the areas biggest polluters called in last minute cancellations to say they were otherwise engaged

Among those RSVPing in the negative for the discussion of how closely they adhered to the principles of Russia’s environmental year were the controversial Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company, a daughter corporation of Russia’s Norilsk Nikel; the Northwest Phosphorous Company;  the apatite mining and processing center Kovdorsky Mining and Processing complex (Kovdorsky GOK), and the Olenogorsk iron-ore miner and processor (Olenogorsk GOK).

And on one count, a member of the Murmansk Parliament who had been invited, told Bellona on the condition that she remain anonymous, was advised against attending by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB’s successor organization.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Andrei Zolotkov, chairman of Bellona Murmansk. “They’ve already received their letters of appreciation for their ecological work from the Murmansk Regional government,” he added, wryly.

According to Elvira Makarova, director of the ecology department of the Murmansk division of Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), the Year of the Environment saw the realization and continued implementation of a host of large-scale environmental projects.

“The Murmansk Region is a pioneer in the implementation of many environmental projects,” she told the Bellona seminar.

She was referring primarily to decisions regarding foul industrial odors, studies of coal dust pollution in Murmansk, as well as the thorny issue of cross-border pollution with Norway.

Industrial pollution

One of the hottest topics at the seminar concerned industrial emissions.

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December 29, 2013 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment