Rare catfish that are on the Moscow Region's Red List of Threatened Species, have died as a result of an oil spill in the Khimki Reservoir, Vakhtang Astakhov, the head of the Moscow-Oka Basin Water Administration, part of Russia's Federal Water Resources Agency, said on Friday
KHIMKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) Rare catfish that are on the Moscow Region's Red List of Threatened Species, have died as a result of an oil spill in the Khimki Reservoir, Vakhtang Astakhov, the head of the Moscow-Oka Basin Water Administration, part of Russia's Federal Water Resources Agency, said on Friday.
Late last month, the agency said the oil spill in the Khimki Reservoir covered over 245,000 square feet. The contamination was originally detected on June 25 in the Grachevka (Chernavka) River that flows into the reservoir. The suspected source of the contamination was a surface water drain used by Khimvodostok municipal unitary enterprise. The spill had been localized by containment booms.
"The [Federal Agency For Fishery] Rosrybolovstvo discovered that fish were killed and while biological resources have been damaged. Catfish, which are on the Red List in the Moscow Region, were killed, the damage is significant," Astakhov told reporters.
According to the official, at least two enterprises are involved in the oil spill incident.
"While the investigation is underway we cannot say if [the oil leaked] from their manifold or not, but, nevertheless, the oil manifolds were completely clogged on the territory of this organization. We assumed that the situation was under control and we expected the leak to stop ... However, the spill wan not decreasing and we realized that there was another pollutant ... in the district of Khimki," Astakhov said without specifying Names of the entities.
In early July, Russian sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said that water samples from the Khimki Reservoir were in compliance with the standards and the spill did not worsen the quality of drinking water in Moscow. The decontamination is almost complete, however, it may take about a year to restore the ecology.
