The recent contamination of the Moscow Region's Khimki Reservoir with oil products resulted from the draining of waste transformer oil from Starbeevo electrical substation, Russia's Rosprirodnadzor environmental watchdog told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The recent contamination of the Moscow Region's Khimki Reservoir with oil products resulted from the draining of waste transformer oil from Starbeevo electrical substation, Russia's Rosprirodnadzor environmental watchdog told Sputnik.
"According to the results of the water sampling identity analysis, the oil products detected in the storm wells at the Starbeevo electrical substation and in the Butakovsky Bay are 97 percent identical," Rosprirodnadzor said.
The watchdog added that the damage inflicted to the Khimki Reservoir by the oil spill has exceeded 46 million rubles ($637,000).
In late June, Russia's Federal Water Resources 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. Federal authorities said the concentration of contaminants was a thousand times above the threshold limit.
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 reservoir's ecosystem.
