PUTIN TO DECLARE EMERGENCY OVER SIBERIA OIL SPILL

A major fuel spill in Siberia has prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a state of emergency in an environmentally sensitive Arctic region after publicly scolding local authorities for what he said was a botched response.

A fuel tank at a power plant ruptured Friday in Norilsk — above the Arctic Circle in north- central Russia — leaking at least 20,000 tons of diesel fuel into the nearby Ambarnaya River. Satellite images showed large swaths of the waterway contaminated from the spill.

Norilsk Nickel, the parent company of the plant, believes melting permafrost caused a reservoir to collapse, touching off the leak.

The station’s employees originally tried to contain the leak on their own and did not report the incident to emergency services for two days, Yevgeny Zinichev, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said Wednesday during a nationally televised meeting chaired by Putin.

Lakes and waterways more than 19 kilometres from the site contained concentrations of petroleum products that were tens of thousands of times higher than the maximum permissible limit, according to Russia’s regulatory agency for natural resources.