Diesel spill worst Arctic disaster since 1989

A governor in Siberia has accused local officials of trying to cover up the true scale of a massive fuel spill for two days, in what is the Arctic’s worst environmental disaster in 31 years.

About 20,000 tons of diesel spilled from a tank at a power plant near the city of Norilsk last Friday in the catastrophe. Thawing permafrost beneath the fuel tank is believed to have caused the spill that turned the local river crimson. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 saw 37,000 tons of oil leak off the coast of Alaska.