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Russia's Lake Baikal threatened by oil spill
Feb 18, 2010, 13:12 GMT
Moscow - The world's biggest fresh water lake, Lake Baikal, is threatened by an oil leak after an accident on the Trans-Siberian railway, a spokesman for the Buryat Republic told news agency Itar- Tass Thursday.
When several freight tankers derailed in the east Russian town of Chelutay recently, railway workers secretly dumped around 500 tons of oil sludge near the UNESCO World Heritage listed lake, he said.
'When the snow melts the oil could flow into the lake via a tributary,' he added. 'It's a scandal.'
The rail company said it had only left the oil sludge there temporarily.
But environmentalists disagree and say that the company had 'disguised' the contaminated earth as a railway embankment.
The re-opening of a cellulose factory near the lake has also caused protests in Russia recently. Environmentalists fear that it could contaminate the lake with chemicals.
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