A new rupture in a 31-mile pipeline has spilled nearly 4 million gallons of oil in Russia's far north just miles from the site of a huge spill this fall, an environmental group said Sunday.
Greenpeace Russia said it discovered the new spill 40 miles north of the oil town of Usinsk on Friday. A duty officer at the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said the ministry had no information on any new spill.Greenpeace Russia said the oil had been set ablaze, and that a milelong stream of burning oil fed by lakes of oil two feet deep cut across the tundra.
"This is a major oil disaster caused by oil companies that refused to stop pumping their oil down a pipeline they know is falling apart," said Paul Horsman of Greenpeace Russia.
"The pipeline must be closed down permanently."
The earlier spill, also north of Usinsk and some 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow, reportedly already has polluted the salmon-rich Pechora River. It resulted from a series of ruptures along the pipeline over the last few months.
The exact size of the earlier spill is unknown. U.S. authorities have said it could be as large as 80 million gallons. Russian officials say is much smaller - 4.1 million to 17.6 million gallons.
The Exxon Valdez tanker, by comparison, spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil after running aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
A government commission last week said the earlier spill should be cleaned up before spring floods make it worse next year. However, cleanup efforts have already been hampered by snow and ice in the region, and some polluted zones are hard for heavy equipment to reach.
Greenpeace Russia criticized the government for failing to prevent the new spill, saying their inspection was improper.