The amendments have been developed in view of Norilsk Nickel’s recovery of damage caused by fuel spill in the Krasnoyarsk Territory
The State Duma of Russia says it has adopted the third and final reading the draft law “On introduction of amendments into the Budgetary Code of the Russian Federation and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation”. The amendments provide for full payments to the federal budget for federally owned objects.
The amendments on payment of compensation for water bodies damage to the budget have been developed in view of Norilsk Nickel’s recovery of damage caused by fuel spill in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Without the amendments, the statement says, the entire amount would be paid to the budget of Norilsk. Rosprirodnadzor, the Government’s Environment Supervision Agency, has estimated the damage at RUB 148 billion, that is about eight annual budgets of the city.
According to the law, the regional budget can get 100% of the compensation for damage to water bodies owned by the constituent entity of the Federation (pond, watered pit).
On May 29, 2020, an accident occurred whereby the containment of the emergency fuel storage at Heat and Power Plant № 3 (HPP-3) in the Kayerkan neighborhood of Norilsk failed due to sudden sinking of support posts, resulting in leakage of 20,000 tonnes of oil products. Emergency teams from Nornickel’s Polar Division and NTEC immediately arrived to the site to start clean up works. A total of 800 cubic m of contaminated soil has been removed and approximately 80t of fuel has been collected from the spill to Ambarnaya river.
The amount of financial penalties has been calculated upon full investigation by the Government’s Environment Supervision Agency (Rosprirodnadzor). The Agency estimated damage to water bodies in the amount of RUB 147,046,011,000 billion, and soils – in the amount of RUB 738,616,500 million.