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24 September 2010
04 January 2009
Baikal microbes could help clean up oil spills.
from the Telegraph U.K.:
Oil spills could be cleaned up with the help of organisms that grow at the bottom of the world's deepest lake, scientists hope.
Last Updated: 5:12PM GMT 01 Jan 2009
They are investigating how microbes 'eat' naturally occurring crude oil that seeps into the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Dr Mikhail Grachyov, an expert on the flora and fauna of the 5,400ft-deep lake, said: "Baikal has microbes that absorb this oil so it does not spread through the lake. This could have huge implications for environmental disasters."
The scientists believe that the microbes convert the crude oil into methane and other by-products, but they do not yet understand how.
Dr Grachyov said: "It is important that we study these processes more thoroughly."
Samples that were gathered in two mini-submarines will be analysed over the coming years.
In 1996, hundreds of sea birds were killed along with fish and other marine wildlife when the Sea Empress oil tanker ran aground off the Pembrokeshire coast, spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude.
Dr David Santillo, senior scientist with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, said: "Further investigation of these unusual microbial communities in Lake Baikal will be valuable.
"However, while microbial action might help deal with some oil spills, we need to place far more emphasis on preventing such spills from happening in the first place."
Oil spills could be cleaned up with the help of organisms that grow at the bottom of the world's deepest lake, scientists hope.
Last Updated: 5:12PM GMT 01 Jan 2009
They are investigating how microbes 'eat' naturally occurring crude oil that seeps into the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Dr Mikhail Grachyov, an expert on the flora and fauna of the 5,400ft-deep lake, said: "Baikal has microbes that absorb this oil so it does not spread through the lake. This could have huge implications for environmental disasters."
The scientists believe that the microbes convert the crude oil into methane and other by-products, but they do not yet understand how.
Dr Grachyov said: "It is important that we study these processes more thoroughly."
Samples that were gathered in two mini-submarines will be analysed over the coming years.
In 1996, hundreds of sea birds were killed along with fish and other marine wildlife when the Sea Empress oil tanker ran aground off the Pembrokeshire coast, spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude.
Dr David Santillo, senior scientist with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, said: "Further investigation of these unusual microbial communities in Lake Baikal will be valuable.
"However, while microbial action might help deal with some oil spills, we need to place far more emphasis on preventing such spills from happening in the first place."
29 September 2008
Baikal Pulp Mill operating in closed-water cycle
from Novosti:
Russia's Baikal pulp mill launches closed water cycle
IRKUTSK, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - A pulp and paper mill in East Siberia started operating in a closed water cycle Monday, following probes over the plant's environmental impact on the world's largest freshwater lake, Baikal.
The Baikal Pulp Mill, which produces 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of paper per year, has been accused of discharging large volumes of toxic waste into the lake since it was built in the 1960s.
Mill owner Continental Management, a subsidiary of billionaire Oleg Deripaska's industrial conglomerate Basic Element, spent 290 million rubles ($11.4 million) on the closed water cycle project.
Environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor imposed in early December 2007 a five-day ban on the dumping of waste into Lake Baikal from the mill, and filed a lawsuit against the company for damages of over 475 million rubles ($19.9 million). The watchdog eventually increased the size of the legal claim to 4.2 billion rubles ($176 million).
The governor of the Irkutsk region, Alexander Tishanin, called on the government earlier this year to remove the pulp mill from the lake, echoing demands by environmental activists.
Russia's Baikal pulp mill launches closed water cycle
IRKUTSK, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - A pulp and paper mill in East Siberia started operating in a closed water cycle Monday, following probes over the plant's environmental impact on the world's largest freshwater lake, Baikal.
The Baikal Pulp Mill, which produces 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of paper per year, has been accused of discharging large volumes of toxic waste into the lake since it was built in the 1960s.
Mill owner Continental Management, a subsidiary of billionaire Oleg Deripaska's industrial conglomerate Basic Element, spent 290 million rubles ($11.4 million) on the closed water cycle project.
Environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor imposed in early December 2007 a five-day ban on the dumping of waste into Lake Baikal from the mill, and filed a lawsuit against the company for damages of over 475 million rubles ($19.9 million). The watchdog eventually increased the size of the legal claim to 4.2 billion rubles ($176 million).
The governor of the Irkutsk region, Alexander Tishanin, called on the government earlier this year to remove the pulp mill from the lake, echoing demands by environmental activists.
15 September 2008
Lead and Zinc field threatens Lake Baikal
Reuters
September 9th, 2008
By Olga Petrova
LAKE BAIKAL, Russia (Reuters) - Green trees sway on the hilly Russian horizon, rainbows pierce Lake Baikal's grey waters and waves pound a pathless shore.
The stark beauty of the world's deepest and oldest lake is under threat, ecologists say, because it lies downstream from a rich source of zinc.
The proximity has opened up a debate in this resource-rich nation, pitting industrialists and job-hungry officials in Siberia against ecologists and government agencies in Moscow.
Experts say the Kholodninskoye deposit, which sits in a watershed flowing straight into Baikal, is the planet's third largest lead and zinc field.
Zinc is used in the production of galvanized steel, the automobile industry, household batteries, vitamin supplements, fireworks and as a compound in some cosmetics.
MBC Resources, a subsidiary of Russia's privately owned Metropol group, has a license to develop Kholodninskoye, which has an estimated 13.3 million tonnes of zinc and 2 million tonnes of lead. It has drafted a plan to develop the field and other metals in the region at an estimated cost of $4 billion.
But ecologists in Buryatia region in Siberia, where Baikal lies, say development would despoil the biggest freshwater mass on earth -- already threatened by tourism and other industries.
"For us right now, this is problem number one," said Sergey Shapkhayev, director of the Buryat/Baikal Land Use Programme in Ulan Ude.
"The geo-hydrological structure there is very complex, lots of underground springs, subsoil water at different temperatures that would increase tailings volumes into the lake," he said.
Tailings are unrecoverable mining waste discharged as slurry.
In July, Russia's Natural Resources Ministry proposed a ban on developing half of the Kholodninskoye deposit, saying mining would damage the lake, considered a national ecological reserve.
The government of Buryatia, which borders some 60 percent of the lake, hopes development will bring investment and jobs to the region, and has strongly opposed the proposed ban.
RICH RESOURCE
At its deepest, Baikal is 1,637 meters and it is some 25 million years old. It holds about one fifth of the world's freshwater and is around 9,200 km (5,717 miles) east of Moscow.
The shoreline runs along an ancient rift valley for about 2,100 km (1,305 miles), roughly the distance from Moscow to Duesseldorf, Germany.
Buryatia authorities are keen to promote Baikal, which is home to some of the world's rarest types of fish and plants, as a tourist destination. But it also wants mining development.
Buryatia President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, appointed in 2007 by then President Vladimir Putin, served as a crew member on a highly publicized but ultimately unsuccessful submarine dive in July, aimed at reaching the bottom of Baikal.
The dive was financed by Mikhail Slipenchuk, Metropol's general director. He says not developing the zinc and lead deposits would constitute a missed opportunity for Russia, already flush with cash from an energy and commodities boom.
"This is 20 percent of Russia's (zinc) reserves. If we cross it off the list, Russia will be the poorer for it," he said.
However, zinc prices have been sliding on weak demand and global oversupply, with some analysts predicting little relief into 2010.
The metal is one of the worst performers in the metals complex this year. In August, it dropped to its lowest level since November 2005 and is now trading around $1,745 a tonne, down almost 25 percent this year.
Zinc stocks at the London Metal Exchange have jumped 80 percent this year to 160,000 tonnes, and a Reuters survey of analysts showed an expected surplus of about 281,250 tonnes this year, growing to 328,758 tonnes in 2009.
The industry has seen mine closures and output cuts as energy, labor and equipment costs rise -- raising questions about the ultimate profitability of the Kholodninskoye project.
Undeterred, MBC recently signed a memorandum with Rusinvestpartner, a joint venture of state conglomerate Russian Technologies and metals-to-oil firm Renova, under which Rusinvestpartner said it intended to buy stakes in projects to develop Kholodninskoye and another lead and zinc deposit nearby.
Even if the ban on development does not proceed, there is clean-up work to be done before any mining gets underway.
SOVIET LEGACY
Buryatia's Natural Resource Ministry said in July that MBC would have to spend 2 billion roubles ($85 million) on cleanup of tailings plumes caused by Soviet-era prospecting.
Slipenchuk says the company will fund the clean-up but wants this to be written into the licensing agreement.
He said Soviet test shafts sent tailings-laced underground water into the nearby Kholodnaya river which feeds Baikal.
"Either we spend several hundred million dollars setting the Kholodninskoye deposit aside as a nature reserve, or we tighten regulations in the licensing agreement to make the holder responsible for these deficiencies," Slipenchuk said.
Baikal is such a powerful symbol of ecological purity for Russians that in 2006, Putin ordered a giant oil pipeline to be routed away from the lake, citing great risk to the environment.
But in spite of this, ecologist Shapkhayev said unregulated logging and careless tourism construction were already causing damage, that would only be intensified by mining.
"Russian ministries think, mistakenly, that up to 2 million tourists will come here, and that they need to build five-star hotels, mountain ski resorts ... and they dole out a large share of federal money for building the infrastructure," he said.
Shapkhayev said only around 20,000 tourists -- half from abroad -- come to Baikal annually. Construction firms pop up seasonally to build poorly constructed lodgings with federal money, then disappear without paying their workers.
"Until we come to terms with corruption, those kinds of problems will happen more and more often," he said.
(Writing by Chris Baldwin, editing by Jon Boyle and Clar Ni Chonghaile)
September 9th, 2008
By Olga Petrova
LAKE BAIKAL, Russia (Reuters) - Green trees sway on the hilly Russian horizon, rainbows pierce Lake Baikal's grey waters and waves pound a pathless shore.
The stark beauty of the world's deepest and oldest lake is under threat, ecologists say, because it lies downstream from a rich source of zinc.
The proximity has opened up a debate in this resource-rich nation, pitting industrialists and job-hungry officials in Siberia against ecologists and government agencies in Moscow.
Experts say the Kholodninskoye deposit, which sits in a watershed flowing straight into Baikal, is the planet's third largest lead and zinc field.
Zinc is used in the production of galvanized steel, the automobile industry, household batteries, vitamin supplements, fireworks and as a compound in some cosmetics.
MBC Resources, a subsidiary of Russia's privately owned Metropol group, has a license to develop Kholodninskoye, which has an estimated 13.3 million tonnes of zinc and 2 million tonnes of lead. It has drafted a plan to develop the field and other metals in the region at an estimated cost of $4 billion.
But ecologists in Buryatia region in Siberia, where Baikal lies, say development would despoil the biggest freshwater mass on earth -- already threatened by tourism and other industries.
"For us right now, this is problem number one," said Sergey Shapkhayev, director of the Buryat/Baikal Land Use Programme in Ulan Ude.
"The geo-hydrological structure there is very complex, lots of underground springs, subsoil water at different temperatures that would increase tailings volumes into the lake," he said.
Tailings are unrecoverable mining waste discharged as slurry.
In July, Russia's Natural Resources Ministry proposed a ban on developing half of the Kholodninskoye deposit, saying mining would damage the lake, considered a national ecological reserve.
The government of Buryatia, which borders some 60 percent of the lake, hopes development will bring investment and jobs to the region, and has strongly opposed the proposed ban.
RICH RESOURCE
At its deepest, Baikal is 1,637 meters and it is some 25 million years old. It holds about one fifth of the world's freshwater and is around 9,200 km (5,717 miles) east of Moscow.
The shoreline runs along an ancient rift valley for about 2,100 km (1,305 miles), roughly the distance from Moscow to Duesseldorf, Germany.
Buryatia authorities are keen to promote Baikal, which is home to some of the world's rarest types of fish and plants, as a tourist destination. But it also wants mining development.
Buryatia President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, appointed in 2007 by then President Vladimir Putin, served as a crew member on a highly publicized but ultimately unsuccessful submarine dive in July, aimed at reaching the bottom of Baikal.
The dive was financed by Mikhail Slipenchuk, Metropol's general director. He says not developing the zinc and lead deposits would constitute a missed opportunity for Russia, already flush with cash from an energy and commodities boom.
"This is 20 percent of Russia's (zinc) reserves. If we cross it off the list, Russia will be the poorer for it," he said.
However, zinc prices have been sliding on weak demand and global oversupply, with some analysts predicting little relief into 2010.
The metal is one of the worst performers in the metals complex this year. In August, it dropped to its lowest level since November 2005 and is now trading around $1,745 a tonne, down almost 25 percent this year.
Zinc stocks at the London Metal Exchange have jumped 80 percent this year to 160,000 tonnes, and a Reuters survey of analysts showed an expected surplus of about 281,250 tonnes this year, growing to 328,758 tonnes in 2009.
The industry has seen mine closures and output cuts as energy, labor and equipment costs rise -- raising questions about the ultimate profitability of the Kholodninskoye project.
Undeterred, MBC recently signed a memorandum with Rusinvestpartner, a joint venture of state conglomerate Russian Technologies and metals-to-oil firm Renova, under which Rusinvestpartner said it intended to buy stakes in projects to develop Kholodninskoye and another lead and zinc deposit nearby.
Even if the ban on development does not proceed, there is clean-up work to be done before any mining gets underway.
SOVIET LEGACY
Buryatia's Natural Resource Ministry said in July that MBC would have to spend 2 billion roubles ($85 million) on cleanup of tailings plumes caused by Soviet-era prospecting.
Slipenchuk says the company will fund the clean-up but wants this to be written into the licensing agreement.
He said Soviet test shafts sent tailings-laced underground water into the nearby Kholodnaya river which feeds Baikal.
"Either we spend several hundred million dollars setting the Kholodninskoye deposit aside as a nature reserve, or we tighten regulations in the licensing agreement to make the holder responsible for these deficiencies," Slipenchuk said.
Baikal is such a powerful symbol of ecological purity for Russians that in 2006, Putin ordered a giant oil pipeline to be routed away from the lake, citing great risk to the environment.
But in spite of this, ecologist Shapkhayev said unregulated logging and careless tourism construction were already causing damage, that would only be intensified by mining.
"Russian ministries think, mistakenly, that up to 2 million tourists will come here, and that they need to build five-star hotels, mountain ski resorts ... and they dole out a large share of federal money for building the infrastructure," he said.
Shapkhayev said only around 20,000 tourists -- half from abroad -- come to Baikal annually. Construction firms pop up seasonally to build poorly constructed lodgings with federal money, then disappear without paying their workers.
"Until we come to terms with corruption, those kinds of problems will happen more and more often," he said.
(Writing by Chris Baldwin, editing by Jon Boyle and Clar Ni Chonghaile)
15 August 2008
oil in baikal
this from Novosti:
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - The deepwater exploration of Lake Baikal by two MIR mini-submarines attracted global attention and has met with significant success.
Besides new kinds of worms inhabiting the deep waters, the submarines discovered a crack in the lakebed from which crude oil seeps into the lake. The risk of an environmental disaster threatening Baikal shouldn't be exaggerated, however. The oil thread brings only around four metric tons into the lake annually and poses no threat to Baikal, which contains 23,000 cubic meters of water. Furthermore, the oil does not migrate far from the crack, as most of it is digested by bacteria inhabiting the lakebed.
Where does the oil come from? Several hypotheses have been proposed, but none yet proven. Oleg Sorokhtin, Ph.D.(Physics and Mathematics), of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology, told RIA Novosti about one of them: "Baikal is a split between lithosphere plates, which is surrounded by continents. A huge amount of terrigenous material from rupturing continental rocks is constantly sliding into the split. Baikal's water is inhabited by lots of fish, shellfish and various kinds of phytoplankton, which after their lifecycle form organic-rich sediments at the bottom of the lake. These sediments are the raw material for the oil formation."
Petrogenesis, the formation of oil from organic matter, is a very complicated process from the technological point of view, and takes 25-30 million years.
Oleg Sorokhtin also said that abiogenous methane is likely to be found on the lake bed. The gas evolves from oxidation of material from the earth's interior rising through the split between continental plates. Mantle rock contains liquid iron, causing the emissions of methane, which is involved in the carbon cycle.
The Baikal oil crack is covered by a layer of sediment several kilometers thick. Oil is lighter than water and therefore goes up. The remains of the oil leaks, which are not digested by bacteria, sometimes form oil spots on the lake surface.
"The exploration mission is in itself very important for fundamental science, Oleg Sorokhtin says. "As for the presence of oil, I don't think there's much of it under the lake. The fact itself is very interesting. But we should stop when we find proof that oil is there. Oil production would be a crime here, even if huge reserves of oil are discovered. I hope this won't happen."
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - The deepwater exploration of Lake Baikal by two MIR mini-submarines attracted global attention and has met with significant success.
Besides new kinds of worms inhabiting the deep waters, the submarines discovered a crack in the lakebed from which crude oil seeps into the lake. The risk of an environmental disaster threatening Baikal shouldn't be exaggerated, however. The oil thread brings only around four metric tons into the lake annually and poses no threat to Baikal, which contains 23,000 cubic meters of water. Furthermore, the oil does not migrate far from the crack, as most of it is digested by bacteria inhabiting the lakebed.
Where does the oil come from? Several hypotheses have been proposed, but none yet proven. Oleg Sorokhtin, Ph.D.(Physics and Mathematics), of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology, told RIA Novosti about one of them: "Baikal is a split between lithosphere plates, which is surrounded by continents. A huge amount of terrigenous material from rupturing continental rocks is constantly sliding into the split. Baikal's water is inhabited by lots of fish, shellfish and various kinds of phytoplankton, which after their lifecycle form organic-rich sediments at the bottom of the lake. These sediments are the raw material for the oil formation."
Petrogenesis, the formation of oil from organic matter, is a very complicated process from the technological point of view, and takes 25-30 million years.
Oleg Sorokhtin also said that abiogenous methane is likely to be found on the lake bed. The gas evolves from oxidation of material from the earth's interior rising through the split between continental plates. Mantle rock contains liquid iron, causing the emissions of methane, which is involved in the carbon cycle.
The Baikal oil crack is covered by a layer of sediment several kilometers thick. Oil is lighter than water and therefore goes up. The remains of the oil leaks, which are not digested by bacteria, sometimes form oil spots on the lake surface.
"The exploration mission is in itself very important for fundamental science, Oleg Sorokhtin says. "As for the presence of oil, I don't think there's much of it under the lake. The fact itself is very interesting. But we should stop when we find proof that oil is there. Oil production would be a crime here, even if huge reserves of oil are discovered. I hope this won't happen."
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
09 June 2008
a little background on a HUGE threat to Lake Baikal and surroundings:
i will be updating this blog with information about the uranium enrichment center in Angarsk as i am totally against it and hope that with education and action we can stop this. one mistake and there could be devastating, permanent damage to Baikal and Irkutsk, Angarsk, and so, so many people. this is such a bad idea on so many levels.
read on..from Bellona
read on..from Bellona
25 May 2008
24 May 2008
22 May 2008
Lake Baikal the Epicenter
Russia's East Siberia was shocked by an earthquake on Wednesday, causing no damage or casualty, local media reported.
The quake, measuring from five to six points on the 12-point Mercalli intensity scale, occurred at 03:43 local time (2043 GMT Tuesday) in the Irkutsk region, near Lake Baikal, Itar-Tass said.
The epicenter was located under the Lake Baikal, local seismic station said.
Another 4.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in the seismically active Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia's far east, at 00:21 local time Wednesday (1121 GMT Tuesday), which also caused no casualty.
Source:Xinhua
The quake, measuring from five to six points on the 12-point Mercalli intensity scale, occurred at 03:43 local time (2043 GMT Tuesday) in the Irkutsk region, near Lake Baikal, Itar-Tass said.
The epicenter was located under the Lake Baikal, local seismic station said.
Another 4.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in the seismically active Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia's far east, at 00:21 local time Wednesday (1121 GMT Tuesday), which also caused no casualty.
Source:Xinhua
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