ZUYEVO (Tver region), June 17 (RIA Novosti) - Fuel oil spread in the Tver Region does not threaten to pollute water in Moscow, Yuri Vorobyev, Deputy Emergencies Minister, said to the media today.
26 fuel oil cisterns of a freight train derailed, Wednesday night, in the Tver Region, 200 kilometers northwest of Moscow, to pollute a vast area.
"The Ivankovo water reservoir [which accounts for a considerable part of Moscow water supplies] is roughly 180 kilometers off the accident site. So we ought not to expect water pollution danger to Moscow. I can't say so for sure-but what we have seen does not offer a direct threat," Vorobyev said.
Pollution is ruled out now that filters have been installed in two spots on the Volga and the Vazuza, its tributary, which is quite close to the accident site. The filters will remain till the oil is fully removed, he added.
Smooth works are underway to clean the area. Russian Rail Co., the accident culprit, fully finances the efforts.
"We [ministerial experts] covered a distance of about fifty kilometers by helicopter to reconnoiter the Vazuza and Volga banks, and took stock of the polluted area and the pollution amount."
The team saw the Vazuza polluted as far as the eye could reach. The river demands thorough cleaning along a 25-kilometer stretch, up to its confluence with the Volga. As for the Volga, European Russia's principal river, oil thickly covers its banks along an eight-kilometer stretch, up to the confluence. Oil patches are clearly discernible on the water surface within a thirty-kilometer distance from the accident site, the deputy minister added.
