ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Floods in the Southern Federal District could lead to an environmental disaster if oil storage and purification facilities become water-logged, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.
"If floodwaters enter purification facilities, dangerous mixtures could leak into rivers and reservoirs, which threatens not only complications in the population's vital activities, but also an environmental disaster," a spokesman for the ministry's southern branch said.
He said certain volumes of petroleum products could penetrate rivers even if all necessary precautionary measures are taken.
The spokesman said that the 2002 summer flood in the North Caucasus resulted in the Terek and Sunzha rivers facing contamination levels exceeding the maximum permissible norms 500-fold in certain places.
