vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #155 / Environment / Reading article...

A sunken ship carrying 40 tons of oil will remain at the bottom of the Zolotoi Rog bay indefinitely despite repeated attempts to lift it over the last few months.

Local ecologists predict environmental disaster if the timber carrier Pallada’s hull is breached and its fuel oil seeps into the bay. The Pallada lies in the east end of Zolotoi Rog, in the jurisdiction of the Vladivostok Fishing Port.

Earlier this fall the Pallada’s masts protruded into the air for more than a week as workers slowly resurrected the vessel, which sank originally in May, 1996. But support cables snapped in October, and the Pallada sank once again. Epron, the ship-raising company in charge of the project, didn’t have the money to purchase new equipment.

Vladivostok mayor Victor Cherepkov donated 20 million rubles ($3,300) to the cause, which Epron used to purchase diving suits. The old ones were eaten away by pollutants in the bay.

Despite Cherepkov’s token, Epron remains paralyzed. It owes the Vladivostok Fishing Port over 2 billion rubles ($336,134) for equipment costs, and port officials continue to demand $1,200 per hour for use of a rescue boat, Epron General Manager Yevgeny Biryukov said. In a final attempt to collect its money, the port cut electricity to a lifting crane Epron used to help raise the Pallada.

“We don’t understand the port’s position,” Biryukov said. “It should be the most interested one in raising the ship as soon as possible. If the oil inside the Pallada leaks out, it will be an ecological catastrophe ... The port management is only concerned about leading my company to bankruptcy.”

Port officials refused to comment.