vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #534 / Environment / Reading article...

The sea near the Pacific port of Nakhodka is not polluted with any kind of missile fuel,
Primorye’s branch of the federal ecological inspectorate Rosprirodnadzor reported on Thursday, responding to a request about possible sea contamination after a North Korean missile was reported to have fallen into the sea on July 5 in dangerous proximity to the Primorye's cities of Nakhodka and Vladivostok.

Primorye’s anticorruption coalition forwarded to Rosprirodnadzor the request to inspect the level of contamination in the sea near Nakhodka on July 20, the coalition’s press statement reported.

The response signed by head of Primorye’s branch of Rosprirodnadzor Vladimir Voytovsky said that, “the inspections as well as inquiries to the federal military organizations about North Korean missiles which fell into the sea revealed no evidence of sea contamination with heptane.” Heptane is a component of missile fuel.

“No cases of contamination with heptane compounds or mass destruction of sea species inhabiting the Sea of Japan near the southern coast of Primorye were detected during monitoring actions performed by authorized bodies,” the report said.

“We appreciate receiving the answer to our request but unfortunately the response contains neither the names of the authorized bodies which held the inspections nor the results of water probes,” head of Primorye’s anticorruption coalition Vitaly Beregovsky commented to the Vostok Media news agency.

North Korea fired seven missiles on July 5, two of them were reported to have landed in the territorial waters of Russia.


Read a related story at http://vn.vladnews.ru/Arch/2006/ISS525/News/upd06_1.HTM