vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #538 / Environment / Reading article...

The recent check of Vladivostok’s coastal waters revealed that the city’s Zolotoy Rog Bay, Amursky Bay and the Bosfor Vostochny Strait are deeply contaminated with mercury and oil hydrocarbon posing a major threat the city’s environment.

Primorye’s Meteorological Center specialists together with experts from Institute for Sea Protection of Vladivostok’s State Marine University conducted the check of the city’s coastal waters this summer, a press statement from the center said.

High amounts of mercury were found in the city’s Zolotoy Rog bay, Amursky bay and the Bosfor Vostochny strait. The excessive amount of mercury was detected in Vladivostok’s Obyasneniya River, where the concentration is from five to 17 times higher than maximum admissible norms, the statement reported.

The inspection also revealed increased concentration of oil hydrocarbon in the Zolotoy Rog and Amursky bays, with its maximum amount in the city’s downtown near Dalzavod, the giant shipyard which sprawls along the shore of the Zolotoy Rog bay, and at one of the city’s ferry transport station. In the areas, the oil hydrocarbon amount exceeded admissible level by 14 to 18 times, the statement said.

Mercury pollution originates from water passing through the city’s exceedingly polluted areas, as well as from piles of garbage dumped into the sea water, specialists say.

According to the Meteorological Center’s director Boris Kubai, regular monitoring of sea and river waters should be performed on the peninsula of Muravyov-Amursky, where Vladivostok is located.

The results of the inspection were handed in to Primorye’s Governor Sergei Darkin, Vladivostok’s Mayor Vladimir Nikolayev and top officials from territorial branches of Russia’s Nature and Agriculture Inspectorates, the statement noted.