The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) found out that the heating oil spill at Correctional Colony 4 in the village of Seredka near Pskov in early August had been the fault of the institution. The press service of the North-Western Interregional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor reported this.
Specialists of the department found out that the land plot operated by Correctional Colony 4 had a boiler-house that ran on heating oil. Inspectors found numerous heating oil leaks from the fuel-oil storage tank (reservoir) and from the pipeline system through which the heating oil is pumped. Because of the accident, 0.42 ha of adjacent land was polluted, and the concentration of oil products in some areas was from 1.4 to 24 times over the limit.
“We found out that the company did not have a program for industrial environmental control. Also, the Correctional Colony 4 Federal Government Agency of Pskov Oblast's Directorate of the Federal Penal Correction Service of Russia did not alert the relevant state authorities of an emergency situation in proper order. Soil depollution was not organized,” the press service of Rosprirodnadzor explained.
As a result of the inspection, Rosprirodnadzor fined Correctional Colony 4 for 70 thousand rubles due to the failure to meet ecological requirements, while operating enterprises, constructions and other objects (Article 8.1 of the Administrative Code) and land damage (Part 2 of Article 8.6 of the Administrative Code). The inspector of the department will estimate the damage to the soil from the accident, the correctional institution will have to compensate for it. Specialists continue eliminating the damage caused by the pollution.
After some media reported the spill of 10 tons of heating fuel oil in Correctional Colony 4 in the village of Seredka near Pskov, specialists of Rosprirodnadzor, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the Prosecutor's office began inspecting the institution. The state inspector of the Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor found that oil products had spilled over 0.25 hectares of an area to the north of the colony. But on August 4, the regional department of the Federal Penal Correction Service confuted the information about the spill.