57 



Another area involving U.S. -Russia bilateral activity has 

 been in response to trhe major oil spill in the Komi region of 

 Russia caused by rupture of pipeline. The spill including 

 discharge into the Pechora River that flows into the Arctic 

 Ocean threatened major environmental impacts. The U.S. was 

 instrumental in facilitating World Bank involvement in cleanup 

 operations . 



The World Bank and the lead contractor for the Komi 

 clean-up, Hartec of Anchorage, Alaska, report that, to date, 94 

 percent of the oil from last year's massive spill has been 

 cleaned up. Hartec executed its activities in two phases - 

 containment and clean-up. The six major spill sites required 

 significantly different remediation strategies, and in some 

 cases, total reconstruction of Russian-built siphon dams and 

 dikes. Russian clean-up efforts prior to arrival of Hartec were 

 minimal and intentional burning of slicks complicated clean-up 

 drastically. 



Before the onset of the Russian winter, Hartec had 500 

 Rus.sians at work processing about 500 tons of oil per day, much 

 of it re-injected into the pipeline; new equipment installed 

 this Fall tripled the number of personnel involved and the 

 processing rate. Repairs on the problem sections of the 

 pipeline are reported to be finished and with clean-up 

 activities essentially complete. Attention in Komi now turns to 

 containment of residual oil. The World Bank projects a new 

 pipeline will be constructed within 3-5 years. 



Finally, a contract for an environmental monitoring program 

 for the Komi/Kolva region will be awarded very soon. We noted 

 to the Bank that the Russians have lobbied hard at the GCC and 

 the AEPS for a more extensive program to cover the Pechora Basin 

 as a whole (and thus, the Arctic). The Bank agreed that such a 

 program would have environmental and political value. At last 

 week's AEPS meeting, there was wide-spread regional support for 

 such efforts with the aim of pollution prevention. 



Land-Based Sources - The Global Programme of Action for 

 Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities: 



The most recent international undertaking that bears upon 

 what must be a long-term effort to deal with pollution in the 

 Arctic is a program of action that emerged from the conference 

 held here in Washington one month ago aimed at protection of 

 oceans and coastal areas from the impacts of land-based 

 activities. The conference hosted by the United States, in 

 partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, 

 adopted the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the 

 Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities. The Programme of 



