Arctic : more than 2 500 contaminated sites identified

Analyzing the available data and corresponding with specialized services in the United States, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, the ‘Robin des Bois’ association has set up, after a year of research, an inventory of contaminated sites in the Arctic. And the result is, we can say, ‘chilling’.

In all there are 2 750 polluted site located between Alaska (509 sites), Canada (662), Greenland (468), Sweden (418), Norway (524) and Finland (169). The figures are not yet known for Russia, the authorities having refused to meet the demands of the association.

The main activities responsible for the contamination of the soil and water are military camps, scientific bases, exploitation and distribution of gas and oil, fuel storage and the mining and steel making complexes. The dominant contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, asbestos, PCBs and other Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The polluted sites are "environmental abscesses and pathways for the pollutants to freshwater and marine life," says the association. "If all the projects of industrial activity in the Arctic manage the wastes in the same way as the pioneer activities, we are then heading towards a disaster," assumes Jacky Bonnemains, president of ‘Robin des Bois’.

Tags: Arctic, pollution, Robin des Bois, gas, oil, fuel, hydrocarbons