Study of the Effects of an Accidental Diesel Fuel Spill in Norilsk

摘要

The study of bottom sediments from water bodies of the Norilo-Pyasinsk water system (July 29-August 13, 2020), following the accidental diesel fuel (DF) spill in Norilsk on May 29, 2020, has shown that the mean content of aliphatic hydrocarbons (HCs) decreased in the following sequence (mu g/g): mouth of the Ambarnaya River (1914, sigma = 3428) Bezymyannyi Creek-the Daldykan River-the Ambarnaya River (1000, sigma = 1351) the Pyasina River (27, sigma = 17) Pyasino Lake (15, sigma = 6). The pollution was spread from the spill site by the river flow over a distance of 31 km and did not enter Pyasino Lake. As a result of transformation, the composition of aliphatic HCs in bottom sediments differed from the composition of HCs in the DF even in the most polluted areas. The content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) sharply decreased with distance from the pollution source (from 3865 to 56 ng/g). Their composition was mainly petroleum-based with naphthalene HCs accounting for 46-53% of total polyarenes. Naphthalene HCs dominated not only in sediments of the Ambarnaya and Daldykan rivers, but also in the Norilka River and in the mouth of the Pyasina River, which could have been caused by other pollution sources (barrels of fuels and lubricants and water transport).