Oil Spill Burden Thrust on Finland, Says Expert
Published: 23.08.2010 17:53
Photo: Postimees/Scanpix
The government is downplaying the possibility of hazardous spills in Estonian waters, says Agni Kaldma, oil spill response project manager at the Estonian Fund for Nature. With only two vessels capable of collecting oil, it has placed all its hopes on Finland in the case of a catastrophe.
In an interview with the newspaper Pealinn, Kaldma criticized the government for not having learned from a disastrous oil spill off the northwestern coast of Estonia in 2006. After that, the government pledged to establish the so-called Oil Fund. The special reserve fund for cleaning up spills that have an unidentified source would come from revenue gathered from oil transport companies. But the government never initiated the program. Large-scale spills occur in Estonian coastal waters about three times every ten years, whereas smaller incidences are discovered constantly, Kaldma said. In 2007, experts recorded 99 cases, and Kaldma said the number is growing. However, the Police and Border Guard Board, which are responsible for reporting these cases, has not produced comparable data for 2008-09 regardless of the Nature Fund's request, Kaldma said.