Paide oil pollution dealt with before reaching Pärnu River
An oil spill which if undetected could have threatened the nearby Pärnu River was found Wednesday in a stormwater culvert in the central Estonian town of Paide. The pollution source will be mitigated.
The pollution site lies close to the Mündi bridge, on the southern outskirts of Paide, close to the Pärnu River.
The river springs in northeastern Estonia and passes Paide en route to Pärnu Bay, around 100 kilometers to the southwest, where it discharges into the Baltic Sea.
Janely Berg, head of the Environmental Agency's (Keskonnaamet) Järva County office, said: "On examining the culvert where the pollution occurred and where there is also some degraded vegetation, ti seems the spill cannot be very large. It seems that it was caught quite early on."
Berg said the origin of the pollution was most likely from a nearby area that formerly hosted a meat processing plant. A more detailed investigation will clarify the circumstances, she added.
Tiina Kivila, chief environmental specialist with Paide city government, said that the culvert will be dammed near its confluence with the Pärnu River to avoid the pollution spreading into the river itself, and will then be cleaned.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mari Peegel
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera,' reporter Olev Kenk.