Tallinn's Miinisadam harbor is currently being reconstructed to accommodate new NATO ships, and during dredging work, Soviet-era pollution from the bottom sediments came to the surface. It appears to be fuel from ships that sank there in the past.

"We've previously conducted pollution surveys here and the pollution that came up last week was from dredging these areas. The pollution this had not been identified during those investigations. It was a localized and accidental spill," said Ando Voogma, the RKIK's North-East portfolio manager.

The Estonian Navy first became aware of the large-scale spill on the evening of  February 12.

"As soon as we received this information, we began collecting it with absorbent booms. Later, these disposable absorbent booms will be recycled, this is the only way to deal with this kind of lighter pollution," explained Estonian Navy Chief of Staff, Captain Indrek Hanson.

Earlier this week, residue from a second spill reached the winter swimming area of another harbor in the capital. According to the RKIK, it was a minor spill that was not initially detected.

The company that carried out the work said in a written response that the dredging work covered a total of approximately 40,000 cubic meters, during which around 5,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil was brought on land. The contaminated soil will be recycled in a waste treatment plant.

According to the studies, the contamination levels in the soil slightly exceed the industrial land threshold. Captain Hanson said, so far, as much as possible has been collected.

"If there's any localized residual pollution anywhere, people can call 1247 and let us know. We will respond," said Voogma.

Who ought to have informed the public about the spill is still unclear. While the Environmental Board said on Wednesday that the navy ought to have issued the press release as agreed, Hanson said that claim comes as a surprise.

"As far as I know, there is no such agreement. We informed the Environmental Board about the pollution that we know about," Hanson said.

The Environmental Boad confirmed that their job is simply to confirm the information sent for coordination was correct and that they had no corrections to make to the publicly available information.

The dredging of Miinisadam harbor will continue until the end of next week.

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