PCB project - 2009 annual report - Governor of Svalbard

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PCB project - 2009 annual report

The Governor of Svalbard has reported this year’s work to the Ministry of the Environment who was the commissioning party for the project. The goal of the work is to remove as many as possible of the local sources of PCB contamination in Svalbard. The report includes an overview of the work carried out in 2009 and plans for ending the project next year.

The Governor is very pleased with the results of the work in 2009. We have a very good level of cooperation with the Russian mining company Trust Arktikugol, and we have done many new investigations to complete the knowledge to take action further on. The biggest challenges for the future are in the Russian settlements, and during the spring 2010 all the rest of PCB-containing equipment will be collected and delivered for destruction.

Background
The PCB project in Svalbard was started after funds were granted by the Ministry of the Environment. The Governor of Svalbard and the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority run the project together. We work well with the Russian mining company Trust Arktikugol in identifying potential sources from the Russian settlements. The project has three main aims:

Investigate and get documentation of all local sorurces of spreading of PCBs in Svalbard.
Decommissioning of PCB-containing equipment from all settlements, particularly in the Russian settlements in Barentsburg and Pyramiden.
Share experiences and contribute to international cooperation in the decommissioning, handling and prevention of PCBs

Read more on this year' project work and the plan for 2010 in the annual report to the Ministry of the Environment, see link beneath.

Both the wilderness areas and the settlements in Svalbard have PCB contamination. The PCB project works towards the least possible local emissions to the natural environment in Svalbard and that international cooperation shall contribute to cleaning up and reducing emissions all over the world. The picture shows kittiwake in front of the Monaco glacier in Liefdefjorden, in the north of Spitsbergen. Photo: Halvard R. Pedersen, Governor of Svalbard

The PCB project in Svalbard is a collaboration between the Governor of Svalbard, the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, the Geological Survey of Norway and the Russian mining company Trust Arktikugol. In 2009 we also have had these participants: Akvaplan-niva, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, The University Centre of Svalbard, and THE Russian environmental monitoring organisation Typhoon.

(16/12/2009)