In the end of October a secretary of Coalition of ecologists of Siberia and Russian Far East sent an open letter to the director general of “Transneft” oil company asking information about the date and method of reserve river crossing of the oil pipeline across Lena river and other major water streams of Yakutia.

In the end of November the following answer was received: “Unconditional priority of the company and its associated structures is maintenance of ecological and technical safety of their oil pipeline systems. Decisions about the date of overall development of the ESPO oil pipeline system (required condition to implement the reserve crossings) and about the methods of underwater crossings are taken by company based on the above-stated priority and also using the results of engineering researches, recommendations of experts and existing laws of Russian Federation”.

From Action’s Committee: as it is seen from the answer of the first vice-president Lisin, there is no exact and clear answer to our request. We should note, that the experts – at least, in our republic – were for the tunnel crossing from the beginning of the project; engineer reseacrhes were done by them and company’s own specialists; as for the laws and regulations – paragraph 6.17 of the construction regulation norms # 2.05.06 – 85* assigns using of reserve crossing at such width of the river. Meanwhile, the same paragraph prescribes that for multi-crossing oil pipelines the necessity to use the reserve crossings is determined by the approved project. The state expertise approved this oil pipeline project on the condition that the reserve crossings will be built at the overall development of the pipeline system (proposed date 2014). It is evident, that oil will be transported under Lena and other major rivers of Yakutia without reserve crossings till that time. Does this prove the so-called well-mentioned “Unconditional priority on maintaining ecological and technical safety of oil pipelines”?