MSGID: 1:317/3 642cf96e   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Legacy industrial contamination in the Arctic permafrost    
    When permafrost thaws, the Arctic could face massive problems from legacy   
   industrial contamination and pollutants    
      
     Date:   
         April 4, 2023   
     Source:   
         Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine   
         Research   
     Summary:   
         A previously underestimated risk lurks in the frozen soil of   
         the Arctic.   
      
         When the ground thaws and becomes unstable in response to climate   
         change, it can lead to the collapse of industrial infrastructure,   
         and in turn to the increased release of pollutants. Moreover,   
         contaminations already present will be able to more easily spread   
         throughout ecosystems.   
      
         According to new findings, there are at least 13,000 to 20,000   
         contaminated sites in the Arctic that could pose a serious risk   
         in the future.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Many of us picture the Arctic as largely untouched wilderness. But that   
   has long-since ceased to be true for all of the continent. It is also   
   home to oilfields and pipelines, mines and various other industrial   
   activities. The corresponding facilities were built on a foundation   
   once considered to be particularly stable and reliable: permafrost. This   
   unique type of soil, which can be found in large expanses of the Northern   
   Hemisphere, only thaws at the surface in summer. The remainder, extending   
   up to hundreds of metres down, remains frozen year-round.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Accordingly, permafrost has not only been viewed as a solid platform for   
   buildings and infrastructure. "Traditionally, it's also been considered a   
   natural barrier that prevents the spread of pollutants," explains Moritz   
   Langer from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and   
   Marine Research (AWI). "Consequently, industrial waste from defunct or   
   active facilities was often simply left on-site, instead of investing   
   the considerable effort and expense needed to remove it." As a result   
   of the industrial expansion during the cold war, over the decades this   
   led to micro-dumps full of toxic sludge from oil and gas exploration,   
   stockpiles of mining debris, abandoned military installations, and   
   lakes in which pollutants were intentionally poured. "In many cases, the   
   assumption was that the permafrost would reliably and permanently seal   
   off these toxic substances, which meant there was no need for costly   
   disposal efforts," says Guido Grosse, who heads the AWI's Permafrost   
   Research Section. "Today, this industrial legacy still lies buried in   
   the permafrost or on its surface. The substances involved range from   
   toxic diesel fuel to heavy metals and even radioactive waste."  But as   
   climate change progresses, this "sleeping giant" could soon become an   
   acute threat: since the permafrost regions are warming between twice as   
   fast and four times as fast as the rest of the world, the frozen soil is   
   increasingly thawing. When this happens, it changes the hydrology of the   
   region in question, and the permafrost no longer provides an effective   
   barrier. As a result, contaminants that have accumulated in the Arctic   
   over decades can be released, spreading across larger regions.   
      
   In addition, thawing permafrost becomes more and more unstable, which   
   can lead to further contamination. When the ground collapses, it can   
   damage pipelines, chemical stockpiles and depots. Just how real this   
   risk already is can be seen in a major incident from May 2020 near the   
   industrial city Norilsk in northern Siberia: a destabilized storage tank   
   released 17,000 metric tons of diesel, which polluted the surrounding   
   rivers, lakes and tundra. According to Langer: "Incidents like this could   
   easily become more frequent in the future."  In order to more accurately   
   assess such risks, he and an international team of experts from Germany,   
   the Netherlands and Norway took a closer look at industrial activities in   
   the High North. To do so, they first analysed freely available data from   
   the portal OpenStreetMap and from the Atlas of Population, Society and   
   Economy in the Arctic. According to these sources, the Arctic permafrost   
   regions contain ca. 4,500 industrial sites that either store or use   
   potentially hazardous substances.   
      
   "But this alone didn't tell us what types of facilities they were, or how   
   badly they could potentially pollute the environment," says Langer. More   
   detailed information on contaminated sites is currently only available   
   for North America, where roughly 40 percent of the global permafrost   
   lies. The data from Canada and Alaska showed that, using the location   
   and type of facility, it should be possible to accurately estimate where   
   hazardous substances were most likely to be found.   
      
   For Alaska, the Contaminated Sites Program also offers insights into   
   the respective types of contaminants. For example, roughly half of the   
   contaminations listed can be attributed to fuels like diesel, kerosene   
   and petrol. Mercury, lead and arsenic are also in the top 20 documented   
   environmental pollutants. And the problem isn't limited to the legacy   
   of past decades: although the number of newly registered contaminated   
   sites in the northernmost state of the USA declined from ca. 90 in 1992   
   to 38 in 2019, the number of affected sites continues to rise.   
      
   There are no comparable databases for Siberia's extensive permafrost   
   regions.   
      
   "As such, our only option there was to analyse reports on environmental   
   problems that were published in the Russian media or other freely   
   accessible sources between 2000 and 2020," says Langer. "But the somewhat   
   sparse information available indicates that industrial facilities   
   and contaminated sites are also closely linked in Russia's permafrost   
   regions."  Using computer models, the team calculated the occurrence of   
   contaminated sites for the Arctic as a whole. According to the results,   
   the 4,500 industrial facilities in the permafrost regions have most likely   
   produced between 13,000 and 20,000 contaminated sites. 3,500 to 5,200   
   of them are located in regions where the permafrost is still stable,   
   but will start to thaw before the end of the century. "But without more   
   extensive data, these findings should be considered a rather conservative   
   estimate," Langer emphasises. "The true scale of the problem could be   
   even greater."  Making matters worse, the interest in pursuing commercial   
   activities in the Arctic continues to grow. As a result, more and more   
   industrial facilities are being constructed, which could also release   
   toxic substances into nearby ecosystems. Further, this is happening at   
   a time when removing such environmental hazards is getting harder and   
   harder -- after all, doing so often requires vehicles and heavy gear,   
   which can hardly be used on vulnerable tundra soils that are increasingly   
   affected by thaw.   
      
   "In a nutshell, what we're seeing here is a serious environmental problem   
   that is sure to get worse," summarises Guido Grosse. What is urgently   
   called for, according to the experts: more data, and a monitoring system   
   for hazardous substances in connection with industrial activities in the   
   Arctic. "These pollutants can, via rivers and the ocean, ultimately find   
   their way back to people living in the Arctic, or to us." Other important   
   aspects are intensified efforts to prevent the release of pollutants and   
   undo the damage in those areas that are already contaminated. And lastly,   
   the experts no longer consider it appropriate to leave industrial waste   
   behind in the Arctic without secure disposal options. After all, the   
   permafrost can no longer be relied upon to counter the associated risks.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Earth_&_Climate   
                   # Tundra # Environmental_Science # Air_Pollution   
                   # Pollution # Air_Quality # Hazardous_Waste #   
                   Recycling_and_Waste # Geography   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Tundra o Water_resources o Arctic_Circle o   
             Effects_of_global_warming o Arctic_fox o Global_warming o   
             Climate_change_mitigation o Soil_contamination   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   Alfred_Wegener_Institute,_Helmholtz_Centre_for_Polar_and   
   Marine_Research. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Moritz Langer, Thomas Schneider von Deimling, Sebastian Westermann,   
         Rebecca Rolph, Ralph Rutte, Sofia Antonova, Volker Rachold,   
         Michael Schultz, Alexander Oehme, Guido Grosse. Thawing permafrost   
         poses environmental threat to thousands of sites with legacy   
         industrial contamination. Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1) DOI:   
         10.1038/s41467- 023-37276-4   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230404114242.htm   
      
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