Officials at the Murmansk Commercial Seaport are taking another shot at reducing the smog of soot that wafts into the city every time port workers load a ship full of coal bound for export to other countries
Officials at the Murmansk Commercial Seaport are taking another shot at reducing the smog of soot that wafts into the city every time port workers load a ship full of coal bound for export to other countries. The “black attack,” as locals call the coal dust, has been a headache in Russia’s Arctic capital for as long as anyone can remember. In the winter it taints snow banks and ice, creating gray rivers of filth with every thaw. For the rest of the year, the coal paints a black crust on city windows and fouls the air. Local politicians have meanwhile petitioned Moscow to forbid the transfer of coal via Murmansk unless it is enclosed in something, instead of housing it in enormous heaps out in the open, but that has largely come to nothing, The problem has gotten so bad in recent years that Vladimir Putin himself last year said alleviating the coal dust in the air around Murmansk was one of his main priorities in a speech he gave in nearby Kaliningrad. https://www.maritime-exec...
