Russia to close paper mill on Lake Baikal

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that authorities will shut down a paper mill on the shores of Lake Baikal, which environmentalists say is a major pollutant threatening one of the world's largest fresh water lakes.

Authorities first closed the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill in 2008 before it re-opened in 2010. Then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stressed then that the employment of the mill's 1,500 workers in the eastern Siberia town of Baikalsk superseded ecological concerns. The plant's management admitted that the restart was just a temporary measure to buy time to work up an employment plan. Some 14,000 people live in the town.

Environmentalists said that the mill threatens the lake's unique species of plants and animals. Lake Baikal, which contains more fresh water than all of America's Great Lakes combined and is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, is home to some 1,500 species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

Medvedev, who was visiting Lake Baikal on Tuesday, said "there's no way back" on the decision to close the plant, Russian news agencies reported.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/russia-close-paper-mill-lake-baikal

[Franker65]

1. Difficult to find new jobs for those workers in Siberia

Perhaps they can set up a new paper operation somewhere nearby. I can understand both sides of the argument...still, it's quite sad for the people affected.

[rwsanders]

3. They wouldn't be the first people to have to relocate for a job...

There aren't 2 sides to this. Lake Baikal is a unique body of water that harbors unique wildlife. A paper plant shouldn't have been built there.
The jobs could easily be covered by encouraging ecotourism there or relocating the mill to a location where the workers don't have to live in Siberia.
One of the only freshwater seals in the world lives there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_baikal_seal
The argument is never jobs versus the environment. It is always corporate profits versus the environment.

[bemildred]

2. Good.

There is plenty of water in Siberia, they can find some other place to have their pulp mill.