The
Ministry of Defence has lost records of the scuttling of 24 ships
loaded with chemical weapons in the sea around the British Isles
in the 1940s and 50s. The disclosure was made after revelations in
the press that three ships containing nerve gas and arsenic had
been scuttled in the Irish Sea in 1955 [see ED 1995/3].
The Ministry also revealed that more than one million tons of
surplus munitions, ranging from small arms ammunition through
large-calibre shells to aircraft bombs, were dumped at several
sites between 1945 and 1963.
The Labour Party's defence
spokesman, David Clark, reiterated his demand that monitoring of
the seabed should start immediately.
SOURCES
INCLUDE: Guardian 28 April
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International agreement on Caspian
Sea
The five countries bordering the Caspian Sea -
Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran - have drawn
up an environmental action plan for the inland sea.
The
programme will seek to counter pollution caused by oil drilling,
industrial waste and other sources, protect animal and plant life,
and preserve stocks of sturgeon (the source of caviar) and other
fish.
The United Nations and the World Bank have pledged
financial help.
SOURCES INCLUDE: International
Herald Tribune 24 April
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Estonian row over radioactive
water
The Estonian government has been accused of withholding
information from the public and acting illegally over the treatment
of radioactive waste from the Soviet-built nuclear submarine base
at Paldiski.
The water was processed by a Finnish company and
discharged into the Baltic Sea in late February.
The Estonian
Greens (Rohelised), together with the National Nature Protection
Board and environmental groups, claim that the county authorities
and not the Environment Ministry should have granted the discharge
licence, that the decision should have been published in the
official state gazette, and, crucially, that no proper
environmental impact study was carried out before the water was
discharged.
A Ministry official rejected the latter accusation,
declaring that the treatment standards were stricter than those
used in the European Union and that the water had been regularly
monitored for over a year before being
discharged.
SOURCES INCLUDE: AEGIS April/May
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There has been
another oil spill in the Komi region in northwestern Russia [for
earlier spills, see ED 88, 88/89, 1995/3].
Up to 1,000 cubic
metres of oil escaped when a pipeline ruptured in mid-April. The
cause was said to be a construction fault.
SOURCES
INCLUDE: Russian Public Television (BBC Summary of World
Broadcasts) 19 April
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The four countries
bordering the lower Mekong river - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and
Vietnam - have signed a wide-ranging agreement to promote better
use, management and conservation of the river basin's
waters.
SOURCES INCLUDE: Financial Times 6
April
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