Russian first: Groups sue to protect seas

The Far East shelf of Russia contains the habitat of numerous rare and endangered species of marine animals, plants and migratory birds.

August 20, 1999
Web posted at: 12:11 p.m. EDT (1611 GMT)

Ecojuris Institute, a Russian environmental law group, has initiated a court action to reverse a Russian government decision to allow Exxon to drill in the North Pacific and Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East.

Ecojuris filed the action this week in that country's supreme court on behalf of more than 30 Russian grassroots environmental organizations and individual citizens in the area.

The suit marks the first time that a Russia non-governmental organization has challenged the government at the highest level over the application of environmental laws to transnational oil corporations.

Transnational corporations, including Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell, among others, want to develop off-shore oil reserves in the fragile continental shelf waters off Sakhalin Island. According to a press release from the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, "these transnationals have been aggressively lobbying to have Russia's environmental legislation weakened for the last several years."

"In general, Russian environmental laws are good," said Erika Rosenthal of Earthjustice. "The weak part has always been the enforcement. There are significant oil and gas reserves on the Far Eastern Russian shelf and the oil companies are in a very strong position. They have the funds to develop these resources that Russia does not have.

"It's a very environmentally tricky place to be drilling and of course that makes it expensive. That is why they are looking to rewrite environmental laws," said Rosenthal.

The current action was triggered in May of this year, when Exxon and its Russian joint-venture partner for the Sakhalin-1 oil project, SakhalinMorNefteGas, received a negative governmental review on their environmental impact assessment documents for the Chaivo Bay drilling block. The State Committee on Environment's review of the project found that the proposed marine discharge of drilling wastes violated Russian law.

The complaint demands that the court invalidate a decree issued by former Prime Minister Stepashin in his last days in office at the urging of transnational oil corporations. The decree of July 15 is an attempt to override the zero-discharge standards as required by the environmental review, and purports to allow discharge of wastewater and drilling mud used in offshore oil drilling, even though such discharge is prohibited by Russian federal environmental law.

Additionally, Russian law requires that all draft legislation and decrees that could have environmental impacts be submitted for an environmental expertiza. Gennady Chegasov, head of the Environmental Expertiza Department at the Russian State Committee on Environment, confirmed that Stepashin's decree has not been subject to this legally mandated environmental review.

"The Russian government is obliged to protect natural resources and ecosystems for the enjoyment of present and future generations of Russian citizens," said Ecojuris President Vera Mischenko. "The Far Eastern shelf and territorial seas are an invaluable and unique natural ecosystem, and are the main source of our country's fishery reserves, the habitat of numerous rare and endangered species of marine animals and plants, and migratory birds," she said.

In addition to the pristine marine ecology in the area, almost 90 percent of Russia's total marine and freshwater fish catch come from the Far East seas. More than 50 percent of the jobs in that area depend on fishing, according to Rosenthal. "The risk to the fisheries (from oil drilling) is significant," she said.

"If a small percentage of the international funds generated to support oil and gas development were redirected to the modernization and diversification of fisheries, it could provide a sustainable economic revenue for that region while hopefully maintaining the extraordinary marine ecology," Rosenthal said.

According to Rosenthal locals are realizing that the oil industry, "is not an economic panacea for their area."

"It is significant that local NGOs are learning how to work together to become an important political force and to participate effectively in environmental decisions since the Soviet Union crumbled eight years ago."

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