Legacies of Soviet decay

Russia has become accident prone. Now a huge oil spill has developed near the city of Usinsk, just below the Arctic Circle, where a decrepit pipeline has been leaking for months. Despite the leaks, the Russians have continued to try to use the line because they badly need the oil.

The spill has much in common with other recent industrial accidents and ecological disasters in Russia. Their origins lie in the last 15 years or so of the Soviet regime, when the pressure of a growing economic crisis led to a reckless emphasis on production with no thought for even minimal maintenance, safety standards or protection of the environment. The Soviet Union is gone, but the people who have inherited its industrial structure are desperate for fuel and export earnings. They understand the risks in continuing to use defective equipment, but they cannot afford to shut the country down for repairs.

Russia's oil production last summer was around six million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency -- barely half the level of the peak a decade ago. But one-third of that production goes abroad, and Russia remains one of the world's major exporters. Keeping up that flow is crucial to the country's financial plans.

At least the oil spill represents only a slight threat to human health. That is not true, unfortunately, of the water pollution throughout the former Soviet Union. Nor is it true of the nuclear hazards.

In Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea has shrunk to half its former size because of the diversion of two rivers to irrigate cotton fields. Those rivers are poisoned with sewage and pesticides, and that seems to be related to the soaring rates of tuberculosis and other diseases, but it will not be remedied soon. Cotton is Uzbekistan's leading export.

As for nuclear energy, Russia is still using 11 reactors of the Chernobyl type. In Ukraine, at Chernobyl, site of the 1986 catastrophe, two of the original four reactors are still producing power. Both are down at the moment, one for maintenance and the other because of a recent accident. But they will both be in operation this winter. Ukraine needs the electricity.

The West has promised help with the cleanup and upgrading and prevention. But so far the promises have produced little more than redundant reports by consultants. In most cases, like the leaking oil line, everybody knows what needs to be done. But doing it is formidably expensive and will require decades.

-- The Washington Post