Pine oil is used, among other things, as a raw material for biofuels.
To the back sea The substance that leaked on June 8 was crude pine oil or pine diesel, says the Swedish Coast Guard For the Swedish public broadcasting company SVT. The information was confirmed by a sample analyzed by the Coast Guard.
Investigation director of Turku’s crime prevention unit Mika Laapio The Coast Guard of Western Finland will confirm the matter to HS. He says that the investigation will remain in Sweden.
“Our laboratory results said the same thing. Now we leave the investigation here and assist Sweden.”
The backwater leak spread over an area of approximately 77 square kilometers in both Finland’s and Sweden’s economic zones. The Swedish authorities are investigating the Selkämere leak as an environmental crime, and one vessel is suspected of the leak.
“The ship is said to have left a Swedish port, unloaded cargo in northern Sweden and cleaned its tanks at sea, but I cannot go into the details of the ship in more detail than that. We have to investigate the matter more first”, Swedish Coast Guard’s head of preliminary investigation Jonatan Tholin said to SVT last Thursday.
The suspected ship is also known to the Finnish authorities, Laapio says. He can’t say more about the ship at this point.
According to Laapio, the investigation is only in the hands of another country, because the same act cannot be tried in more than one country. He says that the leak was more widespread on the Swedish side.
Although according to the regulations, certain amounts of substances that do not belong in the sea can be released there, due to the size of the leak, the case does not seem to be legal, the Swedish Coast Guard estimates.
Investigation director Laapio also suspects that the substance has not been released into the sea in accordance with the rules. For example, the Finnish law for emissions has rules that define, among other things, the quantities of substances, the distance from the shore and how deep the substance must leak.
“I can’t say more about the Swedish legislation, but the extent of the leak suggests that the substance has been released more than allowed. Usually, if a leak leaves a visible mark in the sea, it has not been released with permission,” he says.
Pine oil is a liquid produced as a byproduct of the pulp industry, which is used, for example, as a raw material for biofuels.
Although the substance comes from nature, it can be harmful to animals and nature, an expert in oil cleaning Ingrid Håstad tells SVT.
“The substances it contains can cause allergic reactions when they come into contact with the skin. Dogs can get sick and birds can get it in their feathers.”
According to Laapio, the head of the investigation, the leak may have effects at least on the local marine life.
“In my opinion, such a substance does not belong in the sea, which is not there by birth.”
Laapion according to the leak was not immediately tackled, because the threshold for it is high. Even before the samples are confirmed, the Coast Guard’s planes are able to assess with the help of aerial photos and equipment whether the leak is mineral oil and how thick the film floating in the water is, he says.
“If the leak had been mineral oil, even if it was a small amount, control measures would have been started. For example, pine oil is not easily combated.”
The substance that leaked into the Back Sea disappeared from view on the surface of the water within a few days of the leak.
“Pine oil partly breaks down in the sea and partly evaporates into the air. By the time we got to the leak, there would have been almost nothing left to fight,” he reasons.
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