A 'blood river' showed up in a Siberian 'dead zone' twice the size of Rhode Island - and no one knows why
Most environmental analysts think environmental waste is to blame.
It's all liquid rust.
The plant produces iron as a by-product, which is usually discarded in "slurry ponds." Then the iron rusts.
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said Wednesday that "preliminary information of a possible cause of the pollution of the river is a rupture of a slurry pipe at Norilsk Nickel."
So the red color might be slushy rust.
The other theory is that it's caused naturally by the iron in the area.
The site is locally rich in iron. So it might be belowground iron deposits causing the color, not runoff from the nickel plant, according to National Geographic.
The river has turned red before.
Locals told ABC that the region's water has been contaminated before, and that workers refer to a reservoir connected to the river as the "red sea," because of its color produced by ore runoff.
Locals don't drink the water. It isn't connected to the water supply, according to a Russian state news agency.
The mining company, meanwhile, denies that the river ever turned red.
Bizarrely, the Norlisk Nickel mine insists that the river is still a crystalline blue. In a press release, the company wrote that, "The waters show the natural tone; the river and its mainstream are in regular condition, which goes against the information about any color changes due to an alleged case of large-scale river pollution."
Popular Right Now
Advertisement