Pollution turns river chalk white for days

Residents of a western Siberian city were left anxious after a small river turned chalk white for a few days as a result of high pollution.

The Pivovarka, in Barnaul, unexpectedly went the colour of milk with the phenomenon recorded on video and captured in pictures before being uploaded to social media sites.

Experts from Rosprirodnadzor, the Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources, went to test the water after the images appeared on the Internet.

The level of pollution in the river is generally high, but according to preliminary information, levels were found to be 193 times normal.

The specialists managed to find the exact area where the pollutants got into the river. 

Ivan Ponomarev, head of the Department of Supervision of Water Resources, said: 'Now we are making a list of organisations that have access to the pipes that drain into the Pivovarka.

'There was an excess of ammonia nitrogen and some insoluble contaminant, which we are trying to determine now.'

The Pivovarka stretches for seven kilometres and is a tributary to the larger Barnaulka River.

Its banks have become a dumping ground for domestic garbage, dead animals, and construction waste, though this is the first time it has turned white.