TAILS ABOUT WATER

One of high-ranking officials declared that it might happen that Vladivostok would have to bring water by tankers. "ZR" decided to found out how realistic this ides is.

Of many shipping companies, only VCSP Portoflot transports water by tankers. By words of its deputy director general Alexander Kopylov, their tanker "Alexander Ulgin" is the only specialized vessel of this type in Primorsky Krai.

"In recent times, there were some six such ships in local ports but all of them have been sold by owners," he said to a "ZR" journalist. "That's why the Ulgin has many orders for bunkering ships calling to Vladivostok."

However, Portoflot is skeptical about supplying water to the city. Its capacity of 3,000 tons is negligibly small versus Vladivostok's daily consumption of 450,000. With nearest water intake facilities Krakovka and Uspenia located near Nakhodka, it takes the tanker at least one day to get their and fill its tanks with water.

Another problem is discharge of water to land. Firstly, the tanker needs a quay with appropriate access road for water tank vehicles, and, secondly, there are only 30 such vehicles available in Vladivostok. Sure enough, tanker operations will not save the city in case of thirst.

Rimsco corporation managers share this opinion. Vice president Peter Aganov says they sold their water tanker 8 months ago. But even if the regional administration or some other organizations makes a decision to charter some of Rimsco's tankers, say, with a capacity of 5,000 tons, the tanker will have to stay at quay for months discharging water to tank vehicles. And, water supplied by chartered tankers will be almost as much expensive as gold.

A possible solution could be use of a large water tank capable of receiving the whole load from tankers. However, such tanks are available only at the oil terminal and are currently used for oil products.

Be that as it may, Portoflot is ready to supply water to socially important consumers such as maternity homes and hospitals, but only in an ultimate emergency.

To sum it up, the only realistic source of considerable additional water supply to the city is use of a large tanker. The only company having large tankers is PRISCO. By words of PRISCO Fleet Department manager Valery Petrashov, the regional civil defense & emergencies office requested recently their calculation of possible use of PRISCO tankers for water supply.

PRISCO is not enthused with this idea. All of its large tankers carry fuel and are busy. The only 100,000-ton tanker, "Primorye," is leaving for the Baltic Sea for nearly a year. Smaller tankers will also be busy in a week operating different lines.

Other restrictions are: large vessels cannot approach the water intake facility in Uspenia; it will take about two weeks to fill a large tanker with water; there is no equipment for pumping water from tanker to mains; there is no suitable quay for the "Primorye" in Vladivostok, even at the oil terminal, due to shallow depths in the channel.

Another story is conversion of an oil tanker to a water tanker. Sanitary authorities say it is a lengthy and expensive process. Tank must be steamed off, cleaned and painted by specially trained teams together with disinfectant specialists, said Anatoly Pereverzev, deputy chief sanitary officer for waterborne and air transport in Far East. Even this procedure does not guarantee that sample testing results will be suitable and the ship will be authorized for water transportation. It would be somewhat easier to clean a tanker carrying food oils, but it also should be done well in advance of actual operations.

Therefore, Vladivostok cannot hope for water arriving by sea. - Yury NURMUKHAMETOV.

FAR EASTERN AND HARBIN RAILWAYS SUMMED RESULTS FOR 2003

Export-import railway traffic through the border crossing Grodekovo - Suifenhe exceeded 5.5 million tons in 2003, which is an all-time record high for this crossing.

This statement was made by FER's Vladivostok division director Valery Tarabarov at a meeting between FER and Harbin Railways. He further said that maximum cargo handling turnover was registered at Vladivostok station (Vladivostok commercial sea port, 7 million tons) and Krabovaya station (Nakhodka oil terminal, 6,700 tons) after modernization and new construction of shunting facilities and sidings.

By words of Yui Kunfeng, director of Harbin Railways' Mudanjian division, SARS in China did not allow to bring export traffic to 6 million tons. He said that the Chinese government earmarked 200 million yuans in subsidies to compensate for SARS-caused losses and further develop the Mudanjian division.

In conclusion of their meeting, the parties assumed obligations to bring up to 7 million tons the export-import traffic volume handled by the railway border crossing Grodekovo - Suifenhe. - Yulia PROKHOROVA.

MINING COMPANY LAUNCHED WOODWORKING SHOP

Primorsky Gok (Vostok-2 township in Krasnoarmeisky Raion) launched a new business line - woodworking facility.

GOK invested over $2 million in buying suitable premises and second-hand Japanese equipment. The new facility employs 50 workers. It will start with sawmill operations and later on will assemble furniture.

Woodworking shop workers were retrained (130,000 rubles for retraining was provided by the region's employment centre), and some continue training at local learning institutions. The regional administration allocated a logging area with 12,000 cubic meters of timber for the new facility, says its spokesman. - Yevgeny ITAROV.

OPTIMISTIC FIGURES

By data of Primorsky Krai administration's Construction & Architecture Department, the region's building industry commissioned 222,000 square meters of housing in 2003, which is a 27-% increase on 175,400 square meters in the preceding year.

Nearly half new housing was built in Vladivostok - about 105,000 square meters. Primorye capital was followed by Nakhodka, then Artem and Ussuriisk. By words of department manager Oleg Ivlev, each of Primorye's 34 municipalities reported on new housing commissioned in 2003.

Forecasts for this year are moderately optimistic. The number of operating construction sites has notably grown, and investments flow more actively into the housing development sector. It is expected that three apartment buildings will be completed in this year under the programme "Apartments for Young Families." - Viktor KUDINOV.

BORDER GUARDS SUMMED UP RESULTS OF OPERATIONS TO PROTECT MARINE BIORESOURCES IN FAR EAST

Frigates and patrol boats of the Pacific Border Guard Regional Authority inspected more than 3,000 Russian and foreign vessels during 2003.

As PBGRA commander Pavel Tarasenko stated at a press conference, penalties for fishing rules violation were imposed on over 700 Russian and 54 foreign ships.

Penalties for damage to Russia's marine bioresources totaled more than 76 million rubles and $8,000. More than 140 tons of illegally produced seafood valued at a total of more than 25 million rubles was confiscated and sold in favour of the government. By Tarasenko's words, inshore poaching became more active in Kurile Islands. Poachers established channels for trafficking sea cucumber and other seafood to China via Primorsky Krai.

More than 214,000 live crab specimens were released to the natural habitat and over 7,000 crab traps were seized in 2003, which prevented possible damage valued at 250 million rubles. 33 illegal facilities for marine bioresource processing were destroyed on the seashore. - Yevgeny ITAROV.