'The incident happened because of an old slurry tank built in 1960 with violations of health and safety rules.' Picture: Vladislav Oreshkin

There is no danger to the city of Pervouralsk residents' health from the unusual green snow, said Vladislav Oreshkin, the spokesman for Russian Chrome Chemicals 1915 company.

'The accident today happened on a pipe between a pump and a cleaning station, so some of the water pumped from under the ground went on the surface,’ he said.

Pictures of the bizarre sight of acidy green snow appeared on social media.



Pictures of the bizarre sight of acidy green snow appeared on social media. Pictures: Vladislav Oreshkin

The spokesman said: 'The incident happened because of an old slurry tank built in 1960 with violations of health and safety rules. In Soviet times some of the chromium containing water stayed under ground and went straight into Chusovaya river.

'Ten years ago we launched a system of drainage wells that capture contaminated water and neutralise it. One of the wells got clogged and part of the water went on the surface.'

Vsevolod Oreshkin, Russian Chrome's representative, told local local media: 'The accident was around 10.30am behind the territory of Russian Chrome. We had warned multiple times that we were pumping out underground waters from around our storages.

'These underground waters are not on the plant's balance, but as they are polluted we pump them out and clean them.

'The accident today happened on a pipe between a pump and a cleaning station, so some of the water pumped from under the ground went on the surface.

'The situation is under control. Our team was at the site 15 minutes after the accident.

'We are planning to finish the clean up within one day.'



'Ten years ago we launched a system of drainage wells that capture contaminated water and neutralise it. One of the wells got clogged and part of the water went on the surface.' Pictures: Vladislav Oreshkin

Last year people in Pervouralsk complained about colourful rain and snow which they also linked to the plant.

Some people reported throat aches.

Russian Chrome Chemicals 1915 specialises in production of chrome-containing industrial materials and reagents.

The products are widely used in metallurgy (for production of alloy steels and special alloys), machine building (for chrome galvanizing), leather, textile, paint and coating industry, in production of detergents and other industrial processes.

Сhromium salt reagents are produced that are used as analytical reagents and raw material for chemical and other industries.