‘River of Blood’ Mysteriously Flows in Russia

A river located in Russia has turned crimson red and nobody knows exactly why.

The Daldykan River flows near the city of Norilsk, located inside the Arctic Circle, and locals have a hunch that giant metals company Norilsk Nickel is to blame for the now-burgundy river. The company’s smelting plant sits somewhere upstream and it is believed that wastewater mixed with mineral ore from the plant’s waste pipes is leaking into the water, contaminating and turning it deep red.

Russia’s Environment Ministry announced an investigation and it too believes that Norilsk Nickel is likely to blame. Reportedly, this is not the first time the water has been poisoned nor is it Norilsk’s first pollution incident. Back in 2007, they took responsibility for massive sulfur dioxide emissions and agreed to cut back, according to a BBC News report.

Norilsk is regarded as the most polluted city in Russia by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, with almost 2 million tons of carbon pollutants in 2010.

In addition to dying the usually greenish-blue Daldykan River, pollution in Norilsk also affects the snow in the wintertime which is also red as told by area resident Evgeny Belikov on social media.

“On the one hand, it’s beautiful, but on the other, it’s chemical,” said Belikov on the blood snow.