A river in Russia has turned bright orange after a poisonous acid leak took place from old abandoned copper mines. 

An Instagram travel blogger, who goes by the name Zamkad_Life, posted a drone footage of the bright-orange landscape near a disused copper-sulphide mine that lies close the village of Lyovikha in the Urals. Ever since the video was uploaded, it has gone viral. 

After the video went viral, Russian prosecutors said that they are conducting an inspection of a facility that is supposed to treat acid runoff from an abandoned Urals mine. 

The travel blogger also shared a series of images on Instagram stating that the mine “is flooded and now acid rivers flow from it, poisoning everything it touches.”

In an interview, a spokeswoman of the Russian prosecutors’ said:

Specialists will be taking samples to establish whether the treatment of the acidic water from the mine complies with the rules. 

However, according to environmentalist Andrei Volegov, who chairs a local NGO Ecopravo, the pollutants were supposed to be neutralised in a technical “pond” but, unfortunately the pond overflows due to heavy rainfall. 

Volegov further stated that he had warned the prosecutor about the situation last year but, the company in charge said the pollutants were not properly funded and they could not purchase enough lime to neutralise the acid. 

As per the local media, the Sverdlovsk regional government had ordered for the mine to be sealed off but, Moscow refused to do so saying that they were still valuable resources available there. 

Last month, a major oil spill took place in the Arctic which raised concerns about the industrial pollution in Russia. Companies are often punished with small fines and hazardous waste is left unaddressed for years due to dirty politics and bureaucracy.