Authorities in Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar declared a region-wide emergency as oil continued to wash ashore, 10 days after two tankers collided in the Black Sea.
ADVERTISEMENTA region-wide state of emergency was declared in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region as oil continued washing up on the coastline.
On 15 December, two ageing Russian oil tankers collided after being hit by a storm in the Kerch Strait, spilling more than 4,300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the Black Sea. Officials say the spill polluted approximately 55 km of coastline.
The two vessels carried a low-quality oil product known as mazut, commonly used in parts of the former Soviet Union for heating homes. Officials deployed more than 7,500 people, many of them volunteers, to rescue wildlife and clean up the shorelines blighted by the black substance.
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported that some 12,000 tonnes of contaminated soil were removed along 34 km of shoreline.
Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said in a statement on Telegram that initial calculations foresaw the majority of the oil remaining at the bottom of the Black Sea, allowing it to be collected in the water.
“But the weather dictates its own conditions, the air warms up and the oil products rise to the surface. As a result, they are washed up on our beaches,” said Kondratiev.
The pollution has coated sandy beaches around Anapa, a popular summer resort. Kondratiev says his administration will work to restore the area, adding that the main priority is to clean the coastline as quickly as possible to preserve the resort.