Fuel oil leaked into the sea after crashes two Russian oil tankers on December 15, reached the coast of Crimea.
Fuel oil was noticed on the beaches of the southern coast of Crimea. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported this on Thursday, January 2. Black slurry is found on the beaches of Star Coast and Blue Bay, in the western part of Sevastopol – on the beaches of Lyubimovka and Orlovka, as well as in Kach, which is north of the city. The city declared a state of emergency.
At the same time, on Thursday morning the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that “no evidence of petroleum products was detected in the Republic of Crimea.” However, the agency soon announced that “two areas of oil pollution were discovered in Crimea.” They were located in the area of the city beach of Kerch and near Lake Tobechik.
150 people and 48 pieces of equipment arrived at the scene. By Thursday evening, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that “work to eliminate the oil spill has been completed in Crimea.” About 4 km of the coast were cleaned, more than 2 tons of contaminated sand and soil were removed, and 168 birds were rescued.
The operational headquarters of the Krasnodar region reported on Thursday that almost 73,000 tons of oil-contaminated sand had been removed from the beaches of Anapa and the Temryuk region in recent days. Its removal for recycling was temporarily suspended due to exceeding the maximum possible volume of processing.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation clarified that just after the tanker crash hit the Black Sea about 2400 tons of petroleum products:
“This is significantly less than the initial estimate given by tanker captains. The emergency in the waters of the Kerch Strait is the world’s first accident with “heavy” heating oil of the M100 grade. Such fuel oil solidifies at a temperature of +25℃, its density is almost like water and is heavier. And, unlike other petroleum products, it does not float to the surface, but sinks to the bottom or floats in the water column. There are no tested ones in the world. technologies for its removal from the water column. Therefore, the main method is collection from the coastline, when fuel oil is thrown into the coastal zone.”
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