You Are Here:
Greenpeace has mapped the most polluted areas of the Black and Azov Seas coasts, oil-slicked after a petroleum tanker shipwreck in the Kerch Strait
Enlarge ImageWithin a week Greenpeace experts examined some 95 km of the shoreline from Ilich village to Kuchugura at Sea of Azov and from South part of Tuzla Spit to Panagia Cpae in Anapa region at Black Sea. The most detailed survey was conducted at the distant beaches, where the shore was covered in stones and reeds or the slopes were too steep for the equipment to be brought there easily. The survey results Greenpeace have summarized on a map that today will be handed over to the crisis headquarters to be filed in operational data records and used in operations, as officials claimed.
Greenpeace response team head Dmitry Artamonov comments on the survey results: “So far, the shore is not totally cleaned from the spilled oil. The cleaning crews are now removing oil from some 30% of the polluted areas. The number of workers and equipment is insufficient. Also the slime ponds for collected oil are full by now. However the sea continues to bring more and more fuel oil to the shores”.
The full scope of cleanup works are now being conducted at the shore villages territory and also at Tuzla and main part of Chushka Spit. Crews have just started to clean up the southern part of Chushka Spit, which is the most polluted one. As Greenpeace examined, there has been no cleanup efforts in many of the relatively distant areas, like the one from Ilich village to Kuchugury village.
Some sea water samples were tested for toxicity by Greenpeace experts. Testing was conducted using a special device “Biotox-10M” that shows if the water is safe for living organisms and allows to find traces of oil products in it.
“In the shipwreck both heavy-fuel oil and light fractions of oil were spilled into the water. Those light ends are hard to notice visually. That’s why we used special equipment to assess pollution in some areas. For example, we found no fuel oil near Peresyl village at the Azov shore, whereas our device has shown the seawater is toxic here, which means this area is polluted with light diesel oil. The water samples taken near Volna village of the Black Sea showed the same results,” says Greenpeace expert Igor Babanin.
The water toxicity test results helped Greenpeace to define in what direction the oil slick is currently moving. In the next several days the slick will move towards the South-East of the Russian shore and soon is likely to reach Temryuk village. These results confirmed the forecast made by the State Oceanographic Institute basing on Rosgidromet reports’ analysis.
Greenpeace response team arrived November 12th to the southern Russia to estimate the scale of the environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait after a fierce storm sank seven ships, including an oil tanker. There are now 11 Greenpeace volunteers on the spot helping to clean-up the coastline, monitoring the polluted areas, reporting about new polluted spots.
Greenpeace response team head Dmitry Artamonov comments on the survey results: “So far, the shore is not totally cleaned from the spilled oil. The cleaning crews are now removing oil from some 30% of the polluted areas. The number of workers and equipment is insufficient. Also the slime ponds for collected oil are full by now. However the sea continues to bring more and more fuel oil to the shores”.
The full scope of cleanup works are now being conducted at the shore villages territory and also at Tuzla and main part of Chushka Spit. Crews have just started to clean up the southern part of Chushka Spit, which is the most polluted one. As Greenpeace examined, there has been no cleanup efforts in many of the relatively distant areas, like the one from Ilich village to Kuchugury village.
Some sea water samples were tested for toxicity by Greenpeace experts. Testing was conducted using a special device “Biotox-10M” that shows if the water is safe for living organisms and allows to find traces of oil products in it.
“In the shipwreck both heavy-fuel oil and light fractions of oil were spilled into the water. Those light ends are hard to notice visually. That’s why we used special equipment to assess pollution in some areas. For example, we found no fuel oil near Peresyl village at the Azov shore, whereas our device has shown the seawater is toxic here, which means this area is polluted with light diesel oil. The water samples taken near Volna village of the Black Sea showed the same results,” says Greenpeace expert Igor Babanin.
The water toxicity test results helped Greenpeace to define in what direction the oil slick is currently moving. In the next several days the slick will move towards the South-East of the Russian shore and soon is likely to reach Temryuk village. These results confirmed the forecast made by the State Oceanographic Institute basing on Rosgidromet reports’ analysis.
Greenpeace response team arrived November 12th to the southern Russia to estimate the scale of the environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait after a fierce storm sank seven ships, including an oil tanker. There are now 11 Greenpeace volunteers on the spot helping to clean-up the coastline, monitoring the polluted areas, reporting about new polluted spots.
