Russia is unable to cope with the ecological disaster after the tanker crash

The representative of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations informed about the establishment of the staff, the TASS agency wrote: “The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and members of the federal operational staff established on the basis of the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Anapa. The federal staff will work at the scene of the emergency until the consequences of the fuel oil leak are completely eliminated.”

The crew arrived on the scene on Sunday morning. The rescue work will be supervised by the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexandr Kurenkov. The government commission is to develop a plan for the rapid elimination of the consequences of the accident.

Anapa is located on the Taman Peninsula and is one of the most affected places, fuel oil completely destroyed the famous white beaches there. Putin decided on the creation of the staff on January 9.

The river tankers Volgoněft 212 and 239 sank in the Kerch Strait during a storm already on December 15. The bow of the first tanker was torn off by waves 4.5 meters high about eight kilometers from the shore. The damaged Volgoněft 239 ran aground about 80 meters from the shore.

The Russian Ministry of Transport said that about 2,400 tons of fuel oil had leaked. According to the source of the RIA Novosti agency, at least 3,700 tons of fuel oil got into the sea. The ships were transporting about 9,200 tons of heavy fuel oil.

The oil spill was 55 km long. TASS states that up to 200,000 tons of coastal sand can be polluted with fuel oil. Tens of kilometers of coastline from Anapa through the entire Taman Peninsula to the Kerch Strait, as well as Saki and Sevastopol in Crimea, are affected. The figures given may therefore be low. A state of emergency due to an ecological disaster was declared in the Krasnodar region, where the Taman Peninsula is located, and in Crimea, including Sevastopol.

Since part of the fuel oil remained in the sunken ship, there is a risk that it could be released again in the summer, when it gets warmer, and the beaches could be polluted again, TASS reported. The torn off bow of the tanker was only found on December 25.

73 thousand tons of contaminated sand have already been taken away in the Krasnodar region. In Crimea, they took away 43.5 tons of polluted sand from a 14-kilometer long stretch of beach affected by fuel oil, the Interfax agency wrote. It remains to take the sand from almost eight more kilometers of the coast. It was also possible to clean 191,000 square meters of water in Crimea. Crimea was not immediately affected, the fuel oil, which even after the accident was still escaping from the wrecks, reached its coast on December 21.

Fuel oil killed thousands of birds and dozens of dolphins. For you, the area will be dangerous for another ten years. Then the bacteria will break down the remains of fuel oil in the sea.

Many volunteers were involved in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, it is being dealt with by local authorities, but coordination has so far been lacking. Often, the collected fuel oil was directly burned on the coast.