KRASNODAR, January 9. /TASS/. Rescuers and volunteers, who are cleaning up the aftermath of the Black Sea oil spill caused by the sinking of two tankers last year, removed 120 cubic meters of oil waste from beaches of south Russia’s resort city of Anapa in the past day, local authorities said.
"Today, 51 volunteers and 10 pieces of equipment were working on Anapa beaches. They removed 120 cubic meters of waste, which is enough to fill six dumping trucks. More than 10,000 cubic meters of polluted sand have been removed from Anapa beaches since December 18, which is enough to fill 478 dumping trucks," the city administration of the regional administrative center of Krasnodar has reported.
According to the Russian emergencies ministry, six major clean-up areas have been designated in southern Russia’s Krasnodar Region, or 63 kilometers of the shoreline in total. Over 139,000 metric tons of polluted sand and soil have already been collected and disposed of.
On December 15, the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 tankers sank in the Kerch Strait area in the Black Sea amid a storm. One sailor died, and the rest were evacuated. According to emergency services, the tankers were carrying about 9,200 tons of fuel oil. An oil spill occurred in the Black Sea as a result of the accident, and clean-up operations are underway. According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, about 2,400 tons of oil products have leaked into the Black Sea, which is much less than the initial estimates.