MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Almost 162,500 tons of oil-contaminated sand and soil have been gathered on the shores of the Krasnodar Region, Sevastopol and Crimea after an oil spill caused by a tanker accident in the Kerch Strait, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's press office told TASS on Tuesday.
"As many as 314 interdepartmental monitoring groups surveyed 896 kilometers [of shore] in the three territories [of Russia]. They defined clean-up sites with a total length of 794 kilometers. The quantity of oil-contaminated soil gathered totaled 162,410 tons, and 38,829 tons were removed from the coast," the report reads.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry specified that working groups gathered about 161,800 tons of contaminated sand in the Krasnodar Region, over 430 tons in Crimea, and 173 tons in Sevastopol.
In addition, people addressing the aftermath of an oil spill surveyed almost 2,000 square kilometers in the Kerch Strait and processed more than 42,800 square kilometers of the affected area. About 4,500 kilograms of sorbent were used, at least 25 tons of oil-contaminated liquid were collected. Over 16 tons of oily waste were gathered in the waters along the shore, including in the ports of Anapa and Sevastopol. Finally, specialists installed 2,350 meters of booms, including 2,140 meters around the stern of the Volgoneft-239 tanker.
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.