(Reuters) – Russian rescue teams have cleared more than 86,000 metric tons of contaminated sand and soil on both sides of the Kerch Strait following an oil spill in the Black Sea last month, the Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday.
Oil leaked from two old tankers that were hit by a storm on December 15. One sank and the other ran aground.
More than 10,000 people have been working to shovel slimy, smelly fuel from the sandy beaches of and around Anapa, a popular summer resort. Environmental groups have reported deaths of dolphins, porpoises and seabirds.
The Emergencies Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that oil-contaminated soil had been collected in Russia’s broader Kuban region and in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from kyiv in 2014.
The ministry released video footage showing dozens of workers in protective suits loading bags of soil into excavators and others removing dirt from the sand with shovels.
Russia’s Transport Ministry said this week that experts had established that around 2,400 metric tons of petroleum products had spilled into the sea, a smaller spill than initially feared.
When the disaster struck, state media reported that the affected tankers, both more than 50 years old, were carrying about 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of petroleum products in total.
The spill involved M100 grade heavy fuel oil that solidifies at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and, unlike other petroleum products, does not float to the surface but sinks to the bottom or remains suspended in the water column.