More than 9 km of coastline has been cleaned of fuel oil in Krasnodar region for a day

Over the past day in the Krasnodar region, more than 9 km of coastline has been cleaned from fuel oil, spilled due to the crash of two tankers in the Black Sea. This was reported in the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia on December 19.

"For today in the Krasnodar region cleaned more than 9 km of coastline. Since the beginning of the work has been cleaned 19.6 thousand km of coastline; collected more than 1.7 tons of contaminated sand and soil", - stated in the message of the Department in its Telegram-channel.

6 thousand rescuers and volunteers, as well as 255 units of equipment are working on the cleaning of fuel oil. 176 birds have been rescued.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry added that the next day it is planned to survey the water area, conduct diving operations and continue monitoring and cleaning the shoreline.

Clean up the slicks: how the oil spill in the Black and Azov Seas is being cleaned up

The cleanup is being carried out by EMERCOM staff and volunteers

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the pollution of the Black Sea and its shores with fuel oil an environmental disaster and said that he was being reported on the development of the situation. The President noted that about 40% of the fuel they were carrying had leaked out of the two tankers. The head of state pointed out that now it is necessary to fence off the polluted area so that the stain does not spread, remove the fuel oil washed ashore and prepare for the warming of the water in May, when the fuel starts to rise from the surface.

On December 15, tankers Volgoneft-212 andVolgoneft-239suffered a disaster in the Kerch Strait due to bad weather. As a result, there was a spill of oil products.

The first vessel evacuated 13 people: one of them died, 11 were injured. All 14 crew members were evacuated from the tanker Volgoneft-239 on Monday. Two criminal cases were opened over the incident, one of which was reclassified as more serious because of the death of a sailor.

Governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratiev said that after the oil spill in four settlements of the Kuban introduced a state of high alert. Later, on December 17, he specified that after the accident with two tankers fuel oil was carried ashore for dozens of kilometers, two municipalities of the region introduced a state of emergency. Specialists have determined the algorithm of cleaning works.