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- Black on the shore: 21 thousand tons of sand contaminated with fuel oil have already been removed from the beaches of Anapa
Black on the shore: 21 thousand tons of sand contaminated with fuel oil have already been removed from the beaches of Anapa
More than 14,000 tons of contaminated sand have already been removed from the most affected areas of the Black Sea coast in Anapa - Blagoveshchenskaya village and Vityazevo village, Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov said. He came to inspect the territory affected after the accident of two tankers with oil products. Later, the head of the Krasnodar region specified that 21 thousand tons of dirty soil was collected at the end of the day. Volunteers travel to the Krasnodar region from different parts of Russia, local residents willingly join volunteer headquarters to clean up the coast and help birds, they told Izvestia. Some locals are setting up small aid groups where there are not enough volunteers. About those who go to eliminate fuel oil pollution - in the material "Izvestia".
What is happening on the coastal territory
On the Black Sea coast, where employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers to eliminate the consequences of the accident of two tankers with fuel oil, the main attention is now focused on two areas: from the village of Blagoveshchenskaya to the village of Vityazevo and from Vityazevo to the central beach of Anapa. More than 14 thousand tons of contaminated sand have already been removed from there, said Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia, who arrived in Anapa.
- Disposal sites have been identified at four sites. Today we will decide whether they are enough, and we will also discuss the logistic chain of fuel oil removal from the coastal zone, - he said. - The more fuel oil we collect now, the less problems we will have in April and May, when the temperature rises and the fuel oil starts to rise.
According to experts' forecasts, Alexander Kozlov added, the volume of fuel oil-contaminated soil may increase up to 200 thousand tons.
By the evening of December 23, the head of Krasnodar Region Veniamin Kondratiev specified that 21 thousand tons of contaminated soil had been collected by the end of the day.
- I hope for the help of scientists, they should tell us how to act, what reagents to use in the sea. As for the sunken tankers, they need to be examined with the involvement of divers, - said the head of the agency.
"Izvestia" talked to the coordinators of cleaning the coastal area in Anapa. Many noted that the bulk of the oil products thrown out by the waves have already been removed, but there are still places where beaches need to be cleaned from drops of fuel oil.
- We clean the entire coast, people arrive in small and large groups," said coordinator Vasily Apazidi. - Many come with their equipment, tractors, cars. After we clean up a certain area, the storm throws out fuel oil again, and we clean it up again. Now it is more difficult to do it, because we collect oil products in the form of drops, while before they came out in large layers. Recently it has been a little bit better, the mood has become better, before it was more difficult to collect fuel oil because of the weather.
The main part of the volunteers' work consists of shoveling oil products into bags, which are loaded into dump trucks by special vehicles, explained coordinator Konstantin Stratiy.
- After that, heavy trucks take the oil products to specialized collection points," he added. - We have already collected the bulk of fuel oil from coastal areas. The sea is stormy now, so the pollution is not visually visible, but during the storm it is often thrown onto the beach.
Public activist Sergei Gen noted that the main problem is that waste trucks can't cope with the pace of cleaning, and oil product collection points are overcrowded.
- Dump trucks have to take fuel oil to distant specialized points, which takes a lot of time, and the work slows down," he said. - People from all over Russia come to us to help us cope with the situation. I have been working here since the first day of the disaster because I am a local, my family lives here, and this is important to me. Together with other locals, we initially started cleaning up all the consequences of the spill, and the administration got involved. It also helps with special equipment.
Indifferent residents
About 350 volunteers worked at one of the sites on Monday, December 23, one of the coordinators, Grigory Vyatkin, told Izvestia. But they lack personal protective equipment, such as gowns and respirators.
- We are provided with hot meals, heating points are set up where volunteers can rest a bit while working," he added.- Now we are removing fuel oil in spots with a radius of about 20 centimeters, almost the entire coast is dotted with them. There are no longer monolithic layers on the coastal territory, and the spots are collected with shovels.
Now the main part of Anapa's central beaches has beencleaned, there are not as many fuel oil emissions as there were originally, but they still remain on the outskirts, said coordinator Vladislav Demyashev.
- The volunteers' workday starts at 8 a.m. and continues until dark, the cleanup is going on smoothly, everyone is working hard," he said.
Two residents of the Temryuksky district, Anastasia and Irina, could not stay away when they saw the injured birds on the coastal territory, and organized a small group of concerned residents who help the feathered birds.
- We don't have a headquarters for this, just an association of local residents who go and rescue injured birds," Anastasia added. - In Anapa there is a coordination headquarters, ornithologists and specialists who provide comprehensive assistance to birds of prey. One day after the accident a large amount of fuel oil was thrown ashore, and with it a lot of birds, then concerned residents gathered and went to save them.
Now local volunteers drive along the shore and look for injured birds to give them first aid and send them to Anapa. From there they send the means necessary for first aid to birds: respirators, syringes and medicines. In addition, concerned people are looking for volunteers who can help with the delivery of birds to specialized places.
- You can't look at the Black Sea coast now without tears, every sea wave is a wave of fuel oil and birds, - said Irina. - Fuel oil, which has already been collected, has to be left on the coast, because there is not enough special equipment that can take it away. Sometimes, due to strong winds, bags with oil products are carried back to the sea.
The girls said that one of the concerned people was ready to allocate funds for the purchase of booms (floating barriers used to limit the spread of something on the water surface) to fence off oil slicks in the sea, but they were allegedly told in local ports that it was useless. The volunteers themselves are convinced that the booms would help contain waves up to 2m high, and they can now reach 5m.
Mostly all the volunteers are concentrated in Anapa, but at their request someone comes to help.
- The other day I got a call from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and said that they found the affected birds, I drove to the place for more than an hour, loaded the feathered ones and took them to Anapa, it took about another hour, - shared with "Izvestia" Irina. - Between the affected settlements is a decent distance, which can be complicated by the road.
How is the rescue of animals
Now in Sochi a little affected animals, but the situation may worsen, as the fraction of fuel oil settled on the bottom and with the warming of the water will begin to float and move to the shore, told "Izvestia" ornithologist Alexander Dvoretsky. Not only fish, but all other sea creatures will suffer from pollution.
- My working day starts at four in the morning and ends at nine in the evening, " he added. - The situation in Sochi is normal so far, because to date I have only brought a dozen birds. The birds that got dirty in Anapa were able to fly to Sochi, so they ended up here.
To help the birds we need detergents, such as Fairy, because they do not irritate the skin. Birds need to wash their feathers, the ornithologist advises. First you need to dilute the detergent in warm water, then whip the foam with a sponge and use this foam to cover the cleaned skin.
- After cleaning, the birds should be force-fed, they prefer small mullet," he added. - And they don't want to eat because of intoxication of the organism. Rehabilitation of birds is actually very serious. We from the Sochi Geographical Society sent a car with everything necessary to Anapa. Now we will collect the second one. We send everything we need - from detergents to gloves and masks.
It is impossible to wash a bird at one time - it is a step-by-step process, says Alexander Dvoretsky. First, most of the dirt is removed, then washed off, then it is necessary to let the bird dry and warm up. This procedure is repeated until the bird is completely clean.
Varvara Cherkasova, a student at the State University of Management in Moscow, flew to Sochi to visit her aunt on vacation. She joined the headquarters in Anapa to save birds as a volunteer.
- You have to understand that we have two huge headquarters: the first one is for cleaning the territory, the second one is for saving birds and animals," she explained. - These are two different units, but we do one thing. We have a chat room with 50 thousand volunteers, where we send all the operational information. Initially, in the very first days, there was complete self-organization. People did everything on their own. No one really understood how to be and what to do, it was chaos. Now it is easier, because there are coordinators, units, everyone is busy doing their own thing.
Some people can't stand the tension, they come to the center, wash the birds and leave after half an hour, because it's much more complicated than it seems at first glance, the student added. There is a whole department that organizes housing for volunteers.
- We live in a private boarding house," she said. - People come to us and offer to help us with housing. We have good conditions, we have everything for living: beds, showers, washing machines. We eat at the field kitchen. Every day we have hot food, we are not hungry. The nicest thing is that old grandmothers often come to us and bring us pies. They say they can't help with collecting fuel oil or washing birds, but they want to help at least the volunteers. It brings them to tears.
Often pensioners come who want to help the volunteers but can't do the difficult work. They try to find tasks they can do: for example, one elderly woman, who came to the headquarters on crutches, tears rags so that those who wash the birds don't waste their time on it, the student added.
- It is our headquarters that does not need anything at the moment: we have all the means to wash and rehabilitate the birds," she explained. - I remember when one company contacted our main coordinator and sent a big batch of detergent. And just yesterday we received 600 kilograms of starch. There is a lot of help.
By chance
Alexey Vinogradov, a Muscovite , came to Anapa to winter in the warmth, but could not stay away when he saw the consequences of the accident on the city's beaches. He organized a warehouse to help volunteers.
- Now one of the big problems is bags that leak, we need completely different waterproof bags that are resistant to oil products," he said. - In addition, we need shovels, barrels on the beaches, where volunteers can put the bags, so that fuel oil does not leak out of them. The machinery that takes the bags away, collects them and sends them to places specialized for recycling. Now all the collection points, fuel oil recycling stations are already overcrowded and cannot cope.
Volunteers get to Krasnodar Krai on their own, and the administration provides operative movement to the places of pollution. But the local authorities cannot fully cover the logistics needs, now it is about a fifth of all routes, Alexei believes.
- They would be happy to cover these needs, but they don't have the resources to do so, so most of it is self-driving," he added. - To improve the work, money is needed to administer all the processes related to volunteers and information support. The Black Sea disaster campaign will last for many more months.
Volunteers note that there is a strong smell of gasoline coming from the sea, despite the fact that the water is visually clean.
