(Reuters) – Russian rescuers have cleaned up more than 86,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil on both sides of the Kerch Strait after an oil spill in the Black Sea last month, the Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday.
Oil has leaked from two aging tankers that were hit by a storm on December 15. One sank and the other fell into the ground.
More than 10,000 people worked to remove the viscous, foul-smelling fuel oil from sandy beaches in 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 was collected in Russia’s wider Kuban region and Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Kiev in 2014.
The ministry released video footage showing dozens of workers in protective suits loading bags of dirt into trenches, while others shoveled sand away from the dirt.
Russia’s transport ministry said this week that experts had determined that about 2,400 tons of oil spilled into the sea, less than first feared.
When the disaster struck, state media reported that the damaged tankers, both more than 50 years old, were carrying a total of 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil.
The spill involved heavy M100 fuel oil, which solidifies at 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and unlike other petroleum products does not float to the surface but rather sinks to the bottom or remains suspended in the water column.