The real situation on the coast of the resort after the fuel oil spill
Correspondent of Profi.Travel went to the beaches of Anapa together with the team of the Russian Union of Travel Industry to find out how much fuel oil remains in the sand on the coast at the moment, how work is underway to clean it, to check whether it is really possible to achieve complete elimination of fractions from the sand layer, and to understand whether they will have time to sift all the contaminated sand by the beginning of the season.
Anapa Central Beach: we need more equipment
Most of the territory is clean. However, closer to the water, there is still a small fraction of fuel oil. It is being cleaned by volunteers, and special equipment from the Ministry of Emergency Situations is working. As journalists were told, additional equipment will be purchased soon so that the sand layer is guaranteed to be cleared by the beginning of the season.
A protective hill is built not far from the sea, on which the catcher nets are located. They are changed after every storm, and now it is clear that they are clean. However, there is still fuel oil in the sea. Until it is removed, the danger of new emissions remains.
Beaches in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya: sand cleaning work does not stop
Some of the most serious fuel oil emissions were recorded on the beach in the Blagoveshchenskaya area. The sand cleaning work continues. Despite the day off, the volunteers are sifting through the sand, clearing it of the remaining small fractions of fuel oil. Where tire tracks are visible, there is a special technique that also performs the final cleaning of the sand.
There is also a protective embankment with a net, which should protect the beach from a new spread of fuel oil if it is washed ashore during a storm.
Bugaz spit: more than half of the beaches have been cleared
The situation on Bugaz Spit is not bad: just over half of the beaches have already been cleaned, mostly manually. About 200 volunteers are currently working here, and the equipment is also working. The sand is first checked with a special dipstick, to find out how many centimeters need to be sifted. According to the volunteer coordinator, Senator Igor Kostyukevich of the Russian Federation, it may be 70 cm, but on average about 40 cm of sand layer is passed through a sieve on the Bugaz spit.
According to him, the entire braid was divided into squares of 100 meters each, and each has “its own surname, first name and patronymic.” “In other words, the volunteers working on the spit are responsible for their plots,” Igor Kostyukevich explained. Since the beginning of the work, more than 250 tons of sand and fuel oil mixture have already been removed.
According to the expert, it is impossible to work with heavy machinery — it will simply destroy the Bugaz spit.
There are piles of sand on the already cleared areas: these are the ones that have already been sifted through the so—called easels. Indeed, they look similar to the ones the artists are working on. Only instead of a canvas, there is a grid, and sand is sifted through it. The same can be found not only on the Bugaz spit, but also on other parts of the Anapa coast.
There is still a lot of work — according to Igor Kostyukevich, “not for two weeks or even two months.” But no one can give accurate estimates yet. The fact is that some of the fuel oil is still at the bottom of the sea. “A layer of fuel oil was discovered from drones near the Bugaz spit at a depth of 4.7 meters. Divers will work with him,” he explained. The possibility of a holiday here this summer largely depends on how the bottom is cleaned.
Djemete: “saving beaches before the start of the season is possible”
As you can see in the photo, the situation on Dzhemete beach with fuel oil is difficult — you need to clean a lot. They are currently testing a new technology that allows them to sift up to 200 tons of sand per hour. One machine can handle up to 400 m of beach per day.
“We conducted a series of tests, tested different technologies and reagents and came to the conclusion that wet sieving is the most effective way. After that, we manufactured the equipment, and now we are conducting industrial tests,” said Rustam Sabirov, CEO of RusVal.
According to the new technology, the sand is mixed with seawater and sifted through a grid with 2 mm cells — this “wet sifting” proved to be the most effective, it does not allow the fuel oil to linger in the sand.
“It is very possible to save the beaches this year before the season,— says Rustam Sabirov. — But it depends on the administration. If we are confirmed to have an increase to 40-50 machines that can operate around the clock, then we will be in time.”
Beaches of hotels and sanatoriums: all employees have left
Employees of hotels, sanatoriums, and children’s camps went out to clean their beaches immediately after the emergency. Someone had to buy new equipment, someone had it. Beaches sometimes look better than municipal ones, but fractions of fuel oil still come across. I managed to smell it somewhere, but now it’s rare.
The beach at the Alean Family Doville 5* hotel is quiet, except for the noise of the wind, the equipment is no longer working, and the fractions of fuel oil are not easy to notice. They are there, but they are already being cleaned manually. The beach infrastructure is getting ready for the season. A yoga practice area, a beach bar, awnings, sun beds, deck chairs — something stands on the coast, something will appear in the near future and before the opening.
“We have already carried out basic cleaning measures for those fractions that were washed out by the sea, now we understand that our task is to keep clean and make sure that if there are any more emissions, they are promptly removed,” said Olga Smolkina, director of the Alean Collection hotel company.
Now, on the beach, you can see the workers sifting the sand. “These are the areas where some fractions of petroleum products still remain, in order to eliminate them before the start of warming, we have started such mechanical cleaning,” Olga Smolkina explained.
4 backhoe loaders and 5 dump trucks were used daily to eliminate the consequences on the beach of the all-season spa resort “Miracleon” (Fnf, Movenpick, Mira, FioLeto, Beton Brut, Dacha del Sol and the children’s complex “Pearl of Russia”). A machine was also used to sift the sand, and it was cleaned manually. Safety nets have been installed to prevent new emissions. Now the beach is monitored daily.
And by the way, it is already available for walking.
The children’s sanatorium complex “Pearl of Russia” has purchased special equipment for beach harvesting: a machine that sifts sand and separates small fractions. At first, work was suspended due to the fact that winter suddenly came to Anapa, but in early March they resumed, even two days of cleaning showed excellent results. Expected, she clarifiedElena Moskvina, Deputy Director of Sales and Marketing, said that in a month the beach will be in excellent condition.
The beach of the Diluch sanatorium, located in the center of Anapa, is cleaned daily. As soon as the sand dries, it is planned to sift it on a large scale.
“At the moment, we are using all possible methods to speed up the cleaning process, so we really hope to receive a Rospotrebnadzor opinion on permission to use the beach and start working during the season, like all Anapa facilities,” said Marina Protsepova, deputy general director of the health resort.
The resort’s beach looks pretty clean. However, the participants of the trip to Anapa, felt the smell of petroleum products. Indeed, there are noticeable fractions of fuel oil a little further away. Three people took samples. But the questions were answered sparingly: “We dig the sand.”
Objectively, fuel oil in one quantity or another was found on all parts of the coast, where it was possible to visit. However, as locals, hoteliers, and volunteers tell us, it is much less and there are chances to clean the beaches by the season.
75 km of beaches and Anapa’s equator: where the coast is cleaned
While there is no conclusion from Rospotrebnadzor yet, new sand samples were supposed to be taken on the beaches last weekend. However, both volunteers, hoteliers, and officials say that the situation is improving. On the Bugaz Spit, one of the operstab employees showed a video of snow—white swans swimming in the estuary. There are many clean birds both in the city itself and on the beaches in the vicinity. Birds continue to be rescued. However, volunteers and local residents say that when it all started, hundreds of birds contaminated with fuel oil were collected, and now there are much fewer.
141 beaches with a total length of 15 km of Anapa municipality and 9 beach areas (1.6 km) of Temryuk district are to be restored, said Mikhail Zaritsky, Acting Minister of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of the Krasnodar Territory. But these are only official beaches.
“Anapa is 70-75 kilometers of coastline from the village of Abrau-Durso to the village of Veselovka. Not all of these kilometers are a beach area from the point of view of Rospotrebnadzor,” explained Profi.Travel Deputy Head of Anapa resort city municipality Vitaly Voronov. — By beach, we, the officials, mean the territory that has been put into operation as a beach.”
He spoke about the so—called Anapa equator, which is the area of the seaport, with sandy beaches leading north to Bulgaria, and up to Istanbul is pebbly. “The eight pebble beaches located in the villages of Bolshoy Utrish, Varvarovka, and Sukko are also being cleaned. It’s easier to work with them than with sandy ones,” the vice mayor explained.
Photo: Polina Grishma, unsplash
The main tourist area (about 14 km), according to him, is the Central Beach, Pionersky Prospekt, the village of Vityazevo before the beginning of the Vityazevskaya spit. Further, 12 km away, there is a specially protected natural area. Then there is the village of Blagoveshchenskaya and another 4 km of licensed, commissioned beaches.
“Our common goal is to basically remove fuel oil from the sandy area. It doesn’t matter if it’s regional, municipal, or federal. We are interested in having everything cleaned up, the structure of subordination is not very important,” emphasized Vitaly Voronov.
Photo: Polina Grishma, unsplash
It’s there: how much fuel oil is left in the sea
According to Vitaly Voronov, there is no information about how much fuel oil is left in the sea, as there is no scanning technology. “Everyone involved in the maritime rescue service and all relevant structures is doing everything they can,” the vice mayor stressed. “We are helping in any way we can. For example, marine drones were purchased with the participation of businesses. We gave them to our municipal rescuers, they took a boat and went in search. They saw the fuel oil and put it on the map.”
According to him, the data is used by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, planning work on the extraction of fuel oil. Somewhere manual labor is used, somewhere mechanized. “Even from the pictures we get, we understand that there is fuel oil in the sea, but it is difficult to assess the scale, especially if it is covered with sand,” explained Vitaly Voronov. — Today a new lens appeared, and tomorrow the one that we saw yesterday disappeared. We really hope that most of the fuel oil has been taken away, but we don’t know how much remains.”
In March, successful testing of the collection of petroleum products using the Aeroshoop system was carried out at the pier in the village of Dzhemete. As reported by The mainstay of the Krasnodar Territory, the device is immersed in the sea, where there are petroleum products, air is supplied to the bottom under pressure, and fuel oil rises to the surface.
The editors would like to thank the Multitour tour operator for the video from the beaches of Central Anapa and the village of Blagoveshchenskaya
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