Cleaning up Black Sea after fuel spill could take decade, Russian officials say

This was reported by the Voice of Crimea, referring to the head of the Russian Union of Energy and Environmental Safety, Natalia Sokova.

"In my inion, nothing will be cleaned up by summer. The work will take at least three full seasons. This is an timistic scenario. In reality, it could take up to five years, and in the event of negative develments, up to 10 years," she said.

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Sokova noted that the environmental disaster is staggering in its scale: the damaged tankers were transporting not only fuel oil, but also other petreum products of different densities. As a result, some of them have already settled on the seabed, which will be the most difficult to clean.

“In addition to fuel oil, there was gasine, diesel fuel, and the remains of rags soaked in oils. This mixture is of different densities. The oil film on the surface was clected with boom barriers and sorbents. Heavy fractions sank to the bottom. There they are very hard to clect. They combine with bottom sediments, phytlankton, and algae. Unfortunately, this fuel oil will resurface during high tides,” she noted.

As Ukrinform reported, on December 15, two Russian oil tankers, Vgoneft-212 and Vgoneft-239, started sinking in the Kerch Strait. The accident was caused by a strong storm. Waves almost broke one of the vessels in half. More than 4,000 tons of fuel oil spilled into the Black Sea.