Petroleum Products 5 to 100 Times Above Permissible Level in Sea Off Taman – Experts

KRASNODAR. Nov 20 (Interfax) – The concentration of petroleum products in water samples taken off Taman Peninsula in Russia’s Krasnodar territory following shipwrecks on November 11 exceeds the permissible level by 5 to 100 times, Russia’s industrial safety watchdog Rostekhnadzor said.

“The concentration of petroleum products in the sea water taken on November 15 off Taman Peninsula was five to 100 times above the maximum permissible level. The samples taken on November 12 in the Kerch Strait indicated that the permissible level was exceeded 20 to 200 times, Rostekhnadzor’s North Caucasus department said in a statement, citing Department head Pyotr Yefremov.

But the situation is even worse in individual places off Tuzla Spit, the statement says.

The clean-up operation is being performed by Rostekhandzor experts in conjunction with the territorial department of the environmental protection watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, the emergency situations department, the Krasnodar territorial environmental monitoring department, the Black Sea-Azov technical maritime control department and other agencies.

Twelve ships, among them eight Russian vessels, ran into trouble in a storm in Kerch Strait and in the Black Sea on November 11. Several thousand tonnes of fuel oil and sulfur leaked into the water.

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