Palm oil emissions have worsened the environmental problem on the Kuban coast.
Local fuel oil spills on the coast in the Temryuk district are being quickly cleaned up by volunteers, but large volumes of palm oil and petroleum products released into the sea create a toxic mixture that poses a serious environmental threat.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," volunteers from the "Dolphins" headquarters reported back in late February that the coast in the village of Volna was polluted by palm oil spills. At the end of May, fresh fuel oil spills were also discovered on the beach in the village of Volna: in one day, volunteers cleaned the beach, collecting over 200 bags of fuel oil-sand mixture.
The coast in the Temryuk district of Kuban has been polluted in recent months not only by fuel oil but also by masses of palm oil that spilled into the sea after a drone attack on Taman port infrastructure. Volunteers have dubbed it "white fuel oil."
None of the volunteers working on the coast in the village of Volna confirmed the existence of any "palm oil plant" in the area. Volunteers and local activists attribute the pollution to the Taman port infrastructure—terminals, warehouses, and tanks where edible oils may have been stored or transshipped.
The oil spills recently discovered on the shore were minor and were "quickly cleaned up," said Alexander Kirpa, coordinator of the "Dolphins" headquarters. "The main problem is palm oil, and we're still cleaning it up. On February 15, there was a drone attack, which presumably damaged a tanker carrying palm oil. It was a very large spill, about the size of a fuel oil tanker," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
One of the volunteers,Grigory, reported that after a drone attack on the night of February 15, "a tanker near the Taman port terminals, which contained large volumes of vegetable oils, was damaged," and some of the contents spilled into the sea. He received this information from port employees with whom he spoke. "At first, it all solidified due to the cold, forming dense white layers. Then they began to mix with sand and residual fuel oil. The result was a heavy, sticky mass that was very difficult to remove," the volunteer explained.
Alexander Kirpa confirmed that by early April, volunteers had collected approximately 200 tons of palm oil from the village of Volna to the Kerch Strait. In total, about ten kilometers of the coastline were contaminated. Zhanna Rybak, a volunteer with the "Sieve Lopata Network" movement who is not currently in the village of Volna, confirmed that the most recent fuel oil spills in the village were localized and have already been cleaned up by volunteers. "In Volna, there were spills over about four kilometers of the coastline, in small scattered spots along the shore. Everything has now been cleaned up," she said. Rybak said it is impossible to determine the source and extent of the new pollution. She doubts the pollution is related to the situation in Tuapse, where an oil spill occurred following the attacks on the oil refinery. "It's unlikely to be from Tuapse, because the slick there has moved in the other direction, toward Sochi. Work is underway on the sunken tankers, and something may be coming from there. It could be related to the tanker that recently leaked a slick toward Anapa, but there's no official information, and no one can say for sure," the volunteer noted.
Ecologists point to the threat of combined pollution
The oil situation in the Black Sea remains unstable, and even after the coastal cleanup, the risk of further spills remains, noted ecologist Igor Shkradyuk.
“Yes, there were oil spills in Volna. Volunteers from the Dolphin headquarters report that they have cleaned up almost everything. But there are still oil spills in the sea, covering hundreds of square kilometers. The wind carries them to the shore. Even if the beach is clean today, there is no guarantee there won't be more spills tomorrow,” the ecologist told a Caucasian Knot correspondent.
Retired long-distance sailor Oleg Ivanovich said that in the past, he had encountered problems with oil spills in the open sea, including off the coast of European countries. "A palm oil spill is less toxic than an oil spill, but it still poses a serious threat to the ecosystem. Palm oil itself is a common edible fat, but when thousands of tons of it spill into the sea, environmental problems arise. In the cold, the fat solidifies into dense clumps, coating the shore, rocks, seaweed, and landing on birds' feathers," he noted.
When palm oil mixes with fuel oil, fuel, and combustion products, it becomes especially dangerous, according to ecologist Valery Brinikh. "Then a toxic mixture forms. It begins to rot, a strong odor develops, birds and marine animals suffer, and the water quality deteriorates," he explained to the "Caucasian Knot."
Contact with such contaminants also poses a risk to humans: skin irritation, headaches, and infections are possible when working without protective equipment. Thus, the Black Sea off the coast of Krasnodar Krai is gradually turning into a zone of mixed pollution, where petroleum products, combustion products, chemical residues, and organic fats are simultaneously present, and the consequences of this combination for marine flora and fauna cannot yet be objectively assessed, the ecologist concluded.
Materials on the consequences of fuel oil spills in the Kerch Strait and Tuapse have been compiled by the "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban." Data on the scale of coastal pollution has been compiled by the "Caucasian Knot" in the reference material "Fuel Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait".