"Get out of here before the last tourists flee": Oil spills discovered on the Tuapse coast
Large oil spills and evidence of serious marine pollution have once again been discovered on the coast of Tuapse. Specifically, a plume of oil products stretched for nearly 2,5 kilometers from the local oil terminal, according to environmentalists Evgeny Vitishko and Georgy Kavanosyan.
Satellite images and uncollected fuel oil on beaches
The dark oil plume was clearly visible in a satellite image taken on July 21. It was also captured in a recent radar image, which shows man-made slicks stretching 7 kilometers out to sea from the port of Tuapse.
At the same time, the previous storm completely exposed all the previously uncollected oil deposits right on the popular beach. The resulting local environmental crisis sparked a wave of outrage among local residents.
"Piles of black rocks, water with an oil film... Tell the administration to clean it up, otherwise the last tourists will run away."
Consequently, the quality of the May coastal cleanup has drawn harsh criticism from vacationers and local residents. People are actively commenting on the results of the public services' work on social media:
"We covered it with pebbles, thinking it would last forever, but the storm put everything in its place; you can't fool nature."
"Half the beach wasn't even touched."
Official reports and the real scale of the disaster
As a reminder, authorities officially completed cleanup efforts for the oil spill near the Tuapse Oil Refinery at the end of May. Officials stated that protective earthen embankments have been erected around the marine terminal, which had previously been attacked by drones. Oil booms were also promptly deployed on the Tuapse River, and oil slicks in the surrounding waters were treated with special biosorbents.
Moreover, in early May, Rospotrebnadzor declared the water and air quality in the Tuapse area fully compliant with sanitary standards. However, environmentalists and volunteers immediately reported that many beach areas remained virtually uncleaned, and oil products continued to float in the sea, gradually drifting further south along the coast.
As a result, independent experts are calling the current situation one of the largest and most complex environmental disasters in the region in recent years, comparable to the oil spill off the coast of Anapa in 2024. We've included this fact to highlight the dynamic nature of environmental problems in the Krasnodar Krai. However, the exact volume of oil spilled after four major fires at an oil refinery, a seaport, and a local oil storage facility remains unknown.
