Some Environmental Consequences of Soil Dumping in the Black Sea as a Result of Dredging Operations in Kerch Strait

Abstract

The results of monitoring performed by Southern Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (YugNIRO) in 1990–1998 in the course of dredging operations with dumping in the Black Sea of soils dredged in Kerch Strait are analyzed. The study covered the soil physical properties and particle size distribution; the extent of the soil pollution by heavy metals, oil products, and organochlorine compounds; the amounts of such pollutants delivered into the sea with these soils; the extent of pollution of water and bottom sediment in the zone of soil dumping offshore Kerch Strait. The amounts of pollutants entering the Black Sea as a result of soil dumping are compared with those entering the sea from other pollutant sources, and the extent of environmental pollution in the dumping zone is compared with the background level of the sea pollution. The admissible rates of soil dumping are estimated, and potential consequences of this process are predicted.