Bulgaria’s government: No excessive pollution of Bulgarian Black Sea after Kakhovka dam destruction
There is no data indicating excessive pollution of the Bulgarian Black Sea following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Ukraine, the Bulgarian government media service said on June 10, four days after the dam was breached.
The statement said that this was shown by data from enhanced monitoring ordered on June 8 by Environment Minister Julian Popov in response to the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
The monitoring is following the potential impact of the waters along the course of the Dnipro River on the Black Sea. To date, no excesses have been found in any of the studied indicators – oil products, metals, and the radionuclides caesium-37 and tritium.
Contamination had been found in the Odesa region. The Environment Ministry has assigned mathematical modelling of the potential spread of the stain to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
There are no data on pollution in the vicinity of Romania and Moldova either, the statement said. The Environment Ministry had requested official information and data on the state of the environmental components on the territory of those two countries.
“The Ministry of Tourism confirms that all Bulgarian Black Sea beaches are clean and safe for tourists,” the statement said.
The Environment Ministry, the Black Sea Region Basin Directorate in Varna, the Environmental Executive Agency (EEA) and the regional administration of the Varna region are ready to respond promptly to any potential alarming situation related to the pollution of the Bulgarian coastal sea waters, the statement said.
The government statement came a day after, as The Sofia Globe reported, the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) annual report on the quality of bathing waters in the EU, which showed that Bulgaria recorded its highest number of coastal bathing waters meeting the “excellent quality” standards in 2022.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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