Oil cleanup continues on Kurzeme coast as source remains unknown

Workers are continuing to remove oil pollution from a 30 to 35-kilometre stretch of the Kurzeme coast, but its source has not been identified, LSM reported. The State Environmental Service expects laboratory results in the coming days.

The service is investigating several possibilities: the pollution may have come from a ship, reached the sea from land, or been older contamination carried ashore by wind and currents.

One container ship that entered the Port of Riga is being checked because it may use heavy fuel oil. State Environmental Service deputy director general Evija Šmite said officials expected results from that check on the day of the report. Other possibilities include a source in a port area or historic pollution carried into the sea by a river.

Municipal workers and parish administration staff are helping with the cleanup. The oil has formed small particles mixed with sand, which workers are collecting by hand because mechanical removal is difficult, Ventspils Municipality Council chair Andis Zariņš said.

By the afternoon, about 150 bags of contaminated material mixed with sand had been collected, according to the State Environmental Service. Work was ongoing. Cleanup is easier on sandy stretches and more difficult on rocky parts of the coast, including near Užava.

The State Environmental Service has recorded pollution from Užava to Liepene and also detected a possible slick at sea. Ventspils Municipal Administration previously reported oil pollution along the city’s entire beach and urged residents and visitors not to walk there.