Chychkan Gorge. Major Oil Product Spill
The Bishkek-Osh road experiences dozens of ecological disasters every year involving overturned fuel tankers, resulting in hundreds of tons of highly toxic petroleum products: kerosene, fuel oil, gasoline spilled into high-altitude transboundary water intake rivers: Ablu-Naryn-Kara-Baltinka, Chychkan, and cubic meters of contaminated soil with complete destruction of flora and fauna in the tens of meters around.
To eliminate the consequences of pollution, technical reclamation is initially carried out worldwide. The spilled petroleum product is collected from water and soil using sorbents. Contaminated soil is removed and stored at a special technical landfill, while clean soil is placed in the area from which the contaminated soil was extracted. Throughout the entire period of recorded traffic accidents involving fuel tankers on the Bishkek-Osh road, NOT A SINGLE (!) reclamation has been conducted.
High-altitude ecosystems are sensitive to any anthropogenic impact. If they are not cleaned of petroleum products in a timely manner, there will be a severe negative impact on the environment – for decades, remnants of diesel fuel will be washed out by groundwater and oxidized in the soil.
At the same time, specialists note that the ecological damage is unlikely to be fully compensated. This concerns the cleaning of the surface and bottom of rivers, as well as soil remediation. They also point out that the maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in rivers, where petroleum products enter in the event of accidents, can exceed the norm by hundreds of times.
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