Volunteers from Yamal will land on the uninhabited Vilkitsky Island and will clean it from garbage

 Volunteers from Yamal will land on Vilkitsky Island to clean it from garbage. In July 15 men will arrive to the island to prepare the camp and to evaluate the amount of work and ecological damage. This information was given on the 2nd of June on the briefing by the first deputy director of the department of international and external economic relations of Yamal Sergey Uramayev.

All the volunteers earlier participated in ecological expeditions to Beliy Island and know specifics of work in the Arctic. Among the volunteers there are representatives of oil and gas companies “LUKOIL” and “Transneft”, employees of the Ministry for emergency situations, the public ecological organization “Green Arctic”, two compatriots from Israel and Bulgaria and also representatives of the scientific center for study of the Arctic. The scientists will conduct necessary taking of samples for analysis in order to define the level of pollution on different parts of the island. The preliminary air photography shows that it needs to remove about 800 tonnes of garbage: abandoned constructions, accumulators, parts of machines, casks after fuel and parts of meteorological rockets.
As Sergey Uramayev says, the island is practically uninhabited. Only an automatic station of Roshydromet is situated here. It is difficult to reach the island – it needs to fly by helicopter about 150 kilometers above the sea surface. Practically every kilogram of cargoes counts, as he notes.
The shift will last about 3 weeks. Drinking water has been delivered to the island. There are no own sources of drinking water here. The scientific and research ship “Mikhail Somov” will go from Archangelsk on the 18-20th of June. It will deliver fuel and a diesel electric power unit.
Oil and gas enterprises fulfilling activity in Yamal took obligations on financing. As Sergey Uramayev says, participation in the ecological cleaning of the arctic islands is a voluntary action. “LUKOIL – Western Siberia”, “Transneft”, “Gazprom Neft”, “Gazprom dobycha Noyabrsk” are basic sponsors in 2017.
As we should note, Vilkitsky Island is a desert island located in the east of the Kara Sea, between the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei Bay. It is related to the territory of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Its width is about 9 kilometers, the length is about 18 kilometers (together with Spit Vostochnaya — more than 40 km). The surface is flat, covered with loose sands, on coasts – with driftwood. Tundra vegetation occupied little more than 60 square kilometers. The island was opened in 1874 and received its name in honor of the Russian hydrographer-geodesist.