In Sevastopol, from May to September, control over compliance with the law on water protection will be strengthened. This was officially reported by the Department of Natural Resources and Ecology of Sevastopol.
During the raids, special attention will be paid to vehicles located in water protection zones not on hard surfaces.
The movement and parking of vehicles outside specially designated areas is contrary to the Water Code, and such actions will be suppressed during joint activities with the police.
This should protect the sea and fresh water bodies from pollution and clogging, and their inhabitants from extinction.
As last year, the main tool for now will not be fines, but warnings. The department promises:
“Penalties will not be applied to citizens who independently stopped the offense and parked the car on an area with a hard surface.”
And yet, the topic of inadmissibility of parking by the sea causes rejection among many motorists. Against the backdrop of blatant examples of construction waste dumps and regular attempts by developers to develop protected zones, claims against cars seem far-fetched and exaggerated to them.
How reasonable are they? ForPost turned to Natalia Milchakova, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Phytoresources of the Federal Research Center “InBYUM RAS”. Journalists of the publication asked the honored ecologist of Russia to explain what real threats a car parked on the beach can pose and how the residents of Sevastopol actually demonstrate concern for the nature of their native city.
Hidden threat
It is generally accepted that the main threats posed by cars are associated with exhaust gases, their oils and fuel – that is, some toxic substances, the danger of which is well known. But after a dialogue with a specialist, it became clear: the problems are both broader and deeper.
“On all sandy beaches there are types of certain psammophytic (from the Greek ψάμμος – sand) vegetation. And the passage of cars not only destroys it, but also violates the integrity of the sand dunes. They are destroyed, and the transfer of sand to the sea increases, especially during storms. That is, even without any spill of fuel and lubricants or other impact, colossal damage is caused simply by wheels and travel,” says Milchakova.
In some coastal areas, the distance between parked cars is no more than a meter during peak periods. As an example of the consequences, the specialist cited the Bakal Spit in the north-west of Crimea, about the threat of extinction of which journalists have been writing since at least 2019.
It is believed that active sand mining played a significant role in this process, but at the same time, hundreds of cars, despite the environmental protection regime of the protected area, continued to drive around the spit.
“If previously the dynamics of sediment in the beach area was seasonal, now the beaches have narrowed so much that in the Nikolaevka area they are essentially non-existent; in the Evpatoria and Sak area they have decreased, as well as in the Anapa area. Why? Because the load from human activity has increased significantly, and the supply of sand from sea biological resources has become significantly less,” the ecologist explained.
Controversial Sevastopol
In our city, over the past few years, the problem of landslides and collapse-dangerous zones has been actively discussed. The state is investing enormous amounts of money in coastal protection programs, but people continue to build houses on coastal areas, which, according to Natalia Milchakova, is a direct path to more landslides, especially in the absence of sewerage.
“The consequences of such activity are already visible on satellite images, and it is possible, for example, to track the subsidence of blocks of the Dzhangul landslide coast on Tarkhankut, where everything has been moved away. In Sevastopol, one can also cite as an example Cape Lucullus behind Andreevka, where spontaneous campsites often form near the cliff. Now you can see large cracks there,” the ecologist emphasized.
Understanding all this, the scientist does not support parking by the sea and advocates strict compliance with environmental legislation.
On the other hand, Natalia Milchakova, known in Sevastopol not only for her scientific but also for her social activities, notes that the residents’ attention to environmental problems has increased noticeably.
“I believe that the activity of the residents of Sevastopol in environmental terms has greatly increased. There is a lot of evidence of this: the protection of Laspi, the Karansky plateau, pistachios near Krugloya Bay. Thanks to the educational activities of scientists and the media, we are among the regions with an active environmental agenda,” added ForPost’s interlocutor.
Indeed, in Sevastopol there are many examples of how residents themselves sounded the alarm over a construction waste dump or the planned development of an area with Red Book trees.
However, examples from last year suggest that inspectors paying attention to cars parked by the sea often face conflicts and angry messages on social networks.
Such is the inconsistency.
Andrey Grinev
