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INTRODUCTION
Oil contamination of water bodies is usually associated with major accidents with serious consequences for marine ecosystems, such as the Torrey Canyon supertanker accident in 1967, Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1987, the Prestige tanker spill in 2002, and the Deepwater Horizon blowout and subsequent oil spill in 2010. However, inland water bodies are also under pressure due to oil pollution in many instances. Often, marine oil spill accidents reach the shoreline, also polluting associated marshlands (Liu et al. 2012). Basin runoff from industrialized areas also represents an important pathway for hydrocarbons to enter freshwater reservoirs (Colella & D'Orsogna 2014). The number of spills from ageing, ill-maintained or sabotaged pipelines has increased over the world, and places like Arctic Russia have become sites of reoccurring oil pollution (Jernelöv 2010).
Russia contains some of the world's richest freshwater resources. In addition to the enormous reserves of surface water, Russia possesses one of the largest reserves of fuel and energy resources, and remains the world's third largest oil producer, accounting for 12% of global output (BP 2019). The giant West Siberian oil and gas-bearing basin occupies the entire territory of the Tyumen area, as well as overlapping neighboring areas (Soromotin 2011).
Significant ecological consequences from accidental oil spills and chronic contamination by petroleum production are typical for rivers and small water bodies such as lakes, ponds and wetlands within the West Siberian basin, which then lose their recreational value and economic importance (Nikanorov et al. 2015; Vorobiev & Noskov 2015; Moskovchenko & Babushkin 2017). During the period of rapid development of the mining and oil/gas industry during the Soviet era, many believed natural resources were inexhaustible, typified by the popular slogan ‘We can't wait for charity from nature, we must conquer it’ (Gladun & Zakharova 2017). Some oil-producing companies in post-Soviet Russia inherited contaminated lakes in this region, resulting from intensive oil production in the second half of the 20th century. Oil pollution arising from accidental spills and leaks in this era has over time led to the pollution of aquatic bottom sediments.
Cleaning such polluted water bodies remains a challenge (NOAA 2017). Technologies for removing oil from the water surface are well advanced. There are a huge variety of devices and materials used for...