The work is devoted to the study of the application of snow cover for assessing the ecological condition of the territory near the Ivanovo oil depot. It was found that the COD and BOD values in the melt water samples near the tank farm exceed the background values. The content of phenols in snow water is 4-7 times higher than normal, and the content of oil products at the point in the north of the tank farm exceeds 1.2 times. Identified the elemental content of pollutants in the dust fraction, and a number of accumulations of metals in the thawed water relative to the maximum allowable concentrations. The dust load near the plant is 15.5 times the background level. Evaluation of the toxicity of snow water by the method of biotesting confirms the data of physical and chemical analyses.