by Zinaida Perova, Zinaida Perova, Department of Physics and Mechanics, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University
“The Best European Ecological Project” — this is how international experts refer to the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant (SWTP), which was opened in St. Petersburg on September 22, 2005. But what consequences await it in the future?
Almost a month ago Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and Finnish President Tarja Halonen joined Russian President Vladimir Putin to inaugurate a wastewater treatment plant in St. Petersburg. Putin pledged further cooperation in large international environmental projects after Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko ceremonially pushed the button to turn on the sluices at the facility, which to emphasize the ecological significance of the project, the button was painted green.
Gulf of Finland and the delta of the Neva River — the main water way of St. Petersburg — is a part of the Baltic basin which washes the coast of ten counties. And St. Petersburg discharges one fourth of all the water into the Baltic Sea.
The capacity of the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant allows the discharge of untreated wastewater into the Gulf of Finland to be reduced by about 330,000 cubic meters a day. The SWTP will reduce the annual flow of basic suspended solids into the Gulf of Finland by 21,000 tons, with total phosphorus and nitrogen decreasing by 70 percent (520 and 3,200 tons respectively), and other organic pollutants by 90 percent (14,800 tons). Turning on the SWTP allows to treat up to 87 percent of St. Petersburgâ€TMs effluent.
Construction of the facility started in 1987 but was halted in 1995 due to the financing problems. In December 2002 the project got international investments and the work was resumed. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Nordic Investment Bank were among the chief creditors for the project, more than half of whose financing is coming from loans. The project also includes the facility for burning solid waste left over from the treatment, which is to be completed in 2007.
Although the SWTP was opened with great solemnity, the cityâ€TMs ecologists say the arrival of the new facility has its disadvantages as well as the advantages. Mostly they are connected with the burning of the solid waste. “Such sediment, after certain technological treatment, can serve as a great natural resource for either agricultural needs or as bio fuel. That is the way it is used in Europe, which has stopped using the burning process long ago†, – said Dmitry Artamonov, head of the St. Petersburgâ€TMs Greenpeace office.
The burning process will be not only irrational, but also harmful. Much of the sediment produced in St. Petersburg derives from industrial work, which provides 25 percent of the wastewater to be treated by the plant, fumes from the burning of such sediment increases the risk of cancer, and has a negative impact on human reproductive and immune systems. At the moment St. Petersburg already has one of the highest rates for cancer sufferers in the country.
But the press-center of Vodokanal — the main enterprise which provides St. Petersburg with water and is in charge of the SWTP project — has its own reasons for choosing the burning process as the closing phase of the wastewater treatment. At the moment the wastewater sediment is stored within the bounds of St. Petersburg covering the area of 172 hectares. There are certain judicial and economic reasons which make it impossible to move the sediment out of the city. And burning is the only method among the other world-wide used alternatives which allows significantly cutting down the amount of the sediment. Vodokanal doesnâ€TMt deny the fact that fumes from the burning of sediment contain dangerous compounds, but claims that the fumes are to be treated in a special way so that by the time they get into the atmosphere they wonâ€TMt bring more damage than coal-burning boiler-plants, that provide hot water in the city.
According to a legal decision Vodokanal is supposed to present all the documents concerning the ecological situation after the construction of the burning facility to the experts of St. Petersburgâ€TMs Greenpeace office, who will than carry on an independent ecological expertise and prepare their corrections for the project. Vodokanal seems to be irritated by Greenpeace action as “the governmental expertise also took place†, — said German Vorobiev, the vice-president of Vodokanalâ€TMs Law department. But the matter in hand is ecological, not governmental expertise. And it has to be held according to the “Law of ecological expertise†, not other.
The SWTP is one of the biggest investment projects in Europe, with a significance not only for St. Petersburg but for all the countries in the Baltic region, but no one knows where will pushing the green button lead it.
Fri, Dec 23, 2005
Vision Journal