HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 12/4

Adopted 20 February 1991, having regard to Article 13, Paragraph b) of the Helsinki Convention

This Recommendation supersedes HELCOM Recommendation 7/4.

INDUSTRIAL CONNECTIONS TO MUNICIPAL SEWERAGE NETWORKS

THE COMMISSION,

RECALLING Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, 1974, (Helsinki Convention), in which the Contracting Parties undertake to take all appropriate measures to control and minimize land-based pollution of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area,

RECALLING ALSO that Annex II of the Helsinki Convention defines a list of harmful substances for the purpose of Article 6 of the Convention,

RECOGINIZING that heavy metals and other harmful substances originating from industrial plants and other point sources can not be sufficiently reduced in municipal treatment plants,

DESIRING to limit this pollution,

RECOMMENDS to the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention that:

a)the receiving water must not be harmed by substances persistant, toxic or bioaccumulating from point sources that can not be treated in the municipal sewage treatment plant;

b)before connection to the municipal treatment plant of such waste water a pretreatment utilizing BAT (best available technology) is recommended;

c)the municipal sewage treatment plant must be protected from these substances or other properties that may disturb the processes in the plant or be harmful to the personnel;

d)the quality of the sludge in the sewage treatment plant must not be deteriorated in a way that makes the sludge inappropriate for agricultural use or other purposes in an environmentally sound way;

e)the sewerage system must not be deteriorated due to the content of substances in the effluent water from industries and other point sources;

f)limit values for these substances based on the best available technology should be established separately for industry and other relevant sectors discharging indirectly;

g)industrial connections must be authorized before the connection is made and supervised by authorities thereafter,

RECOMMENDS FURTHER that the actions taken by the Contracting Parties should be reported to the Commission in 1994 and thereafter every three years.