HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 6/7
adopted 13 March 1985, having regard to Article 13, Paragraph b) of the Helsinki Convention
RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING THE TREATMENT OF MUNICIPAL SEWAGE AND INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER*) WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE. REDUCTION OF DISCHARGES OF NUTRIENTS
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 Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Annex III of the Helsinki Convention, in which the Contracting Parties agree to apply an effective treatment of municipal and industrial wastes aimed at the reduction of discharges of organic matter and nutrients to the marine environment,
NOTING the increasing concentrations of nutrients in the marine environment causing negative effects on local ecosystems including eutrophication and oxygen depletion,
RECOGNIZING the importance of discharges of municipal sewage and industrial wastewater as sources of pollution of the marine environment by nutrients,
DESIRING to limit this pollution by an effective treatment of municipal sewage and industrial wastewater,
RECOMMENDS to the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention that:
a) appropriate criteria and measures be applied to sewage discharges in order to control and minimize land-based pollution and eutrophication of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area. In the treatment of the wastewater mechanical, chemical,, biological and other measures, according to the quality of the wastewater, and as required to maintain or improve the quality of the recipient water, shall be applied;
b) where nutrient removal is of primary concern appropriate treatment should be carried out, for example, by replacing or combining biological treatment with chemical precipitation or other methods of equal efficiency; and
c) where nitrogen removal is found more necessary than phosphorus removal, the treatment described above should be replaced by or combined with nitrogen removal methods,
RECOMMENDS FURTHER that the Contracting Parties should report on their national measures taken in accordance with Paragraphs a) - b) above by 1 July 1986, 1988 and 1990, whereafter the reporting takes place in connection with the Pollution Load Compilation. The report should include, if possible, the number of inhabitants in and/or annual volumes of sewage discharges from the referred communities (separate for direct and indirect discharges) having
no sewage treatment,
only mechanical treatment, mechanical and biological treatment, mechanical and chemical treatment, mechanical and biological and chemical treatment, other more advanced treatment,
RECOMMENDS ALSO that the above statements be valid also for external wastewater treatment measures at industries producing wastewaters similar in composition to municipal sewage.
*) in this case industrial wastewater means such water that is in composition similar to municipal sewage