HELCOM set to unveil data indicating a substantial reduction of pollution loads to the Baltic

Helsinki, 5 June (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) will convene its 28th Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 9-10 June in Helsinki to review the activities of all HELCOM Subsidiary Groups, and to discuss working programmes, intersessional work and ongoing projects.

The implementation of the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to drastically reduce pollution to the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021 will be the topmost issue on the Agenda of the Meeting. The Heads of Delegation will consider the latest scientific data on the development of pollution loads from each of the Baltic Sea coastal countries. The country-wise nutrient loading information is needed to update the nutrient reduction targets of the Baltic Sea Action Plan, and the Meeting is expected to review the status of this work.

”According to the latest findings of the HELCOM PLC-5 Project the total inputs of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), responsible for the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, have decreased between 1990 and 2006,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “Nearly all countries have been able to reduce their loads, some of them significantly. In addition to the waterborne nutrient loads, also the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen has decreased between 1997-2003 and 2000-2006.” HELCOM’s integrated assessment of eutrophication in the Baltic Sea published in March 2009 also revealed that although the nutrient loads are declining the overall eutrophication status of the Baltic remains unacceptable.

“The meeting will also consider progress in the production of a holistic assessment of the status of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea which is to be presented at the 2010 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting as background material for taking actions to restore the good status of the marine environment, says Maria Laamanen, Professional Secretary at HELCOM. “Similarly, the meeting will discuss the development of a HELCOM Core Set of indicators for measuring progress towards the environmental targets agreed in the Baltic Sea Action Plan.”

The Russian delegation is expected to announce the date of the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting, which will be held next year in Moscow. This Ministerial Meeting is considered a landmark event which will catalyze national commitments and launch full-scale actions towards the restoration of the Baltic marine environment. At the Ministerial Meeting the HELCOM Member States will present their National Implementation Programmes to achieve the objectives of the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation is expected to approve the deletion of four major municipal pollution hot spots from the HELCOM list of the Baltic Sea’s most significant pollution sources. Among the recovered hot spots are Hot Spot No.55 „Panevėžys wastewater treatment plant” in Lithuania, and three sub-hot spots under Hot Spot No.18 in St. Petersburg’s area, including the St. Petersburg South-West Wastewater Treatment Plant, and WWTPs in Pontonny and Repino. “All these plants have made major investments in wastewater treatment techniques resulting in a significant reduction of pollution inputs to the Baltic Sea, says Mikhail Durkin, HELCOM’s Professional Secretary for land-based pollution. “The environmental recovery of these hot spots, estimated at more than 200 million Euros, will prevent hundreds of tonnes of phosphorus to be discharged into the Baltic Sea.”

The Meeting will also adopt the Criteria for a new category of HELCOM hot spots, which are represented by large industrial installations for intensive pig, cattle and poultry production, not yet fulfilling the requirements of the Helsinki Convention (1992) for prevention of pollution from agriculture. Agriculture remains a major source of nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea. The new list of agricultural hot spots, which will identify most critical sites releasing extensive amounts of nutrients into the Baltic, is expected to be established by the end of 2009. Alongside with the list, the programme of remediation measures to cope with nutrient inputs from agricultural hot spots will be established and implemented using both national and external financing instruments. Additionally, the Meeting will further discuss the elaboration of efficiency requirements and emission limit values for dioxins releases from small scale combustion.

The Meeting is expected to decide on the development of action plans for top 21 passenger ports in the Baltic to upgrade their reception facilities for sewage from ships. The facilities for sewage delivery in the Baltic Sea ports will need to be improved as HELCOM countries are going to propose to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to strengthen the global legislation on discharge of sewage from passenger ships and ferries in sea areas affected by eutrophication such as the Baltic. “The new regulations will trigger a greater demand for port reception facilities as sewage would not be allowed to be discharged without prior highly efficient treatment,” says Monika Stankiewicz, Professional Secretary for maritime and response to oil accidents issues at HELCOM. “The selected ports constitute approximately a 95% share of the total passenger traffic in the Baltic.” The proposal to IMO is being developed by HELCOM as part of the Baltic Sea Action Plan to limit nutrient discharges in sewage from ships. It is to be submitted to the 60th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee by 15 December 2009.

The Meeting is also to support the draft Recommendation on mutual plan for places of refuge, which specifies circumstances under which a shelter could be granted to a ship in a country other than the one where the ship first needed assistance. The Mutual Plan also indicates which international conventions will have to be ratified by all Baltic Sea countries in order to create the harmonized compensation and liability regime in relation to accidents at sea.

The Meeting is also expected to give their principle agreement to the list of chemicals that will not be allowed to be discharged from offshore platforms in the Baltic and will also review the progress in the work of experts on designation of the Baltic Sea as a NOx emission control area under Annex VI to MARPOL 73/78.

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation will take place at the premises of the HELCOM Secretariat in Helsinki. It will be opened by the Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Mr. Igor Maydanov.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary

HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi