HELCOM is set to announce the recovery of several pollution hot spots in the Baltic Sea area

Helsinki, 15 May (HELCOM Information Service) – The HELCOM Land-based Pollution Group (HELCOM LAND) will convene its 14th regular Meeting on 18-20 May in Dessau, Germany, to discuss further actions to combat eutrophication and reduce pollution of hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea.

A key part of the Agenda will be discussions on how to facilitate and make more effective actions to limit emissions and discharges from land-based sources within the provisions of the Baltic Sea Action Plan which has recently been adopted by HELCOM to cease excessive pollution inputs to the sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021. “Experts will particularly review the elaboration of a comprehensive list of municipal wastewater treatment plants and agricultural farms, not complying with current HELCOM pollution regulations and requiring remedial actions,” says Mikhail Durkin, Professional Secretary at HELCOM. “The Meeting will also discuss the role and input of the LAND Group to the preparation of the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting to be held in Moscow in 2010, where the coastal countries will present their national implementation programmes to achieve the objectives of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan”.  

The continuing recovery of major pollution hot spots in the Baltic Sea coastal countries will be also high on the Agenda. The Meeting is expected to consider the removal of five hot spots/sub-hot spots from the list of the Baltic Sea’s most significant pollution sources. Among them are Hot Spot No. 55 „Panevėžys wastewater treatment plant”, and four 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, Repino and Kronstadt.

The Hot Spots List of the most significant point sources of pollution around the Baltic Sea was first drawn up under the HELCOM Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme (JCP) in 1992. The hot spots were designated by an international group of scientists, engineers, environmental managers, financers and government representatives, according to practical economic considerations as well as the seriousness of their impact on the environment and human health.

The JCP programme aims to facilitate the implementation of pollution reduction measures at the most polluted sites in the Baltic Sea catchment area. This programme, which should be completed by 2012 at the latest, specifies a series of actions to be undertaken at pollution hot spots. The most notorious hot spots are point sources such as municipal facilities and industrial plants; however, the programme also covers pollution from agricultural areas and rural settlements, as well as sensitive areas where special environmental measures are needed, such as coastal lagoons and wetlands.

Certain hot spots have been split into sub-hot spots in order to facilitate their management and actions to reduce pollution. Currently, a total of 79 hot spots and sub-hot spots remain on the list, following the deletion of 83 of the earlier identified 162 hot spots/sub-hot spots.

Alleviating pollution at hot spots involves considerable investments. In 1992, it was estimated that total funding of ECU 18 billion would be needed to finance the necessary measures at all the hot spots. Rough current estimates of the total clean up costs for the remaining hot spots amount to EUR 9-11 billion.

Investments and remediation projects carried out at pollution hot spots around the Baltic Sea have contributed substantially towards overall pollution load reductions in the Baltic Sea catchment area. Water quality in many coastal waters of the Baltic Sea has improved considerably since 1992, reflecting welcome progress in the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater. 

While pollution loads from municipal point sources are constantly diminishing and number of respective ‘hot spots’ is reduced every year, agriculture remains a major source of nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea. Intensified development of industrial production of cattle, pigs and poultry within the Baltic Sea area has led to the creation of a new segment of pollution point sources, contributing significantly to the amount of nutrient loads. 

The Meeting is expected to review several projects dealing with inputs of nutrients and hazardous substances. Among them are two new projects contributing to the Baltic Sea Action Plan: on the assessment of inputs of nutrients from agriculture in Russia’s Kaliningrad and Leningrad Oblast’ (BALTHAZAR), and on the identification of sources of selected hazardous substances and introduction of Whole Effluent Assessment (“Control of Hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea Region – COHIBA”), both launched with financial support of the European Union.

Additionally, the Meeting will discuss information presented by the Secretariat on the HELCOM Project on Screening of occurrences of hazardous substances in marine environment (co-funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers), as well as the outcome of the first expert workshop on the preparation of the holistic assessment on hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea to be elaborated within the HOLAS Project.

The Meeting will be conducted by Mr. Leonid Korovin, the Chairman of HELCOM LAND.

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