HELCOM to call for an international ban on sewage discharges in the Baltic

Helsinki, 24 November (HELCOM Information Service) – The HELCOM Member States will submit a proposal to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to designate the Baltic Sea as a special area where untreated sewage discharges from passenger ships and ferries would be totally banned. This initiative is part of the strategic HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to drastically reduce pollution into the sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021.

The Meeting of the HELCOM Maritime Group held on 18-20 November in St. Petersburg agreed on the content of the joint proposal to the upcoming 59^th session of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 59) to revise sewage discharge regulations in Annex IV of the MARPOL 73/78 Convention in order to introduce the concept of a special area for sewage. Today, there is no such provision under the Convention for designating a sea as a special area with a total ban on sewage discharges from shipping.  

“Currently, international regulations do not contain requirements to remove nutrients from ships’ sewage prior to discharge into the sea,” says Monika Stankiewicz, Professional Secretary for maritime and response issues at HELCOM. “According to the HELCOM proposal any discharge into the sea of sewage from a passenger ship would be prohibited while sailing in a special area except when the ship has in operation an approved sewage treatment plant enabling reduction of the nutrient concentrations in the sewage effluent to a certain level. Optionally sewage could be delivered to port reception facilities.”

The Meeting of the HELCOM Maritime Group also agreed, in principle, to submit to IMO a proposal to designate the Baltic Sea as a nitrogen oxide (NOx) Emission Control Area (NECA) under the revised Annex VI of the MARPOL 73/78 Convention, with tighter atmospheric emission restrictions. “According to the most recent studies, tighter NECA restrictions, requiring an 80% reduction of emissions from marine diesel engines installed on ships on or after 1 January 2016, would reverse the increasing trend of NOx emissions in the Baltic Sea in the long run,” explains Stankiewicz. HELCOM countries are planning to make this submission in 2010. 

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is one of the main contributors to the high nutrient concentrations that stimulate massive algae blooms in the Baltic. The most recent calculations identify shipping as the largest contributor to atmospheric nitrogen oxide deposition to the Baltic Sea with a share of 16%. However, the contribution can reach up to 50% in some areas and seasons. The total NOx emission from ships in the Baltic is estimated at more than 370 kilotons in 2006 and 400 kilotons in 2007. The estimate is based on information from the HELCOM Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring ship traffic in the Baltic Sea and is verified against information on fuel consumption obtained from shipping companies and measurements of air quality near fairways.

The NOx emissions from shipping in Finnish waters alone are higher than emissions from Finnish land-based traffic. On the Baltic Sea scale, the emissions from shipping are comparable to the combined land-based NOx emissions from Denmark and Sweden. Most of this emission is concentrated on the southern part of the Baltic Sea, around the Danish straits and the Kiel Canal where shipping is intense, but significant emissions can also be seen throughout the Gulf of Finland.

The Baltic Sea has already been the first to establish a special sulphur oxide (SOx) Emission Control Area (SECA). In a recent submission to IMO, HELCOM has reported the positive experience in implementing the world’s strictest regulations limiting the sulphur content of bunker fuel in a busy shipping area like the Baltic Sea.

Note to Editors:

The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between the countries bordering the sea - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and also the European Community.  

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

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Monika Stankiewicz

Professional Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 643

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: monika.stankiewicz@helcom.fi

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi