Governor of St.Petersburg feels afraid of allowing Greenpeace to city’s wastewater treatment plants

In September Greenpeace  requested St. Petersburg’s governor Valentina Matvienko to allow Greenpeace experts to go to the largest water treatment plants.  «We consider, that independent  information about wastewaters quality in St. Petersburg and a transparency of the organizations responsible for wastewater treatment are necessary conditions in order to find the solution to eliminate water pollution», - says the letter sent to the governor. In order to estimate the quality of the operation of the treatment plants, Greenpeace  planned to take water samples before treatment and also after the procedure.  Samples were supposed to be analyzed in certified laboratories, so that they could detect the presence of the toxic substances that are the most dangerous to environment and human health, such as phenols, phthalates, brominated flame retardants, organohalogens  heavy metals and to make broader screening for other hazardous substances. The results were supposed, as usual, to be posted in the internet for everyone’s access.

However, City’s Administration bureaucrats have a different idea of what does “clear information” mean. The Committee of Energy and Engineering Maintenance, which is responsible for municipal water treatment company “Vodokanal of St.Petersburg”, replied Greenpeace in a letter that «the transparency of Vodokanal’s activities to all citizens is provided, thanks to their excursions on Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant, and regular appearances on TV, radio and in the printed-media of their representatives». Also from the letter of the Committee, Greenpeace has learned, that «such special information, as the quality of activated sludge formed during treatment processes, is not of the general population’s interest». Actually, what can be really interesting is that they burn hundreds of tons of this toxic substance every day, poisoning St. Petersburg air with dioxins and other toxic chemicals

In spite of the fact that many of the substances that Greenpeace planned to investigate, are forbidden for discharging, researches show their significant concentration in city’s drains. This is no wonder, because many companies discharge their waste waters into general drain without any treatment.

The Committee advised Greenpeace to request Vodokanal`s wastewater monitoring data directly from the company.  At the same time, Greenpeace activists began their preparation for independent sampling from the underwater pipes that goes from the wastewater treatment plants to the Gulf of Finland.

«It is a pity, that authorities wasn’t ready to show some transparency of the Treatment Plant’s work. Everyone understands that the problem with the discharges of industrial waste waters into the Gulf of Finland is real, and the Treatment Plants can’t clean waste waters, that they receive.  Fortunately, the governor can’t stop us taking samples directly from the underwater pipes, which we actually plan to do» - says the head of the Greenpeace branch in St. Petersburg Dmitry Artamonov.

Map of the largest St. Petersburg wastewater treatment plants discharges

Notes to the editor:
Through 3 largest city’s wastewaster treatment plants – the Central aeration station  (island Beliy),  the Northern aeration station  (Ol’gino settlement) and the Southwest wastewaster treatment plant, is annually discharged more than 800 million m3 of sewage, which makes two thirds of all waste waters in St. Petersburg.

In 2008 Greenpeace Research Laboratories based in the Exeter University, UK  had already taken samples and made analyses of water near St. Petersburg Central aeration Station. The results have shown the presence in water of such substances, as chloroform, dichloroethane, phenolics and Phtahalic acids.

At the end of 2008 during a meeting with  Greenpeace representatives , the CEO of Vodokanal, Felix Karmazinov has recognized that the city’s wastewater treatment plants are made for the treatment of municipal waste waters only, and not for industrial wastewaters, and that this problem needs to be solved.