Water sampling near Central waste water treatment plant discharge (Gulf of Finland).
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.