OREANDA-NEWS. November 8, 2011. Vodokanal of St.Petersburg has finalized the following stage of the large-scale Untreated Wastewater Discharge Closure Program. This allows to carry out treatment of 94% of Saint-Petersburg’s wastewater already, resulting in reduction of environmental load on the Baltic Sea.

At the end of October one of Saint-Petersburg’s largest wastewater treatment plants, the Northern WWTP in the village of Olgino, in the presence of the city governor Mr. Georgy Poltavchenko was connected to the wastewater flows which had previously been treated at the small wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). This allowed to close seven small WWTPs (“Zavodskiye”, "Prigorodniye”, “Pargolovo”, “Torfaniye”, “Pesochniye – Lesniye”, “Pesochniye – Rechniye” and “Osinovaya Rosha”), which were built in the 1970-ies and 1980-ies, and were worn out and outdated. The treatment processes, applied at those plants, did not correspond to the current requirements for wastewater treatment and were an obstacle to fulfilling Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) recommendations for protection of the Baltic Sea. The transfer of wastewater flows from the seven small WWTPs to the Northern WWTP allows to guarantee their treatment in accordance with all the current requirements, including advanced nutrient removal, in particular, phosphorus and nitrogen.

It was at the Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant that the international project “Clean Baltic Sea” was finalized in June 2011 in the presence of Tarja Halonen, the President of Finland, which united the efforts of Vodokanal of St.Petersburg, Finnish Ministry of the Environment, John Nurminen Foundation and the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (SIDA). This project was aimed at implementation of the up-to-date technology of advanced phosphorus removal from wastewater at Saint-Petersburg’s largest wastewater treatment plants.

At the same period of time Vodokanal of St.Petersburg eliminated five untreated wastewater discharges into the water basin of the River Neva, having connected them to the Northern Tunnel Collector. Following the Collector these wastewater flows in the amount of 30 thousand m3 per day are now transported to the Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant. Thus, the Neva and the Baltic Sea were delivered from the annual discharge of 11 million m3 of untreated wastewater.

The closure of the seven small wastewater treatment facilities and connection of the five wastewater discharges to the Northern Tunnel Collector now allows Saint-Petersburg to treat 94% of its wastewater (93% in the beginning of 2011).

The finalization of the next stage of Untreated Wastewater Discharge Closure Program coincided with Vodokanal’s being awarded the prestigious diploma of a finalist of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) competition. SUE “Vodokanal of St.Petersburg" is the first European water company to have become a finalist of EFQM award in the whole history of this award. Before this event in 2010 Vodokanal of St.Petersburg became the winner of the 6th International Tournament for Quality among Central and East European countries. Giving a high score to Vodokanal of St.Petersburg, representatives of the European Foundation for Quality Management also took into consideration Vodokanal’s activities aimed at improving the environmental situation of the Baltic Sea.