OREANDA-NEWS. On Tuesday, 10 June, the NDEP Steering Group held a meeting in Vodokanal.

Director for Personnel, Safety and Security of Vodokanal St. Petersburg Anatoly K. Kinebas welcomed the audience. He noted important milestones of the cooperation between NDEP and Vodokanal. First of all, it is the construction of South-West Wastewater Treatment Plant, wastewater sludge incineration plants, the Northern Tunnel Collector, reconstruction of Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant. Today, 98.4% of wastewater is treated in St. Petersburg. Vodokanal fully meets HELCOM Recommendations: according to the results of the last year the phosphorus content in the treated effluent was 0.35 mg/l (HELCOM Recommendation - 0.5 mg/l), nitrogen - 9.8 mg/l (HELCOM Recommendation - 10 mg/l). The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership also renders assistance in this work - the small wastewater treatment plants modernization project is being completed now (in Kronstadt, Pushkin, Kolpino and Pontonny).

Vodokanal's plans include the implementation of the monitoring program for hazardous substances in treated effluent in compliance with the HELCOM Recommendation, removal of microplastics from wastewater. For this purpose, wastewater tertiary treatment systems will be introduced to all wastewater treatment plants. Vodokanal is also confronted with the task to implement disinfection of all treated effluent.

Enhancement of the environmental situation in the Neva River and the Baltic Sea depends not only on the quality of wastewater treatment in St.Petersburg. The integrated water system of the North-West Region embraces the Onega Lake, the Ilmen Lake, the Ladoga Lake and their catchment areas. Today, it is necessary to stop untreated wastewater discharges from all the regions that form the Onega Lake and the Ladoga Lake catchment areas.

Under the St. Petersburg Initiative Vodokanal has undertaken a commitment to survey the areas where the sources of negative impact on water bodies are located, as well as to develop recommendations for the selection of effective solutions to improve the environmental situation.

A.K. Kinebas thanked the western partners for their support and expressed hope for further fruitful cooperation.

After the meeting, the participants visited one of the Northern Tunnel Collector facilities - URS Pumping station. The information plate was unveiled in URS territory near the Water Drop Memorial telling that on the 10th of October 2013, the largest environmental project on the Construction of the Northern Tunnel Collector was finished and direct wastewater discharge to the Neva and the Gulf of Finland with total volume of 334,000 m3 per day was closed. The construction of the collector was funded from several sources, among them are the budgets of the Russian Federation and St. Petersburg, Vodokanal own funds and the funds of the international financial institutions including the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership.

During the unveiling ceremony the Chair of NDEP Steering Group Mr. Heinz Olbers thanked Vodokanal for the opportunity to participate in the project and reported that at the Steering Group Meeting of the International Financial Institutions (the founders of NDEP) it was agreed to continue cooperation with Vodokanal.