In June of 2011 the content of phosphorus in
total wastewater discharge of St. Petersburg will
not exceed 0.5 mg/l.
Press release
In June of 2011 the content of phosphorus in total wastewater discharge
of St. Petersburg will not exceed 0.5 mg/l that will enable the city to comply in
full with the new requirements of Baltic Marine Environment Protection
Commission (HELCOM). This was announced today during the pressconference by SUE “Vodokanal of St. Petersburg” Director General, Mr.
Felix Vladimirovich Karmazinov.
SUE “Vodokanal of St. Petersburg” carries out major efforts to prevent the
pollution of the Baltic Sea, including by provision of wastewater treatment level
compliance with the requirements of Baltic Marine Environment Protection
Commission (HELCOM), which are related to reduction of phosphorus and
nitrogen discharge. These are the nutrients that negatively affect the condition of
the Baltic Sea (as far as namely phosphorus and nitrogen provoke the active bloom
of blue-green algae).
Today the technology of phosphorus and nitrogen deep removal is
implemented at all the wastewater treatment plants of the city and it continues to
be improved. The efforts implemented by St. Petersburg in the sphere of the Baltic
Sea ecological situation improvement is highly appreciated by foreign specialists.
In particular, ecologists from Finland during last summer have noted that there
were less of blue-green algae in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea, and associated it
directly with the wastewater treatment situation improvement in St. Petersburg.
And the president of Finland Tarja Halonen during the meeting with the president
of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in autumn of 2010 named the
wastewater treatment in St. Petersburg as “world-class achievement”.
Within the framework of the untreated wastewater discharge closure program
implementation the treatment of 93% of wastewater is provided in St. Petersburg.
For comparison – till 1978 practically all the wastewater of Leningrad (at that
moment – approximately 3.2 million of cubic meters per day) discharged directly
into the Neva and other rivers without any kind of treatment. At the end of 2011
the next stage of the Main Collector extension construction will be finished – with
switching to it of the wastewater direct discharges at Vyborgskaya and
Pirogovskaya embankments. This will provide the treatment of 95% of the
wastewater. The construction of the Main Collector will be finished in 2012, when
the construction of very complex facility – pumping station for wastewater flow
control and auxiliary collectors at Robespierre and Petrogradskaya embankments –
will be finished.
“Thus in 2012 we will treat 96 % of wastewater. And it is very good
performance”, - noted F.V. Karmazinov.
Also till 2015 it is planned to eliminate direct discharges into the Okhta River
district and at Petrogradskaya Storona, to construct new wastewater treatment
plants in Lomonosov and Metallostroy.
During the next years the implementation of wastewater disinfection
technology will be continued (today the disinfection of treated effluent is
performed at South-Western Wastewater Treatment Plant and wastewater
treatment plants in Sestroretsk and Repino).
The same serious attention in St. Petersburg is paid to the quality of potable
water. Mr. Karmazinov exemplified the data of Saint-Petersburg branch of
Rospotrebnadzor, according to which Hepatitis A morbidity reduced in 21 times
since 2004. Namely in 2004 the implementation of potable water disinfection with
UV was launched (by the way, St. Petersburg became the first megalopolis to
disinfect with UV all the potable water). And though such a reduction of Hepatitis
A morbidity was caused due to sanitary-hygienic situation improvement in total,
the additional potable water disinfection played its own role.
Today Vodokanal completely provides the city with assured safe water, in
accordance with all the quality standards. Technologies that are used at water
treatment plants allow managing with any changes in the Neva water – including
seasonal or conditional on freshet period.
At waterworks the water undergoes two-stage disinfection – by sodium
hypochlorite (which has replaced liquid chlorine) and by ultraviolet irradiation.
In case of water quality deterioration in the River Neva there is a provision for
an additional level of treatment – by means of powdered activated carbon. The
carbon «collects» within itself the harmful substances which happened to find
themselves in the Neva. Later this «saturated» carbon either goes through filtration
process or is precipitated in sedimentation tanks. Vodokanal has accumulated the
necessary stock of activated carbon to last for the whole freshet period.
Besides, for the high water period waterworks traditionally increase the
dosage of other chemicals used for water treatment: coagulants, precipitators,
sodium hypochlorite and ammonium sulfate. UV water disinfection is carried out
more intensively.
Meanwhile, the water quality is monitored at all stages – at water intake from
the River Neva (including the implementation of the biological monitoring system
with the help of crayfish), in the process of treatment, at the outlet of waterworks
and at the entrance to houses. The monitoring is carried out not only by
Vodokanal, but also by an independent body – Center for Water Research and
Monitoring, as well as by Saint-Petersburg branch of Rospotrebnadzor.
For the first time in 2010 the daily average water supply to the city was less
than 2 million m3/day – 1 million 995 thous. m³/day. Mr. Felix V. Karmazinov
explained why the reduction of water consumption is beneficial for the Company,
“If the water consumption had been at the same level, the Company would have
had to deploy new water supply and wastewater disposal facilities, increase the
tariffs and, possibly, still suffer from financial deficit. “But today we maintain the
average tariffs for Russia and at the same time carry out a large-scale
reconstruction”, noted the Director General of Vodokanal.
An example of large-scale water supply system reconstruction is the Neva
Water Project, which was launched in February this year. It involves a
reconstruction of the Northern Waterworks on the public-private partnership (PPP)
basis, including the construction of a new water treatment unit with the capacity of
800 thousand m3 of potable water per day.
In the framework of this Project the Government of Saint-Petersburg has
announced an open tender for design, construction, reconstruction and operation of
the Northern Waterworks’ (NW) facilities. The tender manager is Saint-Petersburg
government organization GU “Agency for Strategic Investments”.
The city of Saint-Petersburg and SUE “Vodokanal of Saint-Petersburg” will
sign a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with the tender winner in 2012
for the period of 30 years. The first stage of the tender is the testing of
technologies, offered by the bidders. It is important to have these technologies
tested in various seasons to see if they will be effective in winter, summer and in
the spring and autumn freshet period.
Simultaneously, in the years to come SUE “Vodokanal of Saint-Petersburg” is
planning to carry out reconstruction of the Main Waterworks, involving the
construction of a new water treatment unit with the capacity of 500 thousand
m3/day.
It should be reminded that a new water treatment unit has already been built at
the Southern Waterworks with the capacity of 350 thousand m3/day. It started to
provide the city with water this past winter.
Thus, by 2015-2016 upon completion of reconstruction works at the Northern
and Main Waterworks all potable water supplied to the city will be produced using
the most advanced technological solutions.
For Reference:
For 2010 the average amount of potable water supply to Saint-Petersburg
was 1994.6 thousand m³ per day.
Today the municipal water supply system comprises 9 waterworks, 200
boosting pumping stations, 6518.4 km of water supply networks, 2 sodium
hypochlorite production plants.
The wastewater disposal system comprises 21 wastewater treatment plants,
120 sewage pumping stations, 229.12 km of tunnel collectors, 8099.39 km of
sewage networks and 3 sludge incineration plants.
Information Policy Department
SUE “Vodokanal of Saint-Petersburg”
www.vodokanal.spb.ru