Baltic Hazardous and Agricultural Releases Reduction –

BALTHAZAR - project
2009-2012

Towards enhanced protection of the Baltic Sea from main land-based threats: reducing agricultural nutrient loading and the risk of hazardous wastes

Introduction

The overall objective of the BALTHAZAR project is to promote protection of the Baltic Sea protection from hazardous waste and agricultural nutrient loading. Implementation of this pilot project in Russia facilitates the achievement of the environmental objectives of the hazardous substances and eutrophication segments of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan through assistance to the development of national action plans and prioritization of necessary measures.

The Project aims at reaching this goal by improvement of management of hazardous and agricultural wastes focusing exclusively on St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Kaliningrad Oblasts of the Russian Federation.The project expects to develop comprehensive models to manage hazardous and agricultural waste in Russia as a contribution to the National Implementation Programme for the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. These include designs for pilot cases for investments adapted to a particular local and sectoral legislative framework. The project maintains close dialogue with Russian authorities and stakeholders to ensure applicability of the projects results and the proposed solutions. Feasibility studies for the selected pilot cases will be developed in coordination with both local authorities and potential international financiers.

Target group of the Project include relevant Russian Federal authorities (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Regional Development), regional and municipal authorities within the above territories (Governments of St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Kaliningrad Oblasts), as well as the territorial departments of respective federal services and regional and municipal departments and committees for environmental protection, agriculture, water resources. In addition to authorities, industrial (waste-generating and waste management) and agricultural companies, scientific organisations, environmental NGOs and the general public form the project’s target group.

The Project is managed by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) established in the HELCOM Secretariat. Practical implementation is carried out by the Russian St. Petersburg Public Organisation “Ecology and Business” as the Russian Partner with the help of individually selected consultant consortiums for specific tasks in the two thematic areas of the project.

Two main areas

Knowledge on existence of hazardous waste sources gathered and application in time of technically feasible methods is required to minimize the risk of substances leaking into the environment. There is a need to identify and make an inventory on some of the historic solid waste deposits and landfills which are often abandoned or without ownership. This inventory will provide the basis for the identification of management measures. The project could therefore be continued in a second phase with actions to implement technical improvements on selected sites. See the subpage for in-depth information.  

2. Reducing agricultural nutrient loading to the Baltic Sea

Reducing agricultural nutrient run-off should be targeted at the sources contributing most to the eutrophication, using measures that are cost-effective and socially sustainable. The pilot project will contribute to enhanced dialogue between the environmental and the agricultural sector aiming for improved management. This will be done through campaigns involving environment and agricultural authorities, as well as farmers’ associations and a number of companies in the farming business. In particular, the project will address the opportunity for energy-efficient and eco-friendly manure management including recycling and processing for agricultural hot spots, represented by animal farms for extensive rearing of cattle, poultry and pigs. See the subpage for in-depth information.

Background information on BALTHAZAR project activities

BALTHAZAR, Phase I (2009-2011)

The first Phase of BALTHAZAR Project with 2,5 Million € financing from EU was finalized in June 2011. The activities have contributed to the development of the Russian national programmes for the eutrophication and hazardous substances segments of the BSAP.

As a result, several pilot project proposals were developed for the Leningrad and Kaliningrad Oblasts as well as for the City of St. Petersburg. The pilot projects included both single farm manure management measures with large scale manure management and municipal and district level collaboration for more efficient manure utilization. Within the hazardous waste component the project carried out a contamination study and developed a remediation plan for Ust-Tosno landfill outside St. Petersburg. In Kaliningrad the pilot activities contributed to enhancement of treatment of mercury containing waste (fluorescent lamps). The activities included a pilot on collection of lamps from households in the municipality Gusev as well as an investment in installation for treatment of mercury containing waste close to Kaliningrad city, which is currently the only treatment installation fulfilling Russian and EU environmental requirements.

Balthazar Phase II (2011-2012)

The project continues in a second phase until June 2012 with an additional 1 Million Euro for continued activities. The emphasis in Phase II is on further pilot projects and joint and complementary actions with other projects in the HELCOM framework, such as the Project on Control of hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea region (COHIBA) as well as capacity building in environmental monitoring in cooperation with the Russian-Swedish RUSNIP-project.

It can also be mentioned that the technical documents prepared by Balthazar concerning tunnel composting of manure now has been utilized at a poultry farm in Leningrad Oblast and two units handling 10-15 % of the total amount of manure produced are now operating. Plans for full scale treatment are under investigation.

The activity to tackle the problem with obsolete pesticides found in Kaliningrad region has now developed into an application to the NIB/NEFCO BSAP Fund in order to find a final solution for an environmentally sound destruction of the substances.

Concerning hazardous substances the second Phase aims at sampling and analysis of the 11 HELCOM target substances in selected WWTPs as well as river and coastal waters and sediments in order to complement the studies of concentrations in waste site leachates performed in Phase I. The aim is also to perform some toxicity screening and investigations in order to contribute with similar information collected in other Baltic Sea countries during COHIBA. After a finalized tender procedure the Center for Ecological Safety under the Russian Academy of Sciences has been contracted to carry out the work in cooperation with NILU.

The activities will also contribute to improved reporting for HELCOM Pollution Load Compilations from Russia, especially concerning data on nutrients from diffuse sources. This will contribute to harmonised HELCOM assessments, contributing also to the follow up of the implementation of the BSAP. The task is carried out in close cooperation with the RUSNIP-project. A consortium consisting of EU and Russian experts lead by SYKE was chosen to carry out the activities.

The HELCOM heads of Delegation Meeting in December acknowledged the importance of the project activities in implementation of the HELCOM BSAP in Russia by e.g. by performing screening activities of sources of hazardous substances in order to enable a complete picture in the whole Baltic Sea region as a complement of the activities in the COHIBA-project and enhancing the production of environmental data for HELCOM assessments. The HOD-meeting also emphasized that access to available data is crucial for the project to achieve the planned results and urged all data producers in the project to make all data available within their mandate.

Two pilots are now under development within Phase II:

1. Further development of treatment of mercury containing waste in Kaliningrad. The pilot will build on the experiences in phase I and will extend the public awareness campaigns and collection of waste from households to 3 additional BALTHAZAR pilot municipalities and the city of Kaliningrad in cooperation with a German-Russian project - which is within the frame of the Advisory Assistance Programme of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment - and the Federal Environment Agency, which will effectively cover the majority of the population in the whole Kaliningrad region.

2. The other pilot addresses manure management in both Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions with a view to prepare manure handling plans for 6 pilot farms and investigate suitable best practice options with a view to also disseminate the information and good examples to a larger number of farms in the two regions. The work is fully coordinated and carried out in cooperation with the activity for "Sustainable Manure Management in Animal Farms in the Leningrad Region" jointly initiated by NEFCO, NDEP and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment.

Plans and prospects beyond Balthazar – the BASE Project

HELCOM and EU have signed a contract for a new joint cooperation project – the BASE-PROJECT - with funding from EU utilising the experience and results of the activities by the BALTHAZAR-Project (Phases I and II). The project activities are planned to start after finalization of BALTHAZAR, in June 2012. The budget for the new activity is 2,5 M€.

The new project will go beyond the existing cooperation topics within BALTHAZAR and will address three priority areas of the HELCOM BSAP: eutrophication, hazardous substances, and biodiversity and nature protection, as well as monitoring activities to support and measure the implementation progress within the above-mentioned segments.

A Project Steering Group, as was the case for the BALTHAZAR Project, will be formed to guide and steer the implementation of the project. The PSG will consist of e.g. representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, governments of the target regions, institutions responsible for monitoring and assessments as well as representatives of IFIs, including the BSAP Task Fund in order to ensure the coordination with other related investment activities and programmes.

The activities give a good opportunity to harmonise methods for assessments throughout the Baltic Sea region and implementation of pilot activities in Russia taking into account both Russian and EU best practices and requirements. This will be ensured by the involvement of both EU and Russian expertise in the different tasks. The progress of activities will be regularly reported to the PSG and the HELCOM Heads of Delegation (HOD) for follow-up and to ensure the relevance of the planned activities to both the related HELCOM work and programmes in Russia. The activities will also be presented to HELCOM working groups (The Monitoring and assessment group, HELCOM MONAS, the Land-based Pollution Group, HELCOM LAND and the Nature Protection and Biodiversity Group, HELCOM HABITAT in order to ensure coordination and consistency with HELCOM expert work at regional level.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Kaj Forsius
Project Manager (BALTHAZAR)
Phone: +358 46 850 9212
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645
email: kaj.forsius@helcom.fi

Ms. Johanna Hiltunen
Financial Project Officer (BALTHAZAR)
Phone: +358 40 162 1745

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645
email: johanna.hiltunen@helcom.fi

Mr. Leonid Korovin
St. Petersburg Public Ogzanization "Ecology and Business"
Phone: +7 812 430 6860
Fax: +7 812 430 9305
email: korovinl@helcom.ru

Ms. Ekaterina Vorobyeva
St. Petersburg Public Ogzanization "Ecology and Business"
Phone: +7 812 430 6860
Fax: +7 812 430 9305
email: vorobyeva@helcom.ru

The project is closely coordinated with the Swedish financed RUSNIP project with a focus on facilitating the development of the  Russian national implementation plan (NIP) for the eutrophication segment of HELCOM BSAP. The RUSNIP project report on the website of Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) can be viewed through this link.