Experience of SUE «Vodokanal of St. Petersburg» in eliminating HELCOM hot spots in the light of the development of the Russian environmental legislation

Summary

The activities implemented by SUE «Vodokanal of St. Petersburg» to fulfill the recommendations of the Helsinki Convention on the protection of the Baltic Sea against pollution are outlined. The work completion stages on eliminating the discharge of raw wastewater into the Gulf of Finland, upgrading and reconstructing the treatment facilities, and improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment are described. The measures taken provided for almost eliminating all the hot spots identified by the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) for St. Petersburg. A comparison of the HELCOM strategy and the progress in developing the Russian environmental legislation is given. The experience of the enterprise in wastewater sludge handling in the light of the implementation of the HELCOM recommendations and Russian legislation is presented. Information is provided on the development of the European legislation in relation to the utilization of useful properties of municipal wastewater sludge. Development patterns are proposed to improve the Russian legislation regarding municipal wastewater sludge handling in order to avoid the emergence of new hot spots.

Key words

HELCOM recommendations , biogenic elements , chemical precipitation of phosphorus , sludge incineration plant , best available techniques (BAT) , technologically regulated substances , hot spots (subspots) , eutrophication , Helsinki Convention , Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) , wastewater sludge handling , nutrients recycling , utilization of the useful sludge properties , recoverable resources , sideline products , circular economy

Experience in the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment facilities operated by MUE Teplovodokanal of Pushchino

Summary

In the early 1990s, after the introduction of new regulations for the quality of effluent, as well as due to a significant reduction in the available funding for water supply and wastewater disposal facilities, a tendency arose of a widespread violation of the requirements to the quality of wastewater treatment in the context of the impossibility of improving the situation. With the resumption of the economic growth at the beginning of the 21^st century, Russia began to allocate public funds for the reconstruction of large-scale treatment facilities in order to provide for the required level of wastewater treatment by way of retrofitting advanced technologies. The access to financing for the reconstruction of wastewater treatment facilities is possible on the condition that the full-fledged project documentation that has passed the state expert appraisal is available. The experience of reconstructing small-scale wastewater treatment facilities in Pushchino that failed to be included into any budget financing program, is described. With the support and recommendations of relevant organizations and specialists, a list of measures was compiled for the stage-by-stage improvement of the wastewater treatment technology, taking into account the available funding. One of the first stages while implementing the measures was the introduction of the advanced technology for the biological removal of nutrients with the allocation of anaerobic and anoxic zones in traditional aeration tanks with mechanical activated sludge mixing. Russian-made vertical hyperbolic mixers were chosen as mixing devices. After the reconstruction of the first block of aeration tanks combined with the installation of mixers directly by the equipment supplier, the first positive results were obtained, i. e., the achieved indicators for organic substances and nitrogen group compounds were better than the required ones.

Key words

energy efficiency , sewerage treatment facilities , wastewater biological treatment , best available techniques (BAT) , hyperbolic mixer

Aspects of adoption of the technologic regulation of surface runoff discharge

Summary

Topical issues are discussed related to the regulation of surface runoff discharge into water bodies that arose in connection with the implementation of 219-FZ Federal Law «On amending Federal Law «On environmental protection» and separate enactments of the Russian Federation» in the process of adopting the process parameters of the best available techniques as the basis of the federal regulation of the environmental intrusions of the business activities instead of the existing principles based on the standard quality of fishery waters. The list and values of the process parameters of the best available techniques of surface runoff treatment set in «ITS 10-2015. Wastewater treatment with the use of public wastewater disposal systems of communities, urban districts» with account of the actual environmental conditions of the water bodies that receive discharges is presented. The list of the statutory and regulatory enactments currently under development is also presented alongside with the recommendations of the RF Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of February 5, 2018 that shall be followed during the transition period in the process of designing, constructing and upgrading the treatment facilities operated by the organizations that provide for wastewater disposal of settlements including public storm water drainage systems classified as I or II category projects (in case of applying for a complex ecological permit).

Key words

surface runoff , permissible discharge limit (PDL) , best available techniques (BAT) , best available techniques (BAT) , operating standards