Gdansk Basin
Gdansk Basin |
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The Vistula has the second largest drainage basin among the Baltic rivers, equalling 12 percent of the total catchment area of the Baltic Sea. It has a total area of 194 700 km2 (Belarus - 11 600 km2, Poland - 169 100 km2. Slovak Republic - 1 900 km2, Ukraine - I2 600 km2) and is inhabited by 23,8 million people (Belarus 1,1, Poland 20,8, Slovak Republic O,14. Ukraine 1,8 million). It is estimated that the nnnual average (1988-1989) pollution load carried by the Vistula to the Gdansk Bay is about I03 000 tons of BOD, 104 500 tons of tot-N (16.5 percent and 5 800 tons of tot-P (8 percent).
The main cities in the Kaliningrad region are Kaliningrad (408 000 inhabitants), Sovetsk (40 000), and Chernyakhovsk (40 000), all of which have insufficient sewage treatment facilities. The sewage system of Kaliningrad is by far the most important pollution source. About 38 percent of the BOD and 92 percent of total phosphorus discharged from point sources in the region comes from this city. The treatment efficiency of the existing city plant is close to zero.
A major environmental problem is the solid waste disposal site in the city of Kaliningrad. This is a combined open landfill dump for municipal and industrial waste, situated not far from some of the drinking water reservoirs of Kaliningrad. The possibility of water contamination is high.
Along the Polish coast, the largest cities discharging their wastewater directly to the Gdansk Basin are Gdansk (956 000 p.e.) and Gdynia (441 000 p.e.); they are equipped mechanical treatment facilities only. Total annual input to the Baltic Sea from large cities in the early 1990s was some 19 700 tons of BOD7, 3 800 tons of tot-N, and 650 tons of tot-P.
Municipal wastewater is a major problem in the Vistula River basin. The main cities are Warsaw (ca. I 500 000 inhabitants), Bydgoszcz, Torun, Wloclawek, Lublin, Krakow and the Katowice region. In the early 199Os, municipal systems in Poland discharged about 900 000 million m3 of untreated sewage, while about I 400 000 m3 were treated mechanically and/or biologically with an average treatment efficiency of 64, 64, 23 and I7 percent for BOD.5, COD, N, and P respectively. The share of industrial wastewater in total discharges to municipal sewage systems is on the order of 27 percent. In Ukraine, the city of Lvov is a major industrial center and sewage disposal for its 800 000 inhabitants is highly unsatisfactory. Similar concerns may be raised for the city of Brest (280 000 pop.), one of the principal industrial centers of Belarus. In both cities, lack of pretreatment of industrial wastes discharged to municipal sewage systems is a serious problem. Disposal of municipal sludge is one of the critical environmental problems in the Vistula catchment area.
There are approximately 200 major enterprises using water in the Kaliningrad region. Few of these have installed treatment plants, and most of the water used for processing is discharged with little or no treatment. Many industries, especially the smaller ones, discharge their wastewater into the municipal sewage systems. The treatment efficiency of these municipal plants is often even less than those operated by the industries.
The four pulp and paper mills (Kalinigrad Nos.1 and 2, Sovetsk and Neman) constitute a major pollution source which is surpassed only by the sewage system in Kaliningrad city. The problem in all mills is the outdated process technology and the lack of wastewater treatment. It is estimated that their BOD loading is about 55 000 tons and the ammonium nitrogen loading about 3 220 tons per year.
The region has several food processing industries discharging considerable amounts of oxygen-consuming material and nutrients. This is especially serious for the smaller rivers. Several metallic industry plants are located in this area, although discharge figures from these enterprises are sparse and unreliable. The oil bunkering station in Kaliningrad harbour is one of the most serious and well defined pollution problems in the area .
The main source of air pollution in the Kaliningrad region are the pulp and paper mills, power and heating plants, boiler houses and motor vehicle traffic. In 1990, SO2 emissions from the 21 largest enterprises amounted to 53 000 tons.
There are approximately 200 major enterprises using water in the Polish Coast There are several industrial plants located on the Polish coast of the Gdansk Basin: 7 metal works, 1 oil refinery, 3 chemical plants, 11 fish and food processing industries, and 5 energy and harbour installations. One large oil refinery in Gdansk is equipped with complete mechanical, chemical and biological treatment facilities. Total annual input of these plants is some 1 200 tons of BOD7,3 10 tons of tot-P (250 tons from GZNF, Gdansk) and 110 tons of tot-N.
Given the noxious quality of their wastes, the chemical industry as well as the pulp and paper industries are of special concern in the Vistula River basin. Although about 85 percent of wastewater is treated (mostly mechanical; only 5 percent receive chemical treatment and 45 percent biological treatment), these industries discharge large amounts of non-biodegradable substances, such as refractive compounds which are fairly resistant to conventional wastewater treatment processes. The second largest industrial contributor to pollution loads is ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, located mostly in the heavily industrialized Katowice region. Irrespective of insufficient "end-of-pipe" waste treatment installations, this industry will require elimination of outmoded technologies.
In the Ukrainian part of the Vistula River basin, about 12,8 million tons of coal are produced annually in the mines of the Lvov-Wolynsk region. Nearby i n Jaworow, about 7,4 million tons of sulphur ore is mined annually (strip mining and underground melting). Those mining operations, however, are smaller than similar activities elsewhere in Poland (Upper Silesia for black coal, and Tarnobrzeg for sulphur). Mining activities in the Vistula Basin, although located in the upper part of this area, have serious environmental impacts with regard to water quality of nearby rivers, land degradation and air pollution.
In the Kaliningrad region, agriculture is a major source of point and non-point pollution (in 1990, total area of arable land equal to about 382 000 ha). Handling of mineral fertilizers is a major problem. The fertilizer (NPK) application rate in 1990 was on the order of 250 kg/ha. Chemical fertilizers also constituted a serious problem until the recent drop in their use due to price increases. Imperfect storage and handling of manure from dairy, cattle and hog breeding farms are also prevalent in the region. Although a wide range of pesticides have been employed (about 70 different types), their use was restricted to collective farms with sufficient storage facilities (at present, pesticide use has dropped substantially because of price increases).
There is practically no agricultural land draining directly to the Gdansk Basin.
About 62 percent of the nitrogen load from the Vistula River basin comes from non-point sources. Agriculture, of medium to low intensity compared to western European practices, contributes about 50 000 tons N annually. About 20 percent of the agricultural area is pasture. Fertilizer and pesticide application has been about 40 percent less than in western Europe; in the last two years there has been a substantial decrease in their use because of price increases.
The catchment area of the Eastern Gotland Basin is the single largest source of waterborne and airborne municipal, industrial, and agricultural pollution in the Baltic Sea region. In the Polish part of the Vistula River basin alone, pollution sources are found in some 380 urbanized areas, including about 2 500 major industrial plants. Some of the largest deposits of mineral resources in Europe are located ill the upper part of the Vistula River basin (the Upper Silesia region), where increasing development over centuries has created growing pollution problems. About one half of all agricultural land in the Baltic Sea catchment area is also located in this region. High fertilizer application rates could cause nutrient leaching of catastrophic proportions.
Source: The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme. Helsinki, 1993. (Balt. Sea Environ. Proc. No. 48), pp. 3-8 - 3-11
