Superfast Ferries prepares to dispose of wastewater into sewage system on land

Shipping lines reassess wastewater policy after Tallink controversy

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The Greek-owned shipping company Superfast Ferries, which operates between Hanko on the southwest tip of Finland and the German port city of Rostock, is examining the possibilities of disposing of its wastewater on land.
      The move was prompted by the controversy surrounding the revelation that the Tallink shipping line has dumped its treated wastewater at sea. After a public outcry and a threat of a passenger boycott, Tallink announced that in the future it would dispose of its wastewater by pumping it into the city sewage systems of Helsinki and Stockholm.
      Kielo Vesikko of Superfast Ferries defends the sewage treatment practices of the shipping line’s three vessels that serve Finland.
      "Our biological treatment facility is completely lawful as it now stands. Nevertheless, we are monitoring the situation, because the issue is a sensitive one. We are trying to operate in as environmentally friendly a manner as possible."
      Vesikko emphasises that the ferries have not dumped raw sewage into the Baltic Sea. On Superfast Ferries, chemicals are added to waste water from the ships’ toilets, and the effluent is pumped into the sea after the treatment. The weakness of the method is that it does not eliminate nitrogen and phosphorous compounds, which are major contributors to eutrophication in the land-locked Baltic Sea.
     
The Tallink wastewater controversy is set to continue; the newspaper Nya Åland writes in its Friday edition that the company had deceived officials in the semi-autonomous Åland Islands into giving them an exemption from wastewater disposal fees.
      According to the newspaper’s story, Tallink had applied for the exemption, saying that its ships that stop in Åland unload their wastewater into the sewage system of Stockholm. However, the paper writes that officials at the Port of Stockholm did not know of any such arrangement.
      The Tallink application was for the ships Regina Baltica and Victoria 1, which operate a route between Tallinn, the Åland capital Mariehamn, and Stockholm. The Victoria 1 has been chartered by supporters of the re-election of President Tarja Halonen for a cruise to launch her Presidential campaign.
     
The Finnlines shipping line, which operates ships that take both passengers and cargo, has different procedures for the archipelago area and for the open sea in the Baltic. With ships operating between Naantali on the west coast of Finland and Kapellskär in Sweden, wastewater is taken away from the ships in tank trucks to a sewage treatment plant.
      On routes in the open sea, the wastewater is treated in the ships’ on-board biological treatment facilities, and surplus wastewater is dumped overboard in areas far away from the Gulf of Finland.
      Jan-Eric Dahlberg, the head of security at Finnlines, says that there are plans to switch to the use of land-based municipal sewage services.
      "However, the numbers of passengers that we have is small - a maximum of 114 people", Dahlberg points out.
     
Sewage emissions of passenger ships are no small matter, says Seppo Knuuttila, limnologist at the Finnish Environment institute.
      "Toilet emissions of passenger vessels are greater than the nitrogen and phosphorous output of the cities of Kotka and Porvoo combined. Everything that can be removed must be removed."
      Tapani Korhonen, who works with international affairs at the Ministry of the Environment, says that the controversy surfaced at a good time.
      "The matter will certainly emerge on Wednesday next week, when the environment ministers of the Baltic Sea countries hold a meeting in Stockholm to discuss the protection of the Baltic."
      Korhonen feels that the Baltic Sea should be declared an especially sensitive marine area.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Tallink vessel pumps wastewater into City of Helsinki's sewer system (16.11.2005)
  Tallink ships still discharging sewage into Baltic Sea (14.11.2005)
  Bottom of Gulf of Finland remains in poor condition (22.8.2005)

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