VTT reports on emissions from ships in Baltic

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Ships sailing the Baltic Sea emit almost as much phosphorous as four Finnish coastal cities - Hamina, Kotka, Porvoo, and Espoo - combined.
      According to a report by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), nitrogen emissions from ships are smaller than those of the four cities mentioned.
     
In a report on the impact of nutrients from waste water from ships on the Baltic Sea, VTT concludes that ships account for 0.05 per cent of nitrogen flowing into the sea. The proportion of ships’ phosphorous emissions in the total phosphorous input was 0.5 per cent.
      "Emissions from ships are not significant if they are compared with the total burden on the Baltic Sea, but because the situation in the Baltic is fairly poor, even a small load of waste water has an impact", says researcher Hanna-Kaisa Huhta of VTT.
      The VTT study examines the so-called worst theoretical situation possible, in which all waste water from ships would be dumped untreated into the sea. Large passenger shipping lines, such as Viking Line, Tallink Silja, Eckerö Line, and Superfast Ferries report that they now pump their sewage into drains at harbours.
      "It is hard to get information on the real situation, because shipping companies do not want to disclose the amounts of waste water they put out. Not a single freight shipping line would answer our inquiries. Harbours have also not said anything about the amounts of sewage they have taken in."
      The answers suggest that the amounts of sewage left by ships in Finnish harbours are fairly small. On the other hand, compared with previous studies, harbours appear to have invested more in facilities to unload ships’ sewage and waste water.
      "Unfortunately, the response rate was not very high, so the results can be seen mainly as showing a trend, at best", Huhta laments.
     
The results of the study will be utilised when the countries of the Baltic Sea region consider whether or not to implement tougher demands on emissions to protect the Baltic.
      Finland feels that present regulations are insufficient to protect the threatened inland sea, an enclosed area that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of excessive nutrients.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Superfast Ferries prepares to dispose of wastewater into sewage system on land (18.11.2005)
  Finland wants tighter restrictions on vessel emissions (24.11.2005)

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