Wastewater treatment in the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Territory
O.V. IL’INA1, V.V. IL’INSKII1, G. GRIMALDI2, B. VAGASCA3, URIBE T. OJEDA4, SALAMANCA A. REYES4
1Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
2University of Bradford, Bradford, Great Britain
3University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
4Agrupaciоn Cultural, Turistica y Medioambiental Mar y Tierra, Hornopiren, Chile
Keywords: Lake Baikal, eutrophication, biological wastewater treatment, effective extraction of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, wastewater treatment regulations
Abstract
Increased concentrations of pollutants in wastewater discharge zones of the Lake Baikal coastal waters and tributaries are detected. Green filamentous algae, an indicator of the local eutrophication, are shown to be present in wastewater discharge zones. The technical parameters of four wastewater treatment facilities located in the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory have been analyzed. The plants do not meet the requirements for key indicators and do not have the technical capacity to improve efficiency. The maximum permissible concentrations are exceeded hundreds of times for a number of parameters. The wastewater standards established for the Baikal Natural Territory are unprecedentedly strict and have no analogues in the world. For their implementation the cleaning efficiency exceeding 98-99 % in some cases must be achieved. The best available technologies allow to reach the efficiency within 85-97 %, but the wastewater treatment facilities under study operate with outdated technologies which are not designed for the extraction of biogenic compounds from wastewater. Since the introduction of regional standards, the plants in question have not come close to their implementation nor have been modernized. The frustrating requirements of regulatory framework presumably hampers the modernization processes. It is proposed to adjust the wastewater treatment standards to the realistic level of values corresponding to those actually achievable when using the best available technologies. The economic capabilities of the region must be taken into account as well. The model testing of adjusted standards should be preceded by the pilot modernization of wastewater treatment technologies.
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