Captain Waldemar Literski has sailed the Baltic Sea since 2007. During his career, he has seen from a fence what the sea, called the most polluted sea in the world, looks like.
– The water is getting darker, he describes.
During the summer, the poor condition of the water body manifests itself as toxic cyanobacterial rafts.
Eutrophication is caused by extra nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. They end up in the sea from agriculture and forestry, but also from industrial and domestic wastewater and transport.
Shipping is part of the problem.
Approximately 2,000 cargo ships sail in the Baltic Sea every day, with an estimated 25,000 crew effluents discharged mainly into the sea.
The toilet waters of the 16-member crew led by Litersk are also being discharged into the sea.
It is perfectly legal to discharge toilet water into the sea
Approximately 2,500 vessels visit the entire Kotka-Hamina port complex each year, of which only 14 left wastewater last year.
In the previous year, only three vessels did so, despite the fact that the port does not charge shipowners a separate fee for waste water treatment.
In the Baltic Sea area, passenger ships are no longer allowed to discharge sewage into the sea.
There is no similar ban on cargo ships. They can discharge toilet water into the sea 20 kilometers before the beach. It is sufficient that the coincidences in the effluent are comminuted.
If the ship has a water treatment plant that kills coliforms but does not remove the nutrients that cause eutrophication, the toilet water can be discharged even right next to the shore.
The Litersk-led cargo ship has such a wastewater treatment system in place. It discharges a continuous supply of toilet water into the sea, which is disinfected and chopped but still contains nutrients.
– We can’t collect toilet water. There is no tank on it, Captain Literski explains.
The ship collects and discharges gray water, ie wastewater generated in washing, dishwashing and laundry, ashore in the port.
The majority of cargo ships do not compare either.
Outdated technology and old-fashioned attitudes
– There is a perception of the sea as a huge rubbish among seafarers, but attitudes are changing.
That’s what he says Elisa Mikkolainen Baltic Sea Action Group Foundation.
– Many ships are basically built so that the wastewater goes to sea, he adds.
According to Mikkolainen, in addition to the lack of information and old technology, there are many other reasons for dumping waste at sea.
According to him, international shipping companies may not know that they can leave toilet waste in the Baltic Sea port free of charge.
Ships are also working to operate in port as quickly as possible, and it is feared that unloading waste will take time. Standing by a large ship can cost thousands of euros an hour.
In addition, there are technical shortcomings. Many cargo ships do not have the capacity to store wastewater or have fixed sewers in ports to receive it.
UPM is leading the change, Russia is rubbing against
The problem of maritime waste water can be solved in at least two ways: companies can start discharging waste water on land voluntarily, or regulations need to be tightened.
Changing the laws would require the support of at least all the countries around the Baltic Sea. Recently, co-operation with Russia has not seemed possible.
Forest industry company UPM, on the other hand, said on Wednesday that all its cargo vessels will continue to discharge their wastewater on land. In addition, the company says the nutrients in the wastewater will be diverted for future use.
The Baltic Sea Foundation BSAG is currently investigating how much toilet water and greywater are released from cargo ships and how much nutrients the waters contain.
Based on the findings, it can be assessed whether the discharge of toilet water, greywater and food waste should also be restricted for cargo ships.
The water in the Baltic Sea is changing slowly
The state of the Baltic Sea is already much better than it was in the 1980s.
The amount of phosphorus discharged into the sea has been reduced by up to 60 percent in 40 years.
For example, a specialist researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute Seppo Knuutilan according to which the slogan of the Baltic Sea as the most polluted sea in the world could already be abandoned.
According to Knuutila, the discharge of nutrients into the sea has been reduced, but the load accumulated over the decades will strain its ecosystem for a long time to come.
This is also what the captain of the cargo ship, Waldemar Literski, thinks.
– The Baltic Sea is almost like an indoor pool. Everything that counts there stays there.
Therefore, nutrient emissions should be kept to a minimum.
The driver of the truck has also been interviewed for the story Sauli HeijariaHamina – Kotka Port Development Manager Summer-Wind LappishUPM’s Vice President, Corporate Responsibility Sami LundgreniaA leading expert from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency About Anita MäkkiGAC Finland’s ship broker Johnny from Ulm and the chief engineer officer of a cargo ship Volodymyr Yurkevychia.
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