New data released on hazardous substances from Kaliningrad to the Baltic Sea

29 August 2014

First major HELCOM monitoring project on hazardous substances in Kaliningrad has been completed and the new results indicate, among others, that several compounds from the eleven HELCOM priority hazardous substances could be detected both in water and sediment.  For example, high levels of a common hygiene product ingredient, nonylphenol, was found both in Kaliningrad waste canal as well as in leachate water from a major landfill.

Most of the HELCOM hazardous substances are not water soluble and therefore attach on solid material and sediment in aquatic environment. In Kaliningrad, the sedimentation takes place in the Curonian Lagoon which remarkably reduces discharge of the substances to the Baltic Sea. Similarly, the hazardous substances leaching from landfills are bound to the nearby sediments thus not released to the sea.

The data has been obtained within the EU-funded HELCOM BASE Project. The project commissioned the screening of the HELCOM hazardous substances in Kaliningrad, first time in the main river of Kaliningrad, as part of a larger effort to improve monitoring in Russia’s regions in the Baltic Sea catchment area. The eleven priority hazardous substances defined by HELCOM are based on their adverse effects: persistence, bio-accumulation and toxicity.

Monitoring, BASE Project summary