“The remaining pollution cannot have an impact on the health and quality of life of the citizens, unless they eat the fish caught here, which have accumulated toxic pollution, drink the water or swim,” says Ivo Koliņš, head of the Market Research and Analytics Department of the administration.
The implementation of the project “Rehabilitation works of the Karosta Canal of the Port of Liepāja, a historically polluted site” was financed by the Norwegian financial instrument program with the aim of reducing the negative impact on the environment, human health and the ecological state of the Baltic Sea.
The historically polluted sediments were drained and removed by SIA “Eko osta”.
“One black spot in the Baltic Sea has been removed,” says LSEZ manager Uldis Hmieļevskis.
The channel was cleaned in several stages. In the last step, 145 thousand cubic meters of contaminated soil have been physically exhausted, excavated and deposited behind the grooved wall at the disposal site in the eastern part of the canal.
“We are monitoring and watching how the situation develops and improves. We can no longer perceive the Karosta channel as a very big point of pollution,” says U. Hmiełevskis.
Funding for monitoring is provided in the budget of the LSEZ administration.
Part of the pollution is still in the channel, this place still remains on the list of HELCOM (Baltic Sea Environment Protection Commission), so together with Norwegian scientists, what should be done in the next steps is being studied.
Cleaned is the part of the channel that is actively used for the movement of ships and where there is the greatest potential for the further spread of pollution.
A certain amount of pollution remains in places that are not used either for economic activity or for shipping, says I. Koliņš.
A monitoring network has been established, the necessary equipment has been purchased for regular monitoring in the future. Most of the canal contains petroleum products, which degrade by themselves, so the environmental condition in the canal improves.
“A re-assessment of the risks could be carried out in the next three to five years. If the situation has improved, perhaps with small additional escalation works in the territories that are planned to be used for economic activity, it could happen that we are removed from the list of HELCOM hotspots,” he notes.
“There are no more funds for such works.
We are looking at attracting additional public funding, as credit institutions do not finance environmental protection projects.”
By 2035, the environmental condition of the Karosta Canal should meet the standard of the EU directive, which is permissible in such polluted areas.
“There are no such standards in Latvia, we operate with characteristics that are attributed to terrestrial soil pollution, so it was very valuable to adopt the Norwegian experience,” emphasizes I. Koliņš.
Couldn’t the businessmen working on the Karosta Canal write off the environmental damage caused today at the expense of historical pollution? Such concerns were expressed by the residents when they applied to the Liepāja City Council with a collective application, in which they asked not to allow the expansion of the operation of one terminal.
U. Hmielevskis points out that no one can fool around with modern technologies so easily.
“Every pollution that enters the channel is immediately visible very clearly.
Such situations happen from time to time. If it is oil pollution, then the film on the water can be detected with the naked eye, and the State Environmental Service is immediately called and they look for where the pollution came from,” he explains.
If there are separate points of pollution also on land, from where it can spread, but even then the cause can be determined.
