Monitoring of pulp mill effluents in the coastal waters of North Estonia

Abstract

In September 2006, AS Estonian Cell, a brand new aspen pulp mill was opened near Kunda. Partly due to ill memories of past environmental problems in the region, the environmental standards for the plant were set very high. The factory features sulphur free production, chlorine free bleaching and low fresh water consumption. High requirements were put on environmental monitoring. The purified wastewater is conducted via a pipe into the Baltic Sea at a depth of 10 m, about 1.5 km from the coast, and monitoring of the fate and possible effects of the effluents was launched. The monitoring programme includes repeated water and biota samplings and a study of the hydrodynamic regime. It appeared that due to good dilution conditions, the impact of the factory on the abiotic environmental components is barely visible in the background of normal seasonal and storm-generated variability. There may be small changes in bottom organisms in the vicinity of the outlet, though. The preliminary results basically confirm that the impact of the pulp mill on the coastal sea is not large and the environmental risks are generally well handled.

Bayesian inference for oil spill related Net Environmental Benefit Analysis

“…Altogether, 5 measuring sets of multi-layer current dynamics with RDCP has obtained, 2 of them include measurements during extensive upwelling. The first one occurred on July-August 2006 [13,14], and the second one on AugustSeptember 2008. According to MODIS satellite sea surface temperature (SST) images, the upwelling events are more frequent along this relatively straight section of the coast [14].…”

“…The first one occurred on July-August 2006 [13,14], and the second one on AugustSeptember 2008. According to MODIS satellite sea surface temperature (SST) images, the upwelling events are more frequent along this relatively straight section of the coast [14]. However, they are rarely covered by direct measurements of hydrodynamics.…”

Hazardous substances in the water, biota and sediments of the North Estonian coastal sea

“…The circulation scheme in the Gulf of Finland is mostly wind-driven and although certain statistical long-term patterns can be found [16], it is quite variable in time and space. The northern coast of Estonia has a relatively straight coastline where good mixing conditions due to waves and currents prevail [17]. The study area: North Estonian industrial zone and the coastal sea.…”

North-East Estonian coastal sea: recovery from the past anthropogenic pressure and new stressors on the background of natural variability

“…The northern coast of Estonia has relatively straight coastline where good mixing conditions due to waves and currents prevail [10].…”