Neighbors unify pollution standards

Sep 14, 2000

Estonia has brought its waste water discharge practice into agreement with the Helcom convention on the protection of the maritime environment of the European Union and the Baltic Sea, Environment Ministry deputy chancellor Harry Liiv said. In Russia, very strict Soviet-era regulations are in force, but these are not justified in ecological terms and it is economically impossible to meet them, he said.

"In Russia, for example, the existing standards require purification of cooling water before its discharge into a natural body of water, but Estonian standards do not. But cooling water is so clean that it poses absolutely no danger for the environment," Liiv said.

The Estonian-Russian committee is planning to agree on the adoption of unified criteria in the discharge of waste water into Lake Peipsi and bodies of water in its drainage area.

Liiv said he did not believe the two sides would come to an agreement at the forthcoming session of the committee.

"We will probably have to carry out a joint Estonian-Russian survey in order to establish whether the discharge of cooling water is or is not dangerous to the environment," Liiv said.

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