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Description
Liepāja Special Economic Zone Authority project “Purification of the Karosta canal of the historically polluted place of Liepāja port. Phase II ” is implemented with the aim to reduce the negative impact of historically polluted sediments of the Karosta Canal on the environment, human health and the good ecological status of the Baltic Sea. In order to achieve the goal, 145 199 m3 of sediments that do not comply with the legal norms, in which 298 tons of hazardous chemicals have been incorporated, will be removed from the channel bed within the framework of remediation works.
The project is implemented together with the Latvian partner – the association "Baltijas Krasti" and the Norwegian partner – the institute "Norwegian Water Research Institute". The experience of the partners is essential to achieve the project''s objectives, as knowledge transfer is necessary for the success of the project and public awareness activities are needed on the effects of climate change on historically polluted sites and their interaction with human health and marine ecology.
As a result of the project, 68,535 residents of Liepāja city will not be exposed to the risk of historical pollution in the future and the ecological condition of the sea and the quality of the surrounding environment will be significantly improved.
The project will benefit the whole of society by promoting the objectives and actions of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Baltic Sea Action Plan - restoring the good ecological status of the Baltic Sea – ensuring marine ecological diversity and dynamism, cleanliness, health and productivity in marine environments, the environment is used sustainably, preserving the potential for the use of marine waters for this and future generations.
Summary of project results
As historically polluted site of Karosta Canal is unique not only for Latvia, but also for Eastern Baltic Sea region, neither local nor national authorities in Latvia possesses knowledge regarding solving such an environmental problem. While in comparison with Latvian authorities Norway possesses large experience of remediation of historical contamination in a sea environment, including that of development and managing of polluted sediments disposal sites.
Project “Remediation of the historically polluted site at the Liepaja Port Karosta Canal” was implemented with the aim to reduce the negative impact of historically polluted sediments of the Karosta Canal on the environment, human health and the good ecological status of the Baltic Sea. In order to achieve the goal, 145,199 m3 of sediments that do not comply with the legal norms, in which 298 tons of hazardous chemicals have been incorporated, were removed from the channel bed within the framework of remediation works.
The project was implemented together with the Latvian partner – the association "Baltijas Krasti" and the Norwegian partner – the institute "Norwegian Water Research Institute" (NIVA). The experience of the partners was essential to achieve the project''s objectives, as knowledge transfer is necessary for the success of the project and public awareness activities are needed on the effects of climate change on historically polluted sites and their interaction with human health and marine ecology.
As a result of the project, 66,680 residents of Liepāja city will not be exposed to the risk of historical pollution in the future and the ecological condition of the sea and the quality of the surrounding environment will be significantly improved.
The project will benefit to the whole of society by promoting the objectives and actions of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Baltic Sea Action Plan - restoring the good ecological status of the Baltic Sea – ensuring marine ecological diversity and dynamism, cleanliness, health and productivity in marine environment, the environment is used sustainably, preserving the potential for the use of marine waters for this and future generations.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) is Norway''s leading institute for basic and applied marine and freshwater research - research covers a wide range of environmental, climate and resource-related fields. It''s world-class competence is multidisciplinary and wide-ranging scientific activity. It combines research, monitoring, evaluation, problem solving and consulting services at international, national and local levels.Liepaja SEZ Authority, after its long-term experience regarding the implementation of the Liepaja Karosta remediation activities, had concluded that the experience provided by partners - industry professionals is essential for the successful outcome of the project, because the remediation of the Karosta canal is a unique project on a European scale, therefore the project results must comply with good environmental practices in the field of implementation of environmental remediation projects. NIVA has been chosen as a partner precisely because of the institute''s expertise in marine ecology. NIVA shared its experience on Norway''s approach to contaminated sites remediation. Their knowledge, including the development of environmental risk assessments for polluted sites, was shared in 3 sessions. During the project, Liepaja SEZ Authority gained valuable insights into Norway’s approach to developing and managing historically contaminated sediment disposal sites, provided by NIVA as environmental experts.The Liepaja SEZ Authority continued the bilateral cooperation when implementing the Norwegian Financial Instrument 2014–2021 Program’s “Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Environment” Bilateral Cooperation Fund initiative “Elaboration of the feasibility study for the development of the Liepaja port Karosta Canal historically contaminated sediments disposal site” where Norwegian partners NIVA and Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) were involved.