BEST-Project to Protect the Baltic Sea

What happens, when the amount of unclean water ending up to the water treatment plant to be cleaned, increases every year? As the population keeps growing, so does the consumption rate. This leads to a increase in unclean water arriving to the water treatment plants. In recent years, people have started to become more aware about this issue, and noticing that there is growing strain put on water treatment plants. As a result from increased wastewater production, water treatment plants are not able to clean all the water effectively. Impure water is being let back into nature, causing eutrophication.

The Baltic Sea is particularly susceptible to eutrophication, since it is a mix of both freshwater and saltwater, has an average depth of just 54 m, and the rotation of water is poor, due to the Baltic Sea only being connected to other oceans the narrow Danish strait. Eutrophication, meaning the expedited growth of plankton algae, is the biggest challenge the Baltic Sea is facing today. The expedited plankton growth is a result of rising nitrogen and phosphorus levels, which end up in the sea from settlement areas and industrial and farming waste waters.

Support for city water plants treatment plants

BEST (Better Efficiency for Sewage Treatment) is a collaboration between John Nurmen Säätiö, The City of Helsinki, Helsinki Region Environmental Services (HSY) and numerous water treatment plants, countries, cities, universities and expert organisations, with the aim to reduce wastewater emissions in the Baltic Sea. The project started this fall and will go on until the fall of 2020.

The goal of the BEST-project is to provide support for local water treatment plants, that don’t have enough resources to clean the water efficiently for the growing demands. “The poisonous emissions can, in the worst case scenario, destroy the whole treatment plants activated sludge bacterial population, which is what the entire process of biological purification is based on. This has happened before in, for example in Vyborg, where one morning it was discovered that the effectiveness level of the purification had dropped near zero.” Explain the originators of the BEST-project, Marjukka Porvari and Miina Mäki.

The project will implement several experiments in water and food industry destinations, which will shed light into finding future solutions on managing the processes that contribute to excess wastewater emissions. Along with this, there will be investigation into the past and present of wastewater emission handling in the Baltic Sea, and recommendations will be made for improving these processes for the future.

More help is needed for the Baltic Sea

The BEST-project is necessary emergency help in the middle of the Baltic Sea crisis, but taking care of our natural water resources starts from home. The burden of the well-being of our environment should not be left to just the city or water purification plants, but we can offer help with this increasingly difficult task.

We are able to, on an individual level, have an impact on what ends up in our sewer pipes, and through that affect how much wastewater is carried to the water purification plants. By taking care that the amount of organic waste in our pipes is low, we make sure the byproduct hydrogen sulfide levels are also low. This will prolong the lifespan of the pipes in our homes, and also help the environment at the same time.

Sustainability and preventable sewer care are some of ProtectPipe’s core values. ProtectPipe Home’s Microbe Solution is a Finnish, chemical free and ecological solution to all organic waste problems, including bad smells, sewer blockages and insects. ProtectPipe’s microbe solution consists of live microbes, that will eat away all the organic waste (grease, starch, cellulose etc.), leaving behind only water and carbon dioxide. The microbes are completely safe for people, animals and the environment.

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