Municipal sources

Majority of towns and urban-type communities with the population of 272,400 people are equipped with sewage treatment facilities with mechanical and biological treatment stages. No municipal sewage is discharged directly into Lake Ladoga in the Leningrad region, whereas in Karelia it is a serious ecological problem. The description of pollutants discharged to water objects from municipal sewage treatment facilities is given in Tab. 8.1.

Table 8.1. Description of pollutants

Municipality BODtot, 1,000 ton Oil products, 1,000 ton Suspended matter, 1,000 ton Total phosphorus, 1,000 ton Ammonium nitrogen, 1,000 ton Priozersk 0.06 0 0.06 0.00 70 0.0068 Priozersky district 0.10 0 0.09 0.0140 0.0522 Vsevolozhsk 0.01 0 0.04 0.0003 0.0026 Vsevolozhsk district 0.31 0.01 0.51 0.0150 0.0689 Kirovsk 0.18 0.01 0.22 0.0115 0.0681 Kirovsky district 0.04 0 0.06 0.0043 0.0251 Volkhov 0.14 0.01 0.29 0.0937 0.0278 Volkhovsky district 0.42 0.01 0.39 0.0107 0.0320 Lodejnoe Pole 0.02 0 0.02 0.0025 0.0201 Lodejnopolsky district 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00001 0.0002 Sortavala 0.16 0.001 - 0.0075 0.0173 Lahdenpohsky district 0.21 0.001 - 0.0022 0.0123 Olonetsky district 0.02 0 - 0.0007 0.0055 Pitkarantsky district 0.14 0 - 0.0063 0.0155

Sewage in rural settlements normally goes to collectors or cesspools to be later taken away by cesspool trucks to sewage treatment facilities (STF), or otherwise liquid wastes are used in peat composting (the same pattern is used in numerous areas of small private gardening associations).

The bulk of pollution carried to water objects (rivers and Lake Ladoga) is generated by industrial enterprises (VAZ, Priozersky wood-working factory, Morozov factory, etc.) some of the sewage discharged without treatment. E.g., contaminated sewage discharge into water objects in the skerries region (Sortavala) in 1998 made up about 4.43 mln m³ of which 0.62 mln. m³ were untreated, 3.81 mln. m³ - insufficiently treated. According to generalized data on the Ladoga area districts of Karelia in 1998 discharged into the lake were: oil products - 0.93 t, suspended matter - 93 t, iron - 7.2 t, chlorides - 110 t, nitrogen compounds - 83 t. (tab. 8.1). The ratio between industrial and domestic sewage discharges is 4:1.

Solid domestic wastes are another significant component of the municipalities' effect on the environment (see "Sanitary characteristics of pollution with solid domestic wastes"). With regard to the characteristics and structure of SDW municipalities can be divided into three groups matching the life style (Section "Social and demographic situation. Employment structure"): urban, rural or mixed type.

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