Water transport as element of urban environment protection

The issue of a seaport’s impact on a megacity environment has assumed a polemical character. The Association of Commercial Sea Ports (ASOP) comes up with arguments against the position of Saint-Petersburg Government’s Committee on Natural Recourses, Environment Protection and Safety concerning the port’s negative impact on urban environment.

ASOP experts think it is necessary to consider several factors when evaluating the deterioration of air condition and the impact of different types of transport in Saint-Petersburg.

First of all, the share of each source of air pollution presented by the Committee is not same (see Table 1). Emissions of industry and motor transport account for 95% of air pollution in Saint-Petersburg. So information of the Committee about considerable impact of emissions from ships is not true-to-life.

Table 1.

Besides, ASOP experts pay attention to statistics published on 06.06.2014 at the website of the regional department of the Federal State Statistics Service (see Table 2 and Table 3) according to which the efficiency of purification facilities has decreased by almost 5% over 3 years.

Table 2. Polluting emissions from stationary pollution sources, their purification and recovery in 2011-2013

 Table 3. Cargo turnover of different types of transport in 2011

*- Cargo turnover statistics does not cover railway transport. Russian Railways does not provide information on cargo turnover per constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

ASOP then suggests considering reasonability of certain proposals on reduction of calls to Big Port St. Petersburg and arrangement of berthing facilities outside the city boundaries. A comparison table below based on the official data of Petrostat (About Cargo Turnover) and the Committee on Natural Recourses (About Total Pollution) shows the expected environmental impact of motor transport and maritime transport.

Table 4.

So, ASOP believes that reduction of calls will not lead to considerable decrease of total emissions as no calls at all can, according to the Committee data, decrease total emissions by no more than 4%. Meanwhile, road transportation of cargo to a more distant port will inevitably result in increased emissions from motor transport with west and south-west winds typical for Saint-Petersburg ready to bring them back to the city.

It is impossible not to note the measures undertaken by the shipping industry in order to mitigate the negative impact of polluting emissions. They include the use of the latest grades of fuel, rationing of fuels and lubricants, responsible management focused on timely maintenance, interseasonal stand-by period with shore-power electrification of vessels, designing and construction of vessels with application of the best global practices. Special attention is paid to introduction of technologies ensuring high environmental standards of new vessels, efficiency of engines and the ability to use different types of fuel, state-of-the-art means and systems of exhaust gas purification. Restrictions on sulphur content in ship fuel coming into effect in SECAs from January 1, 2015 set a limit of 0.1%.

“The use of water transport should be promoted in Saint-Petersburg considering the cargo turnover of the shipping transport and the activities aimed at minimization of negative impact on the environment in this sphere as well as water and geographic features of the territory”, ASOP representative told IAA PortNews when commenting on the issue.

The conclusions of the Committee on Natural Recourses about the direct dependence of high NOx concentration in the air of close-to-port residential areas on the port activities contradict to the statistics provided by the Committee itself, ASOP experts note. According to the data of the state institution “Saint-Petersburg Center on Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring” (Saint-Petersburg TsGMS-R), the content of nitrogen dioxide in air around the port was 0.65 MAC (maximum allowable concentration), without the port impact. Basing on the statistics of the Committee, the impact of the entire shipping transport (4%) could raise the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in air to 0.68 MAC, which is within the normal limits.

The results of air quality control along the border of the port’s sanitary protection zone carried out by the accredited testing laboratory centre “Hygienic and Epidemiological Center of Saint-Petersburg” fully refute information on excess nitrogen dioxide concentration zone near the port as it never exceeded 0.32 MAC.

Sofia Vinarova

Photo by Aleksandr Chizhenok

Related link:

Port near city center harms 100,000 residents, Saint-Petersburg authorities say >>>>