On Monday, during the official visit to ecological complex at Povenets settlement (Karelia Republic), arranged by Baltic Fuel Company, the Head of the Republic Aleksandr Khudilainen expressed his support to the initiative and promised to draw the attention of the presidential plenipotentiary in the North West District to insufficient legislative control of ecological issues at inland water ways of federal significance and incapability of the federal subject to make independent decisions in this area. “Ship owners should be obliged to dispose of bilge and sanitary sewage waters and obligatory ecological dues should be imposed similar to those in port Saint-Petersburg. I will put this proposal out at the meeting with the presidential plenipotentiary this Wednesday,” Aleksandr Khudilainen said during the presentation.
Baltic Fuel Company is the only company today to provide ecological services at the Onega lake. To prevent unauthorized discharge of ship waste within the water area of Onega lake, KONTUR SPb LLC (part of BFC) has arranged an ecological complex at the beginning of White Sea – Baltic Canal, at Povenets settlement (Povenets Bay of Onega lake).
The complex comprises a berthage with total length exceeding 170 meters, reservoirs for acceptance and temporary storage of bilge and sanitary sewage waters, as well as necessary utilities.
Presently, M/V SKAT operated in Onega lake. It is a self-propelled collecting vessel of river-sea class with the capacity of 290 tonnes.
“As of today, we have signed agreements with twenty shipping companies which supported our service on Onega lake, - says BFC Director General Stanislav Korneyev, - we are sure, our initiative will be backed by other ship owners enabling us to expand our service with an additional base for our ecological fleet to be set up at Onega lake.”
“Water supply to all settlements around the lake, including Petrozavodsk, is directly connected with the lake so we will facilitate and promote this project,” Viktor Chikalyuk, Karelia Minister for nature management and ecology, told IAA PortNews journalist.