Everything will come up near the beaches: in Crimea, a contractor is laying “short” pipes to carry wastewater into the sea
New treatment facilities in the resort village of Katsiveli on the southern coast of Crimea were built without safety immersion in the pycnocline - to release treated wastewater into a dense layer of sea water to contain sewage in the event of an accident. 380 meters of pipe turned out to be a significant difference to refuse additional insurance.
This was reported by Anton Georga-Kopoulos, Deputy Director of the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I can say that our institute participated in the design of deep-sea outlets in at least 13 cities of the Republic of Crimea. With the help of our specialists, the most successful and safe placement of the diffuser for the release of treated wastewater was selected. This can play a big role if something happens at the treatment plant, and God forbid, untreated wastewater begins to flow into the water area. This is especially acute for the coastal part.
Here, as they say, there must be some kind of backup option, which nature itself provides. And if the exhaust diffuser is located at an inappropriate depth, we ourselves waive the insured event that we may have,” the scientist explained.
The diffuser through which the wastewater enters the sea must be located below the lower point of the pycnocline - the so-called “liquid soil”, where the pressure and density of water are high. In the event of an accident, it is able to contain the bulk of pollutants and prevent them from polluting the coast.
“But, unfortunately, from time to time it happens that designers, due to economy and economic feasibility, do not think about such things and do not attract specialists from the relevant institutes. I can give you an example - next to our hydrophysical test site in the village of Katsiveli, active construction of modern wastewater treatment facilities is underway. There are no issues with the coastal infrastructure. But, according to our data, in the design documentation the location of the diffuser was located at an insufficient depth,” Georga-Kopoulos emphasized.
Despite the fact that the WWTP pipe passes through the territory of the Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Crimean scientists were not involved in the design. Now the contractor has already laid the entire line of the deep-sea outlet pipe, and it is too late to make any changes to the project. Scientists consider it optimal to lay a deep-sea outlet at 780 meters, and the project approved 400 meters.
“Economic feasibility and feasibility conflict with environmental standards for the rational use of nature. Our institute was not involved in who did the calculations, who provided the data to the designer for the appropriate determination - we have no data. Therefore, in Katsiveli it has already been done as it was done. And I would like to note that, after all, the treatment facilities themselves are very high-quality and reliable. Let's hope that such events will not occur there when natural insurance in the form of a pycnocline is required.
It must be said that the construction of treatment facilities is being carried out at a very high technological level,” the scientist concluded.
In 2024, after repairs and reconstruction, 26 WWTPs on the Black Sea coast should be put into operation. The funds are provided for in the state program for the development of Crimea in the amount of 22 billion rubles. The contractor for half of the projects was identified as Regional Construction Company-South LLC (RSK-Yug), including in the village of Katsiveli. The same company is constructing the Yuzhnye sewage treatment plant in Sevastopol. The treatment plant, with a capacity of 130 thousand cubic meters of wastewater and a deep-water discharge of 1,7 km into the sea, should be ready next year.
English version :: Read in English Everything will float to the surface at the beaches: in Crimea, a contractor is laying "short" pipes to drain waste into the sea.