J A P A N S P E C I A L F U N D
A heavy blanket of snow covered the whole of Lithuania during the Winter of 1996. And as the people of Siauliai region learned through an article of the largest Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Aidas titled "Count down of an Ecological Bomb," there was more than just the hassles of inclement weather to be concerned about.
In fact the situation was appalling. The snow that winter was several times heavier than usual and spring floods were expected as a consequence. If that were to happen the hazardous waste dumpsite in Aukstrakiai in the vicinity at Siauliai would be virtually washed out. The dumpsite contains a huge amount of hazardous liquid wastes, produced over the course of 10-20 years by leather industries of Siauliai city. The prognosis for such a catastrophe which would include the discharge of several thousand tons of highly contaminated wastes into the nearby small rivers was compared to the effects of a powerful bomb blast.
The story of Aukstrakiai dumpsite is quite a simple one. Lithuanian industries being part of the economic system of the former Soviet Union, had been developed to sustain the needs of that huge country without proper attention to local economic and environmental conditions. Such development resulted in construction of several big enterprises in Siauliai City among them the tanneries and leather processing industries Elnias and Stumbras. Construction work on some of them was never completed. For the tanneries, waste depositing at the "temporary" dumpsite in Aukstrakiai continued for more than 10 years. The ponds containing the liquid wastes were constructed of clay and at present overflow with highly contaminated, semi-liquid mixtures of different waste waters, predominantly coming from tanneries. The ponds' banks, in the event of heavy rains or melting snow, could be easily washed out and many thousand tons of liquid waste, containing chromium, sulfides and organic matters could, by the way of nearby small rivers, cause an international ecological catastrophe throughout the Baltic coasts of Latvia and Lithuania.
The Japan Special Fund at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, in response to the application from Lithuania, agreed to provide technical assistance for a "Hazardous Waste Management System" project in Siauliai. One of the project components was a pilot testing of clean-up technology at the Aukstrakiai dumpsite. The project activities have been carried out by the team of experts from the Danish Consulting firms "Chemocontrol" and "Moe & Brodsgaard" which are the main contractors and "Ekobaltas" in Vilnius as local consultants.
The pilot testing work at Aukstrakiai proved to be successful. The appropriate technology provided for a considerable reduction of contaminants contents in accumulated liquid wastes. The resulting processed waste water can be safely treated in Siauliai's commonly used sewage treatment facilities. The sludge is stabilized, and heavy metal contaminants form a part of non-soluble sediments. The processed sludge can be easily de-watered and deposited in the pits, to be recultivated later.
The technical aspect of a complete clean-up of the Aukstrakiai dumpsite is presently under elaboration, together with plans for reduction and complete recycling of tanneries wastes through the introduction of cleaner technologies.
This approach will result in a considerable reduction in liquid hazardous waste, accompanied by diminishing heavy contaminants such as chromium contents by up to 10 times. If the Aukstrakiai dumpsite is rehabilitated its useful life can be extended for the next 20-30 years. Of course, those plans will have to be supported by provisions for necessary funding from both local and foreign sources.
In the meantime it is highly improbable that there will be a repetition of the favorable climactic condition that occurred in 1996, therefore appropriate prevention measures must be taken now.
Current plans are to continue the pilot testing operations for 2-3 months with the aim of reducing the level of liquid waste in the Aukstrakiai ponds to a relatively safe degree, by treating and pumping off about 15-20 thousands m3 of them. Implementation of these measures will enable a gradual preparation for the whole dumpsite clean-up and regulated maintenance in the future.
The cost for these procedures is estimated to be in the range of 60,000 USD, but economic constraints do not allow for the mobilization of such a sum locally. For these reasons external financial support is needed.
Only through international cooperation will Lithuania be able to slow and stop the ecological time-bomb count down in Siauliai.
Established in 1993 and sponsored by the government of Japan, the Japan Special Fund (JSF) operates independently within the framework of the REC to help develop market-based solutions to environmental problems. The JSF provides financial resources, generally in the form of technical assistance, to enable CEE countries to resolve environmental problems. Past projects have focused on industrial pollution, air quality, waste water treatment, landfill and agricultural problems throughout the region.
