vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #534 / Environment / Reading article...

The conclusion of the chief state expertise committee on construction of wastewater treatment facilities in Vladivostok is expected to come by Jan.1, 2007, the city’s officials promised on Monday. Currently almost all Vladivostok's sewage flows into surrounding bays without any treatment.

Vladivostok discharges 330 million cubic meters of industrial and domestic wastewater into the sea annually, and 63 percent of that contains levels of pollutants that are considered unsafe. Only six of the city's 33 sewage outlets are equipped with treatment facilities.

Head of the city’s ecological programs Alexander Korshenko reported that in July Vladivostok administration joined efforts with Primorgrazhdanproekt, an organization designing civilian projects, and submitted to Moscow the final variant for construction of wastewater treatment facilities.

The state expertise committee is to consider the final version and present its conclusive report in the upcoming three months, Korshenko said.

It is planned to construct and update the treatment facilities in four residential districts of the city including downtown Vladivostok with the seacoast of the Amursky Bay. The works in central part of Vladivostok will start in the beginning of 2007. Vladivostok’s administration is currently developing a business plan for initiating the work.