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This section focuses on loads and sources of pollution, links with other transboundary problems and the causal factors underlying toxic pollutant loads. An overview of Black Sea toxic contaminant status is presented in Section 3.4, but no impact of contaminants on the health of Black Sea ecosystems or species can be made, since no bioaccumulation (body burden) data are available.
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As with nutrients, the main reason for considering chemical pollutants as a transboundary problem are that once in the marine environment, these pollutants can be carried into adjacent national and international marine waters., In the case of ship-sourced pollutants (accidental or deliberate discharges), pollution events may (and often do) occur in international waters anyway. Their impacts occur not only in the immediate areas of where they originate, but throughout the Black Sea as a whole.
This section (4.4), unlike Section 4.2, is concerned with pollution by hazardous substances (toxicants, endocrine disruptors, etc.) and non-hazardous biodegradable organic discharges. Toxic pollutants can be considered to represent the opposite end of the chemical spectrum to nutrients, since rather than stimulating overall biological productivity, they inhibit growth, reproduction and contribute to reduced life-spans of biota. Concentrations of most toxicants are typically greater in sediments than in water (they adsorb directly onto the surface of particulate matter or are fat soluble and therefore concentrate in the fat component of sediments and living cells. Phytoplankton and seaweeds can also accumulate high levels of heavy metals. Upon death or release from the algae, organic material becomes incorporated into sediment and begins to break down. Once concentrated in algae and in sediments, filter feeders further concentrate these substances as they are digested, so increasingly higher levels of toxicants are passed up the food chain via the animals that feed on them.
Because of the problems and expense of assessing chemical pollutant loads, together with widely varying degradation rates once in the marine environment, the emphasis of assessing chemical pollution impact is more closely related to environmental status monitoring than it is to load monitoring (e.g. see Section 4.4.4.1). Impact assessment of chemical pollution can be assessed in two main ways: (i) concentration data (as shown in Section 3.4), using comparisons with agreed environmental quality standards; and (ii) biological/ecological effects. This latter group can include specialized laboratory bioassays, the use of species-specific biological effects/indicators (e.g. see Section 4.4.2) and the use of community-based biological indices, notably of benthic invertebrate communities. The latter represent the most widely used and accepted indicators of environmental status.
Even if robust methodologies are used, the direct monitoring of pollutant concentrations in sediments, water or biota, may provide misleading results because not all chemical pollutants can realistically be monitored; there may be the potential additive or synergistic effects of different pollutants. Thus, ecological monitoring is also required to assess chemical and habitat status, since the results (particularly of biological indices) provides an assessment of combined toxicity. |
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As discussed above (Section 4.4.1), land-based sources of biodegradable organic matter contribute to organic enrichment of coastal waters and sediments, in particular those under influence from waters entering the Sea from the Danube and Dniester. Additional (dissolved) organic enrichment promotes the growth and dominance of heterotrophic (non-photosynthetic) phytoplankton, particularly Noctiluca, which during blooms can constitute in excess of 90% of phytoplankton biomass . Particulate organic enrichment provides an additional food source for filter feeders (notably bivalve shellfish, such as mussels), so high levels of abundance/biomass could be expected in affected waters. However, the bacterial decomposition of this matter may result in reduced dissolved oxygen levels; and if this occurs, rather than an increase in zoobenthic biomass, mass mortality may result. Furthermore, not only zoobenthos are affected; fish in overlying waters that are not able to escape will also be killed. In the case of spawning/nursery areas, it is possible that entire year-classes of some fish could be severely impacted.
In animals, as in humans, hormonal activity affects virtually all biological processes including reproduction and development. The term endocrine disruptors refers to synthetic chemicals that when absorbed into the body either mimic or block natural hormones, thereby disrupting the body's normal functions. The list of endocrine disruptors is long, encompassing insecticides, herbicides, fumigants and fungicides, some detergents, resins, plasticizers, PCBs and dioxins. Many endocrine disruptors are persistent in the environment and accumulate in lipids/fats Endocrine disruptors have been implicated as causative agents in diminished reproduction of some fish species, contributing to low stocks of fish, such as sturgeon, in the Black Sea and rivers feeding it. However, proof of this is hard to find for the Black Sea region, even though incredibly low concentrations of some compounds have been found to have major effects in laboratory studies. Thus, the Black Sea situation with regard to endocrine disruptors is unclear, since monitoring of their concentrations is not undertaken. Consequently, to improve this situation, current standardized methodologies and indicator based systems need to be applied. Perhaps the most famous example of indicators of endocrine disruptors is the measurement of imposex in gastropod populations
as an indicator of organo-tin concentrations, but there is no coordinated monitoring programme in the Black Sea, unlike in other regional seas such as the NE Atlantic.
The production, sale and usage of persistent organochlorine pesticides (e.g. DDT, HCHs) or herbicides (e.g. aldrin, endrin, dieldrin) has been prohibited in the Black Sea catchment for many years. For example, in Romania the application of DDT was originally banned in 1972 and “drins” (aldrin, dieldrin, etc.) from 1995. However, such substances have a long half-life (over 30 years), so the effect on the marine environment is very much a long-term issue. Perhaps more worrying, though, are results suggesting that fresh DDT has recently been dumped directly into the sea, dumped into rivers flowing into the sea or is still running off land to which it has been applied. The evidence for this comes from the high concentrations found in surface sediment and the high ratios of DDT to its breakdown products. Organochlorine pesticide contamination is thought to be a contributing factor to the reduced status and biodiversity of macrozoobenthos communities in northerly areas of the NW shelf, compared to more southerly sites (Todorova and Konsulova, 2006).
Nevertheless, the main environmental impacts of chemical pollution can be summarized as follows:
- Increased frequency/severity of hypoxic events.
- Contamination of sand/beaches by polluted waters including accumulation of heavy metals and POPs (persistent organic pollutants) in sediment and biota.
- Degradation of aquatic ecosystems/habitat loss.
- Reduced fish stocks.
- Pollution of ecosystems, particularly coastal wetlands.
The main socio-economic consequences of the Black Sea contamination are:
- Reduced seafood yields, due to slower rates of growth/premature death and reduced fertility of biota.
- Decreased quality of seafood caught in the Black Sea, due to bioaccumulation of toxic substances.
- Reduced attraction of the Black Sea and its coastal communities for recreation and tourism.
- Increased risks to human health.
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Black Sea chemical pollution is closely linked to the other three identified transboundary problems: nutrient over-enrichment/eutrophication (Section 4.2), Decline in commercial fish species/stocks (Section 4.3) and habitat and biodiversity changes (Section 4.4)
Nutrients loads from rivers discharging in the Black Sea significantly increase the risk to eutrophication, considered to be an underlying cause of historical hypoxic events. However, organic over-enrichment, as measured by, TOC (total organic carbon) in sediments and BOD5 in water is the most important immediate driver of hypoxia. The issue, here, is whether the organic carbon is derived principally from the growth and senescence of plant life (notably phytoplankton within the Sea, in which case the organic loads are generated within the Sea itself, or whether they are due to organic loads exported from land via rivers and municipal/industrial discharges. Calculations suggest for the Sea as a whole, organic loads generated by phytoplankton within the Sea far outweigh land-derived sources organic sources, but near to the coast, loadings from land can be greater than marine-derived loads.
Other pollutants such metals, pesticides and herbicides, contribute to the deterioration of sea water quality, including their accumulation in sediments and biota, with long-term effects in the marine ecosystem. Different species and different indifferent individuals within a single species can display varying levels of susceptibility to pollutants. This means that as pollutant concentrations increase, and those pollutants are accumulated to different levels up the food chain, communities change from being species-rich to those with very low levels of biodiversity. A similar pattern emerges with nutrient/organic enrichment – from highly diverse co-dominating benthic/pelagic communities (in shelf waters at least) to pelagic communities dominated by monospecific algal blooms and widespread destruction/loss of benthic ecosystems.
It should also be noted that the increase of oil transportation in the Black Sea region and through the Istanbul Strait will have proportionally increased the potential release of ballast water into the Sea, thereby increasing the threat of novel exotic species introduction, and probably additional oil/chemical pollution. Likewise, an increase in shipped oil freight will bring with it an increase in NOx emissions from ships, and thus an increase in atmospheric deposition rates of nitrogen, particularly along major shipping routes. |
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The results of a causal chain analysis for Black Sea chemical pollution is presented in Fig. 4.12. As for nutrients, the immediate causes of chemical pollution are divided into individual sources and pathways of entry into the Sea and are briefly discussed below (Sections 4.4.4.1-4.4.4.10).
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Taking account of river discharges, the largest contributions of river-borne polutants are from the Danube (67% of the total river flow input), Dnipro (13% of river flow input), Corakhi (4% of river flow input), Rioni (4% of river flow input), Dneister (2% of river flow input), Coruh (2% of river flow input), Yeşilirmak (2% of river flow input), Sakarya (1% of river flow input) and Southern Bug (1% of river flow input). All other rivers contribute less than 1% of the freshwater inflow to the Black Sea (Table 3.2).
River-borne BOD5 loads are plotted in Fig. 4.13. Average values for only the two most recent years for which data are available are presented, since these are the most complete datasets. The values for Romania are those from the Danube, representing 63% of the total river-borne BOD5 load (573 ktonne/yr) and 70% of the total flow. However, the Danube BOD5 loads during the early 2000s are reported to have decreased to about half of the level during the late 1990s (Annex 10). This represents a truly remarkable achievement if the results are to be believed. However, the earlier data are from a period when analytical quality assurance procedures were not as robust as they are currently and consequently, this trend should be treated with caution.
The river load for Georgia (1.85 ktonnes) represents only 0.3% of the total load, from 9% of the total river flow, which, considering the lack of biological treatment in Georgian WWTPs, appears particularly low. In contrast, the Ukrainian BOD5 load is 29% of the total from 16% of the river flow. This appears unusually high, and while suspicions may be raised over poor analytical quality control, there are many sources of BOD5 emissions to rivers; not least livestock farming and natural BOD5 export from land. Many reviews have been undertaken of BOD5 as a measure of organic pollution, because of uncertainty over results obtained, and particularly over the issue of ‘sliding BOD5’, but it is still widely accepted as the most pragmatic test. However, with reference to Fig. 3.22, Turkey does not monitor BOD5 levels in the Sea as part of the BSIMAP, since its scientists have little confidence in such results. |
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Figure 4.12 Causal chain analysis of chemical pollution |
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Fgure 4.13 Average river BOD5 loads to the Black Sea, 2004-2005 |
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Manipulation/management of river discharges and climate changes also influence the amount of pollutants discharged into the Black Sea. Higher river flows are often associated with higher concentrations of chemical pollutants, so higher flows tend to deliver disproportionately higher levels of many chemical pollutants. Because of this, there is huge uncertainty associated with load estimation of many chemical pollutants, especially POPs. Because of this, values may differ wildly from year to year (e.g. depending on exactly when samples were collected with reference to “local” weather conditions), with confidence limits for load estimates being so wide that the values produced are meaningless. Thus load estimates of POPs are rarely made.
River discharges also include land-derived loads of pollutants from historical pollution of river sediments (Section 4.4.4.2), diffuse sources to land (Sections 4.4.4.3, 4.4.4.4 and 4.4.4.6), direct industrial discharges to rivers (not included in Section 4.4.4.5) and direct municipal discharges to rivers (not included in Section 4.4.10).
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Once in the sea, pollutants generally become associated with sediments, through binding adsorption, bioaccumulation and decay or direct dissolution in the lipids/fat content of sediments. Disturbance of the sediments by bioturbation (mixing of different layers of sediments as benthic invertebrates and bottom-living fish move and feed) and wind-induced mixing of waters re-mixes particulate matter and interstitial sediment water (containing elevated levels of pollutants) back into the pelagic system. Diffusion also plays a role in this release of pollutants.
Thus, historically deposited pollutants may be released back into the overlying water many years after they first enter the sediment. For some pollutants, these fluxes may be exacerbated by increases in temperature and the development of anoxic conditions at the sediment-water interface. Thus, until organic pollutants break down and/or new layers of less polluted river-derived sediments cover older layers of more polluted sediment, this release of pollutants could be a major source of hazardous substances, albeit that no data are available to make such an assessment. |
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Both arable and livestock farming are potential sources of toxicants. For example, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides are applied to crops and often diffusely pollute the environment as run-off. High levels of insecticides, fumigants, fungicides and antibiotics may be used in intensive livestock farming, the waste from which is collected and discharged to surface waters, with full, partial or no treatment, depending on the type of animals farmed. A wide variety of chemical types of pesticide are available (e.g. carbamates, organochlorines, copper and mercury compounds, pyrethroids, organophosphosphates, thiocarbamates, etc.), whose toxicity varies greatly and whose chemistry ensures that their “environmental behaviour” is very different. Some are therefore much more prone to leaching and to bioaccumulation than others, e.g. some bind much more readily to organic matter in soils than others, some have a greater degree of solubility in water than others, and some are much more soluble in lipids/fats. It is, therefore, almost impossible to generalize about pesticide export from catchments.
Interestingly, the Stockholm Convention “dirty dozen” POPs includes eight organochlorine pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene. Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania have signed and ratified this convention, while the remaining three Black Sea countries are signatories. Public health use of DDT is allowed under the Stockholm Convention, but only for the control of mosquitoes (the malaria vector). |
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Some diffuse source derived hazardous substances will be leached into soil and groundwater (as with nitrates) and are transferred through soil into groundwater or directly into rivers. There will be some breakdown of POPs in groundwater because of the slow flow of water in aquifers, but this groundwater will eventually be incorporated into rivers as base-flow or discharged directly to the Black Sea as submarine freshwater inflows. |
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The difficulty when calculating industrial discharges to the Black Sea, either from direct discharges, or from discharges to sewer and emission from municipal WWTPs, is that so few chemicals are routinely monitored in these discharges. Unless specific discharge permits are set for individual chemicals, it is very unlikely that they will be monitored.
A very broad range of industries produce effluents containing hazardous substances – both organic and inorganic. In addition to the EU WFD list of 33 (individual or groups of) priority hazardous substances, EU directives also contain emission limits for:1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCE), BOD5, “drins” (aldrin, dieldrin and/or endrin), cadmium, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, DDT, chemical oxygen demand (COD), mercury, pentachlorophenol, perchloroethylene, trichlorobenzene and trichloroethylene from specified industrial sectors/plants. These limits apply to Romania and Bulgaria, and will also apply to Turkey in the future, should it become an EU Member State.
Two industrial chemical groups: hexachlorobenzenes (HCBs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and two groups of industrial by-products: (dioxins and furans) make up the remaining four of the Stockholm Convention POP “dirty dozen” (see Section 4.4.4.2 for details of the remaining eight).
As discussed in Section 4.4.4.1, it is not possible to make good estimates of POP loads in rivers, and while more reliable estimates can be made of POP loads from selected industrial discharges, they are not often monitored. Heavy metal loads from some industrial facilities discharging directly to the Black Sea are available, but the number of sites is so few that no regional assessment can be made. Suspended solids data is available from a wide number of industrial and municipal sources, but in their own right these do not represent hazardous substances. Petroleum hydrocarbon loads are also available for 11 (principally Ukrainian) discharges, but once again there are insufficient data to present a regional overview.
Pollutant loads were provided by all countries for industrial discharges of > 1000 m3/day. Of these, BOD5 loads were available for 17 discharges in the six countries (Annex 10). The most complete datasets were available for the years 2004 and 2005, with the results shown in Fig 4.14 – a total average load of 2,837 tonnes/yr. The relatively high results for Turkey are from two industrial (copper mining/processing) plants, but direct industrial discharges are responsible for only a tiny proportion (0.5%)of the total land-derived BOD5 load to the Black Sea (594,895 tonne/yr). Note the different units used in Fig. 4.13, compared to Figs 4.14 and 4.15. Ukraine was the only country to provide relatively complete industrial BOD5 emissions data, and these show little change since 1995.
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Figure 4.14 Average industrial BOD5 loads to the Black Sea, 2004-5 |
For Bulgaria and Turkey, in particular, BOD5 loads data from municipal WWTP discharges prior to 2002/2003 were not made available; so, once again, data for only 2004-5 are plotted in Fig. 4.15, representing the combined load from 48 WWTPs serving a population of >5,000 people or with a daily discharge exceeding 1000 m3. This represents a total average load of 15,448 tonnes/yr. Substantial reductions have been achieved by some countries, with recent direct municipal BOD5 emissions from Ukraine having fallen by about one-third and from Romania by about two-thirds since the latter 1990s (Annex 10). However, for Russia the decrease in direct municipal BOD5 emissions has been negligible over the same time scale. Georgia does not contain a single functioning coastal sewage treatment plant, but recent finance plans include the construction of wastewater treatment plants at Poti and Batumi (Annex 11).
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Figure 4.15 Average municipal BOD5 loads to the Black Sea, 2004-5 |
However, there is no doubt that these data are misleading. For example, the value presented for Georgia is a mere 79 tonnes/yr. The coastal population of Georgia is 1.7 million people, of which available data suggest over 90% are connected to sewer systems (Section 3.2). Based on a BOD5 per capita production value of 60g/day (as specified in the EU UWWT Directive), this amounts to an annual load of over 33,000 tonnes per year. No municipal sewage treatment works in Georgia currently operate with biological treatment, so there would be little reduction of this load via that route. Some of the Georgian WWTP discharges may be to rivers rather than directly to the Sea, so some degree of self-purification would occur, but the declared total Georgian value (originating only from Kobuleti Sewerage System) is probably at least 100-times lower than the real value. |
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Many pollutants (e.g. heavy metals, PAHs and dioxins) can be released by combustion processes, including land-based incinerators, power stations and car emissions (e.g. nitrogen – see Section 4.2.4.5) if the combustion process is incomplete and the gas/smoke produced in not treated appropriately. These atmospheric emissions eventually return to earth. If the chimneys releasing the smoke are not tall enough, the risk of nearby re-settlement of particles greatly increases and can result in highly localized pollution hot-spots. The particulate matter released has the opposite effect of greenhouse gas emissions, since the particles help shade the land from sunlight – a phenomenon known as ‘global dimming’. It is these same particles that water vapour condenses around to form raindrops. |
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Oil pollution is a concern for the Black Sea environment, in particular due to the increasing risk of accidental spills that may result from an expected two-fold increase of oil transportation by tankers. The freight flow of this oil resource from middle Asia and Azerbaijan via Georgia is gradually increasing. Over 20 million tonnes of oil and petroleum products are transported via these terminals in Georgia to the west through the Black Sea. The resulting discharge of ballast water in Georgian ports is estimated to have been 5 million tonnes during 2005. In terms of oil pollution two distinct threats arise:
- Localized chronic pollution from small but frequent spills at terminals, dockyards and from ships at sea (for example, there is currently major concerns regarding the oil terminal under construction in the Kolkheti Wetlands, Georgia.
- The issue of more widespread and acute pollution from a major oil spill at Sea.
Those who live in close proximity to the Istanbul Strait and on clear days can see the hundreds of ships moored close to either end of the channel, waiting for permission to travel through, should fully appreciate this risk. This represents a huge bottle-neck to marine transport throughout the region. While the accident record of the Strait has greatly improved in recent years, largely down to improved management, the constant stream of traffic through it provides an ever-present reminder of the scale of shipping into and out of the Black Sea, even without considering the amount of internal traffic. The development of additional overland pipelines is constantly in the news, but these are across western Black Sea countries that will not reduce the east to west flow of oil traffic from the Caspian Sea through Eastern Black Sea countries. They will help by-pass the Istanbul Strait bottle-neck and should help reduce pressure on this shipping channel, but the effect of overland oil transport through Bulgaria, etc. is more likely to be an increase in internal (east to west) oil traffic across the Sea.
Illicit discharges due to routine ship operations are among the main sources of marine oil pollution. The amount of oil released in any single discharge is usually not large enough to represent a great concern for its immediate impact on the ecosystem, unlike the case for massive accidental oil spills. On the other hand, illicit discharges pose a cumulative, long-term threat to the marine and coastal environment. Oil can be discharged at any time and from any location to the Sea, making remote sensing (satellite imagery) the only pragmatic monitoring tool for spill evaluation, providing images are collected and processed on a frequent-enough basis.
The EC Joint Research Centre (Tarchi et al., 2006) undertook an assessment of sea-based oil pollution using remote sensing imagery for the period 1999-2004, showing a concentration of oil spills along the main shipping routes: Odessa – Istanbul and Novorossiysk – Istanbul. A substantial concentration of likely oil spills was also detected in the area where the Istanbul Strait enters the Black Sea (Fig. 4.16).
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Figure 4.16 Number of likely oil spills per area of sea |
The annual number of likely number of spills/illicit discharges detected in this study is shown in Table 4.13. The time-scale over which the study was carried out is too short to determine whether the situation has improved or not during recent years.
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Dumping of wastes, particularly persistent organic pollutants, directly into the Black Sea, whether legally or illegally is a continuing problem in some countries. An example of this with regard to DDT is provided in Section, 4.4.2, and empty containers of toxic substances/waste continue to be brought to the surface during bottom trawling exercises and research activities (Fig. 4.17). The scale of this dumping/illegal discharge is not known, but a recent example was provided on 26 January 2007 when Ukrainian television reported that up to 10,000 tonnes/day of spoiled grain were being dumped into the Sea because of a saturated domestic market, due to grain import-export quotas.
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Figure 4.17 Empty drum of toxic waste picked up from the NW Shelf during the 2006 BSERP research cruise |
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As with nutrients, hazardous substances can enter the Sea from nearby landfills in surface water runoff from leachate via groundwaters. In addition, litter from the surface of landfills can be blown into the Sea; although, with litter, the problem is not so much from hazardous substances, but rather one of aesthetic pollution. There has been a historical problem of illegal dumping in all countries surrounding the Black Sea, but the extent to which this has been dealt with is not known.
Landfill registers exist in Bulgarıa, Romania the Russian Federation and Turkey. Georgia is the only Black Sea country not to have undertaken a landfill census within the last 10 years (a Ukrainian census is currently underway). Monitoring of surface and/or groundwaters is required as part of landfill operating conditions in all countries.
Available data on coastal landfills is shown in Annex 9. A large proportion of these were constructed in the 1960s or 1970s, and most are still operational, but of the 25 Romanian landfills for which data were received, 14 will be closed down between 2006 and 2017. This regional data gathered includes information on a total of 91 coastal sites
of which location details (latitude and longitude) were provided for 65 (Fig. 4.18). Data from only two Turkish coastal landfills were provided for this report, but major capital investment in landfills is currently being undertaken. There are plans to construct new sanitary landfills sites for the Rize-Trabzon area (including 25 towns), the Samsun Greater Municipality, the areas of Sinop (including 3 towns) and Adapazari (including 12 towns), due for completion during early 2007.
Of the 91 sites, 66% are authorised, 12% receive hazardous waste, only 22% were constructed with a liner and even fewer (8%) have a leachate treatment system, albeit that 18% have stormwater diversion systems. İn only 77% of the landfills is the amount of waste routinely monitored. This information greatly underplays the historical problem of illegal dumping of solid waste on shores around the Black Sea, since data on relatively few unregulated/unofficial dumping sites were included in the information provided. |
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The geochemical reserve of heavy metals in existing and fresh sediment transported by rivers into the Black Sea varies throughout the region. For example, copper levels along the South Georgian and East Turkish coasts are likely to be naturally elevated, since a copper ore mine is situated close to the Sea near the Georgian/Turkish border (Section 3.4.2). |
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The majority of underlying causes of chemical pollution in the Black Sea are shared with those of nutrient pollution/eutrophication and are grouped into four main categories (Fig. 4.12), based around four major sources of chemical pollution:
- Shipping/harbour operations (Section 4.4.5.1)
- Agriculture (Section 4.4.5.2)
- Industrial discharges (Section 4.4.5.3)
- Municipal discharges (Section 4.4.5.4)
In addition, a fifth over-arching issue of the lack and/or mismanagement of public funds dedicated to improve the quality of the environment is also considered in Fig 4.12.
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The lack (or out-dated nature) of treatment plants at ports and harbours to cope with ship-generated wastes, particularly for deballasting and emptying bilges (from a chemical pollution perspective) is an issue. Several of the hot-spots discussed in Section 5 are port wastewater treatment works dealing with ballast and/or bilge water. Success in completing the necessary construction work has been mixed. Thus, outdated storage and treatment technology is still in place at some ports, providing only partial treatment at best. This problem is compounded by the age of much of the Black Sea “domestic” fleet. As machinery ages, the risk of mechanical/structural failure increases and corrosion worsens. Older ships are more likely to pollute, particularly when those vessels have been poorly maintained.
There is also a problem of poor enforcement of regulations in shipping – the likely oil spills map (Fig. 4.16) shows this clearly. At present there is no effective monitoring and intervention plan for pollution from ships, without which enforcement of existing regulations is likely to remain very weak. |
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In some of the Black Sea countries, particularly Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, there is either a lack or poor enforcement of environmental protection regulations in agriculture. The adoption of best agricultural practice in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey should improve matters in the future, even if it hasn’t done so yet. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the widespread move to smaller-scale farming has diminished government control of privatized farms, with controls over land use now appearing to be considerably weaker. It is, however, difficult to effectively control an economic sector as depressed as agriculture is in the Black Sea Region. The smaller-scale of farming now practiced is a double-edged sword: it is less efficient in terms of crops or livestock produced per hectare of land, so less profitable, but should be better for the environment if managed correctly.
There is a regional legacy from the over application of agro-chemicals, so residues of historically-applied pesticides/herbicides are still being exported to the Sea from catchments; and stores of out-dated and highly toxic agro-chemicals are still thought to exist on some farms. When the economic climate for Black Sea farmers is as bleak as it currently is, the temptation to use old stocks will increase. |
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There is little incentive for pollution prevention and control – emissions-based trading has not started in the region and the emphasis has clearly shifted from state subsidies for failing industrial sectors. So, instead of a “carrot and stick” approach, the emphasis is firmly on a prescriptive basis. This is not sufficiently-well backed-up by monitoring, particularly of small direct discharges to surface waters and discharges to sewer.
Only a fraction of industrial discharges to sewer are monitored to ensure compliance with standards, and no comparison of these standards has been undertaken between the six Black Sea countries. In the past, at least, corruption has been a relatively common feature – those organizations which did not want their emissions to sewer monitored too closely, were able to ensure this did not happen.
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Figure 4.18 Location of known landfills around the Black Sea coast |
For those industries discharging directly to surface waters, there has often been little or no enforcement of regulations, even if existing standards were not complied with, since socio-economic considerations (e.g. further unemployment in areas of already high unemployment) are loaded with political persuasiveness. This includes a lack/poor enforcement of environmental protection regulations in mining and other natural resource extraction sectors.
Comparatively weak sectoral industrial policies (or enforcement of them) exist in some countries, but the increasing acceptance of BAT (best available technique/technology; enshrined in the EU IPPCDirective) by non-EU Member States is likely to make a difference in the coming years, since BAT includes both environmental and economic considerations. Many inefficient manufacturing plants closed down following the break-up of the Soviet Union, but there is still a (much-reduced) legacy of anachronistic industrial technologies and waste treatment practices within the region. |
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Poor management and regulation of landfills (including poor differentiation between various types of waste: hazardous, industrial, municipal, etc.), as well as the widely accepted practice of illegal dumping along the coastline, were once accepted as the norm in the Black Sea Region. However, since the first TDA was produced there has been a shift by some authorities/governments to address this problem, particularly in Romania and Bulgaria as part of their EU accession process.
The landfill data in Annex 9 show a considerable number of landfills in these countries scheduled for closure in the coming years because of non-compliance with EU standards, together with the construction of specialized cells for hazardous waste at selected sites. This development of the waste industry follows the “polluter pays” principle, but there is still overall under-development of the industry in at least three of the countries (Georgia, Russia and Ukraine), where low user fees (tariffs) mean the solid waste industry is under-funded. The infrastructure for collecting landfill leachate/stormwater runoff is absent from the vast majority of landfills, but placing the solid waste industry on a more commercial basis (particularly in Romania and Bulgaria) should continue to result in greater capital investment and operational funding to address both current and historical waste management issues.
Uncontrolled development/urbanisation of coastal areas brings with it increased generation of solid waste. Initially this will result in more rapid filling of existing landfill sites, but a future risk will be the designation/construction of further landfill sites close to the Sea. |
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The Black Sea Commission has standardized regional methodologies for the collection and analysis of plankton and zoobenthos samples, but little guidance is offered on interpretation of the data collected. The next logical step is the development or adoption of an existing macrozoobenthos index for regional reporting purposes, the results of which are easily understood by non-specialists, including decision makers, and are more informative than simple biomass and abundance data.
At present, it is obvious that data are still missing/incomplete and of highly variable quality. This was a fundamental problem with information on nutrient and other chemical loads presented in the original 1996 Black Sea TDA, and while the situation has improved, there is still a great deal of progress to be made.
An attempt has been made to gather data on landfills in this report, following the recommendation given in the 1996 TDA, and there has been some success. The issue of landfill characterization and assessment is being taken seriously in some countries but, from the information provided, Turkey appears to be particularly weak in this area. Greater attention should be paid to this issue by the BSC Advisory Group on Land Based sources of Pollution. The same advisory group should also pay greater attention to the harmonization of environmental standards for the Black Sea – both discharge and Black Sea water/sediment quality standards. In the terms of reference for this group, this is stated as one of its primary objectives, but no progress has so far made.
Although the Black Sea Commission has standardized reporting formats for the data it collects, the formats are often not followed. A serious re-assessment is required of the indicator data that the commission collates and passes onto other organizations, notably the ICPDR and the European Environment Agency (not only on the issue of chemical loads and pollution status). Data on so-called mandatory parameters within the BSIMAP are frequently not collected and from some countries there is an unwillingness to pass on additional data which could be of use to the Commission. Data ownership is a serious problem in the Black Sea Region. For organizations which are fully or partially funded by national Ministries of the Environment this should not be a problem, but it continues to be. This situation is not acceptable.
The issue of standardizing data formats is a major one. Considerable amounts of data were received for this report which could not be used because of a failure to supply location data (latitude and longitude), or because incorrect location data were provided. It is the responsibility of the organizations which supply data to quality assure what they provide; not the receiving institution.
As with nutrients, issues of load estimation have once again surfaced.
There are numerous ways to calculate/estimate chemical loads and the method(s) adopted for individual rivers (and other land-based point sources) should be, but aren’t compatible. Even such fundamental issues as the use of commas, spaces or decimal points in reported statistics have caused problems (e.g. in Annex 9, the surface area of Varna landfill is given as 240 km2 and that of Bourgas landfill as 133 km2). Then, there are issues of whether to report concentrations in mass or molar units; failing to state whether water column concentrations are for filtered or unfiltered samples; and whether sediment pollutant concentrations are reported on a dry- or wet-weight basis. These are very basic issues that should have been solved long ago.An important problem appears to be the lack of robust quality assurance systems for pollution loads data provided by Black Sea Countries. All laboratories participating in the BSIMAP scheme also participate in the QUASIMEME quality assurance programme coordinated by the Black Sea Commission. |
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Once chemical pollutants enter the marine environment they can be carried into adjacent national and international marine waters. Consequently, impacts of pollution often occur not only in the immediate areas in which they originate, but throughout the Black Sea as a whole.
An assessment of pollutant loads from river and large direct municipal/industrial discharges has been presented in this section but pollution loads data are very incomplete with BOD5 being the only parameter (apart from nutrients) that is routinely monitored from major point sources and rivers.
The Danube BOD5 loads during the early 2000s are reported to have decreased to about half of the level during the late 1990s which represents a truly remarkable achievement if the results are to be believed. However, the earlier data are from a period when analytical quality assurance procedures were not as robust as they are currently and consequently, this trend should be treated with caution.
Land-based sources of biodegradable organic matter continue to contribute to organic enrichment of coastal waters and sediments, in particular those under the influence of waters entering the Sea from the Danube and Dniester. This enrichment promotes the growth and dominance of phytoplankton, particularly Noctiluca, which during blooms can constitute in excess of 90% of phytoplankton biomass. Particulate organic enrichment provides an additional food source for filter feeders although the bacterial decomposition of this matter may result in reduced dissolved oxygen levels and if this occurs, mass mortality of zoobenthos and fish can result.
Relatively high contamination levels of some pesticides, heavy metals and PCBs are present at specific sites in the Black Sea. The concentrations of some substances are above the ECA ranges used by OSPAR, with illegal dumping and discharge (particularly of agrochemicals) being recognised as a problem. The historical poor enforcement of discharge standards and a failure to consider the Sea itself as a receiving waterbody for riverine discharges are considered to be the principal reasons underlying the pollution status of the Sea.
The production, sale and usage of persistent organochlorine pesticides (e.g. DDT, HCHs) or herbicides (e.g. aldrin, endrin, dieldrin) has been prohibited in the Black Sea catchment for many years. However, such substances have a long half-life (over 30 years), so the effect on the marine environment is very much a long-term issue. Perhaps more worrying, recent results suggest that fresh DDT has been dumped directly into the sea, dumped into rivers flowing into the sea or is still running off land to which it has been applied. Organochlorine pesticide contamination is thought to be a contributing factor to the reduced status and biodiversity of macrozoobenthos communities in northerly areas of the NW shelf, compared to more southerly sites.
A huge increase in the volume of oil being transported across the Black Sea and oil/gas extraction from beneath the Sea itself has greatly increased the risk of oil pollution. This presents two types of problem: (i) localised chronic pollution stemming from frequent but minor releases of oil; and (ii) acute pollution resulting from major oils spills. Remote sensing data show that the majority of oil spills occur along major shipping routes, showing that shipping, rather than land-based oil installations are the principal cause of concern. In particular, where ships enter the Sea through the Istanbul Strait, there appears to be an area of frequent ship-derived oil spills, with sediment total petroleum products results supporting the remote sensing imagery data.
The following recommendations are suggested in order to respond to the issue of reducing and controlling the pollution of the Black Sea waters:
- Develop a list of Black Sea-specific priority pollutants to help target monitoring priorities.
- Include coastal landfills with those sources which can be identified as Black Sea pollution hot-spots.
- Continue capacity building and institutional strengthening within government institutions.
- Increase public awareness of/participation in water resources management and protection.
- Ensure enforcement of national environmental legislation.
- Following negotiations, ratify the revised LBSA Protocol to the BS Convention.
- Develop national/regional public awareness programmes to promote bottom-up pressure on decision makers in order to improve the environmental status of the Black Sea.
- Establish national plans to reduce/prevent pollution of the Black Sea.
- Build the capacity of environmental authorities to enforce existing regulations on the emission of priority pollutants from both point and diffuse sources.
- Establish an inter-state ministerial mechanism to enable a quick response to major pollution events.
- Reduce pollution loads by the application of best available technology and introduction/enforcement of best agriculture practice.
- Provide assistance to industrial sectors (including mining enterprises) to develop Environmental Management Systems and practice cleaner production activities.
- Develop a network of farmer support services for raising awareness in the application of fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.
- Improve the management of dredging activities.
- Develop a regionally agreed list of priority pollutants for monitoring purposes.
- Develop robust national quality assurance programmes for the intercomparation/intercalibation of chemical concentration and flow data from point sources.
- Harmonise environmental standards (discharge and environmental water/sediment quality standards) throughout the Region.
- Produce a regional manual for data handling.
- Develop/adopt an agreed transboundary environmental impact assessment methodology to assist with transboundary projects in the region.
- Production of a code of practice for data handling and transfer for use by all national institutions reporting to the BSC and the Permanent Secretariat itself.
- Provide adequate port reception facilities and establish a harmonised fee/cost recovery system on ship-generated waste.
- Develop Part II of the Black Sea Contingency Plan to the Protocol on Cooperation in Combating Pollution of the Black Sea by Oil and Other Harmful Substances.
- Finalize and adopt/ratify the Black Sea Contingency Plan to the Protocol on Cooperation in Combating Pollution of the Black Sea by Oil and Other Harmful Substances, actualization and keeping it updated, including training/exercises, inventory of oil spill response equipment, communications etc.
- harmonised enforcement systems to prevent illegal discharges from vessels, including technical means and fines.
- Promote and enforce relevant international legal instruments – MARPOL 73/78, AFS, OPRC, OPRC/HNS, CLC, FUND.
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