SMOCS

The Baltic Sea has many “hot-spots” with highly contaminated sediments in ports, estuaries etc. Human activities often take place in coastal areas and are affected by these “hot-spots”. Activities e.g. development, maintenance and dredging in ports and fairways is due to more deep-draught ships will imply dredging of several million m3 incl. contaminated sediments in coming years.

How to handle contaminated sediments is a major problem. Alternatives are few, costly and require complicated technical methods to reduce environmental impact. Dredged sediments are normally deposited on land or at sea. The first is very costly and the latter is often not possible due to environmental restrictions. Emerging treatment technologies make it possible to consider beneficial use of contaminated sediments. One potential method is stabilization reducing environmental impact and improving technical properties. This method can prove to be sustainable for handling at land or at sea. HELCOM e.g. gives high priority to decontamination of Baltic Sea. Managing of contaminated sediments has to be mainstreamed (EU Sustainable Development Strategy). Today management is governed on national level mainly and an all-embracing Baltic Sea strategy of management of contaminated sediments is lacking. The questions are highlighted in “EU Marine directive” and ”Baltic Sea action Plan”. HELCOM guidelines concerning sea disposal of dredged masses are important, but detailed guidance regarding sustainable management is lacking. There is an urgent need for sustainable assessment incl. guidance of different alternatives in Baltic Sea context, national context and project context.

The project led by Swedish Geotechnical Institute with several partners around the Baltic Sea, will address the issues and produce a guideline for management of contaminated sediments in the Baltic Sea.

A communicative approach will be used to provide the following outcomes: 1) Guideline for management of contaminated sediments incl. i)handling alternatives for sediments, ii)disposal alternatives and iii)beneficial use of treated contaminated sediments; 2) Tool-box of: i)treatment technologies, ii)tools for assessment of sustainability and iii)decision support tool to be used in planning and application processes; 3) Field tests to validate, demonstrate and communicate emerging treatment methods under various conditions: type of sediments, type of contamination, climatic condition, availability of technology, costs etc 4) Established durable network for management of contaminated sediments, based upon existing national and trans-national networks, , e.g. SedNet and HELCOM. The project will contribute to management of the Baltic Sea as a common resource and improve the management of contaminated sediments.