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Geochemical investigations of the Baltic Sea and surrounding areas
PII: S0883-2927(97)00096-6
Applied Geochemistry, Vol. 13, pp. 285±286, 1998 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0883-2927/98 $19.00 + 0.00
Geochemical investigations of the Baltic Sea and surrounding areas P. Szefer* Department of Analytical Chemistry, Medical University of GdanÂsk, al. Gen. J. Hallera 107, 80-416 Gdansk, Poland
G. P. Glasby Department of Earth Sciences, University of Sheeld, Sheeld S3 7HP, U.K. (Received 9 September 1995; accepted in revised form 7 May 1997)
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989, collaboration between scientists of western Europe and the former Communist block has increased tremendously. One of the key problems to be tackled is that of the environmental degradation and remediation in Eastern Europe. However, support for such work remains well below that required for such a massive undertaking. The origin of the environmental problems in Eastern Europe stems largely from the framework in which communist countries operated. In Poland, for example, the environmental problems result from the rapid industrialization in areas rich in coal and minerals such as Silesia, the use of antiquated industrial plant with no proper facilities for the mitigation of pollution and the almost complete absence of municipal sewage treatment plants (Marcinkiewicz, 1987; Plaza et al., 1992; Helios Rybicka, 1996a,b,c; Szefer et al., 1996). It has been estimated that there are 1760 million tonnes of accumulated industrial waste in Poland of which about 1.5% are considered to be toxic (Dunnette et al., 1993). 87% of this originated from coal mining and power plant operations. The cost of cleaning up the Vistula River over a 20 year period has been estimated to be about 2,620 million ECU (HELCOM, 1994). The Baltic Sea is surrounded by former communist (Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the German Democratic Republic) and western European (German Federal Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) countries. The environmental quality of the Baltic Sea has deteriorated signi®cantly over the last 50 a (Glasby et al., 1997). Although much of the pollution has originated from the former communist countries, it is wrong to think that they are solely responsible for this eect. A problem remains that estimates of pollutant inputs into the Baltic from the various *Corresponding author. 285
countries are not always complete or comparable (HELCOM, 1993). Much eort will be required to derive mass balances for the inputs of the major pollutants into the Baltic Sea from their various source areas and to determine their ultimate repositories. The Baltic is particularly susceptible to pollution because it is a semi-enclosed sea with shallow sills. It is dependent on periodic major in¯ows of more saline, oxygenated water from the North Sea to ¯ush the anoxic waters of the Baltic deeps (Anon, 1990). Some of the problems facing the Baltic include: (a) eutrophication caused by inputs of nutrients from urban sewage and agricultural fertilizers, atmospheric transport of NO2 and remobilization of nutrients from sediments (Anon, 1990; Jonsson, 1992; HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), (b) input of heavy metals from many sources, mainly riverine but also atmospheric (Anon, 1990; Backlund et al., 1992; Hultman, 1992; HELCOM, 1993, HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b; BruÈgmann and Matschullat, 1997), (c) increased stagnation of bottom waters with a resultant increase in the areas of ``dead bottoms'' in the Baltic (Anon, 1990; Jonsson, 1992; HELCOM, 1993, HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), (d) the input of persistant organic chemicals into the Baltic such that the organochlorine residues in Baltic ®sh are 3±10 times higher than those in ®sh from the open ocean (Anon, 1990; Backlund et al., 1992; HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), and (e) the consequences of dumping about 13 000 tonnes of chemical warfare agents in the areas of the Gotland Deep, Bornholm Deep and Little Belt after the Second World War (Glasby, 1997). Because much of the waste water discharged into the rivers entering the Baltic is inadequately treated, particularly in the former communist countries, it is clear that cleaning up these rivers such as the Neva, Vistula and Oder must be a priority (Backlund et al., 1992; Hultman, 1992). In particular, the need
286
P. Szefer and G. P. Glasby
for the introduction of ``clean technologies'' in these countries is an essential prerequisite for the regeneration of the Baltic (Hultman, 1992). There is some evidence that marine species in the Baltic Sea are more susceptible to pollution than those from the North Sea (Kautsky, 1991), again emphasizing the need for remedial measures. In order to overcome such problems, an integrated management approach will be required (Ferm, 1991). The need for the Baltic is to set some ambitious goal such as ``Forward to 1950'' which aims to bring the Baltic back to the relatively clean state that existed in 1950. The magnitude of this task can be seen by the fact that the cost was estimated to be 7 billion ECUs/a over the 60 a period that this project would take (Anon, 1990). The costs now would almost certainly be higher in the absence of any signi®cant improvements in the interim. The 5th Polish Conference on Analytical Chemistry was held in Gdansk from 3±9 September 1995 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the city of Gdansk. The theme of the conference was ``Analytics in the Service of Humanity and the Environment''. For the session on marine chemistry and analysis, we decided to focus on the environmental problems of the Baltic Sea and the surrounding areas, not only as a re¯ection of the position of Gdansk in the Baltic but also because of the seriousness with which we judged environmental problems of this region. In addition, we decided to invite speakers from Baltic States in both the E and W in an attempt to learn something of the problems throughout the region. This small collection of papers presents some new data on geochemical investigations being carried out in the Baltic region. Our aim in organizing this session was to stimulate collaboration between colleagues from east and west in the study of the problems of the Baltic Sea. We certainly succeeded within the con®nes of the conference and now hope to succeed within a wider context. REFERENCES Anon (1990) Status of the Baltic Sea ± A Sea in Transition. Ambio Special Report No. 7, 24. Backlund P., Holmbom B., LeppaÈkoski E. (1992) Industrial emissions and toxic pollutants. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 5, The Baltic University Programme, p. 36. Uppsala University, Sweden. BruÈgmann L., Matschullat J. (1997) Zur Biogeochemie und Bilanzierung von Schwermetallen in der Ostsee. In Geochemie und Umwelt Relevante Prozesse in Atmo-, Pedo- und HydrosphaÈre, ed. J. Matschullat, H. J. Tobschall and H.-J. Vogt, pp. 267±289. Springer± Verlag, Berlin. Dunnette D. A., Kowalik P., Krechniak J., Makinia J. (1993) Perspectives on hazardous emissions and pub-
lic health in Poland. In Hazardous Waste and Public Health: International Congress on the Health Eects of Hazardous Waste, ed. J. S. Andrews, H. Frumkin, B. L. Johnson, M. A. Mehlman, C. Xintaras and J. A. Bucsela, pp. 178±191. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA. Ferm R. (1991) Integrated management of the Baltic Sea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 23, 533±540. Glasby G. P. (1997) Disposal of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea. Sci. Total Environ. 206, 267±273. Glasby G. P., Emelyanov E. M., Zhamoida V. A., Baturin, G. N., Leipe, T., Bahlo, R., Bonacker, P. (1997) Environments of formation of ferromanganese concretions in the Baltic Sea: A critical review. In Manganese Mineralization: Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Terrestrial and Marine Deposits, ed. K. Nicholson, J. R. Hein, B. BuÈhn and S. Dasgupta, Vol. 119. Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ. pp. 213±237. HELCOM (1993) Second Baltic Sea pollution load compilation. Baltic Marine Environmental Proceedings, Vol. 45. HELCOM (1994) The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environment Action Programme. Baltic Marine Environmental Proceedings, Vol. 48. HELCOM (1996a) Third Periodic Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea, 1989± 1993; Executive Summary. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings, Vol. 64 A1, 26 pp. HELCOM (1996b) Third Periodic Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea, 1989± 1993; Background Document. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings, Vol. 64 B1, 252 pp. Helios Rybicka E. (1996a) Impact of mining and metallurgical industries on the environment in Poland. Appl. Geochem. 11, 3±9. Helios Rybicka, E. (1996b). Geochemical control of mining operations. In Geochemical Approaches to Environmental Engineering of Metals, ed. R. Reuther. Springer±Verlag, Berlin, 221 pp. Helios Rybicka, E. (1996c) Environmental impact of mining and snmelting industries in Poland. In Environmental Geochemistry and Health, Vol. 113, ed. J. D. Appleton, R. Fuge, and C. J. H. McCall, Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., pp. 183±193. Hultman B. (1992) Water and wastewater management in the Baltic region. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 9, The Baltic University Programme. Uppsala University, Sweden. 37 pp. Jonsson P. (1992) Large-Scale Changes of Contamination in the Baltic Sea Sediments during the Twentieth Century. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Uppsala. Kautsky L. (1991) Life in the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 2, The Baltic University Programme. Uppsala University, Sweden. 37 pp. Marcinkiewicz J. (1987) Pollution in the Heart of Europe. Polish Society of Arts and Sciences Abroad, London, 55 pp. Plaza E., Rybicka, S. and Trela, J. (1992) Poland. In Water and wastewater management in the Baltic region. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 9, The Baltic University Programme, ed. Hultman B. Uppsala University, Sweden, pp. 26±29. Szefer P., Glasby G. P., Szefer K., Pempkowiak J. and Kaliszan R. (1996) Heavy-metal pollution in sur®cial sediments from the southern Baltic Sea o Poland. J. Environ. Sci. Health 31A, 2723±2754.
Applied Geochemistry, Vol. 13, pp. 285±286, 1998 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0883-2927/98 $19.00 + 0.00
Geochemical investigations of the Baltic Sea and surrounding areas P. Szefer* Department of Analytical Chemistry, Medical University of GdanÂsk, al. Gen. J. Hallera 107, 80-416 Gdansk, Poland
G. P. Glasby Department of Earth Sciences, University of Sheeld, Sheeld S3 7HP, U.K. (Received 9 September 1995; accepted in revised form 7 May 1997)
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989, collaboration between scientists of western Europe and the former Communist block has increased tremendously. One of the key problems to be tackled is that of the environmental degradation and remediation in Eastern Europe. However, support for such work remains well below that required for such a massive undertaking. The origin of the environmental problems in Eastern Europe stems largely from the framework in which communist countries operated. In Poland, for example, the environmental problems result from the rapid industrialization in areas rich in coal and minerals such as Silesia, the use of antiquated industrial plant with no proper facilities for the mitigation of pollution and the almost complete absence of municipal sewage treatment plants (Marcinkiewicz, 1987; Plaza et al., 1992; Helios Rybicka, 1996a,b,c; Szefer et al., 1996). It has been estimated that there are 1760 million tonnes of accumulated industrial waste in Poland of which about 1.5% are considered to be toxic (Dunnette et al., 1993). 87% of this originated from coal mining and power plant operations. The cost of cleaning up the Vistula River over a 20 year period has been estimated to be about 2,620 million ECU (HELCOM, 1994). The Baltic Sea is surrounded by former communist (Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the German Democratic Republic) and western European (German Federal Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) countries. The environmental quality of the Baltic Sea has deteriorated signi®cantly over the last 50 a (Glasby et al., 1997). Although much of the pollution has originated from the former communist countries, it is wrong to think that they are solely responsible for this eect. A problem remains that estimates of pollutant inputs into the Baltic from the various *Corresponding author. 285
countries are not always complete or comparable (HELCOM, 1993). Much eort will be required to derive mass balances for the inputs of the major pollutants into the Baltic Sea from their various source areas and to determine their ultimate repositories. The Baltic is particularly susceptible to pollution because it is a semi-enclosed sea with shallow sills. It is dependent on periodic major in¯ows of more saline, oxygenated water from the North Sea to ¯ush the anoxic waters of the Baltic deeps (Anon, 1990). Some of the problems facing the Baltic include: (a) eutrophication caused by inputs of nutrients from urban sewage and agricultural fertilizers, atmospheric transport of NO2 and remobilization of nutrients from sediments (Anon, 1990; Jonsson, 1992; HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), (b) input of heavy metals from many sources, mainly riverine but also atmospheric (Anon, 1990; Backlund et al., 1992; Hultman, 1992; HELCOM, 1993, HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b; BruÈgmann and Matschullat, 1997), (c) increased stagnation of bottom waters with a resultant increase in the areas of ``dead bottoms'' in the Baltic (Anon, 1990; Jonsson, 1992; HELCOM, 1993, HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), (d) the input of persistant organic chemicals into the Baltic such that the organochlorine residues in Baltic ®sh are 3±10 times higher than those in ®sh from the open ocean (Anon, 1990; Backlund et al., 1992; HELCOM, 1996a, HELCOM, 1996b), and (e) the consequences of dumping about 13 000 tonnes of chemical warfare agents in the areas of the Gotland Deep, Bornholm Deep and Little Belt after the Second World War (Glasby, 1997). Because much of the waste water discharged into the rivers entering the Baltic is inadequately treated, particularly in the former communist countries, it is clear that cleaning up these rivers such as the Neva, Vistula and Oder must be a priority (Backlund et al., 1992; Hultman, 1992). In particular, the need
286
P. Szefer and G. P. Glasby
for the introduction of ``clean technologies'' in these countries is an essential prerequisite for the regeneration of the Baltic (Hultman, 1992). There is some evidence that marine species in the Baltic Sea are more susceptible to pollution than those from the North Sea (Kautsky, 1991), again emphasizing the need for remedial measures. In order to overcome such problems, an integrated management approach will be required (Ferm, 1991). The need for the Baltic is to set some ambitious goal such as ``Forward to 1950'' which aims to bring the Baltic back to the relatively clean state that existed in 1950. The magnitude of this task can be seen by the fact that the cost was estimated to be 7 billion ECUs/a over the 60 a period that this project would take (Anon, 1990). The costs now would almost certainly be higher in the absence of any signi®cant improvements in the interim. The 5th Polish Conference on Analytical Chemistry was held in Gdansk from 3±9 September 1995 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the city of Gdansk. The theme of the conference was ``Analytics in the Service of Humanity and the Environment''. For the session on marine chemistry and analysis, we decided to focus on the environmental problems of the Baltic Sea and the surrounding areas, not only as a re¯ection of the position of Gdansk in the Baltic but also because of the seriousness with which we judged environmental problems of this region. In addition, we decided to invite speakers from Baltic States in both the E and W in an attempt to learn something of the problems throughout the region. This small collection of papers presents some new data on geochemical investigations being carried out in the Baltic region. Our aim in organizing this session was to stimulate collaboration between colleagues from east and west in the study of the problems of the Baltic Sea. We certainly succeeded within the con®nes of the conference and now hope to succeed within a wider context. REFERENCES Anon (1990) Status of the Baltic Sea ± A Sea in Transition. Ambio Special Report No. 7, 24. Backlund P., Holmbom B., LeppaÈkoski E. (1992) Industrial emissions and toxic pollutants. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 5, The Baltic University Programme, p. 36. Uppsala University, Sweden. BruÈgmann L., Matschullat J. (1997) Zur Biogeochemie und Bilanzierung von Schwermetallen in der Ostsee. In Geochemie und Umwelt Relevante Prozesse in Atmo-, Pedo- und HydrosphaÈre, ed. J. Matschullat, H. J. Tobschall and H.-J. Vogt, pp. 267±289. Springer± Verlag, Berlin. Dunnette D. A., Kowalik P., Krechniak J., Makinia J. (1993) Perspectives on hazardous emissions and pub-
lic health in Poland. In Hazardous Waste and Public Health: International Congress on the Health Eects of Hazardous Waste, ed. J. S. Andrews, H. Frumkin, B. L. Johnson, M. A. Mehlman, C. Xintaras and J. A. Bucsela, pp. 178±191. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA. Ferm R. (1991) Integrated management of the Baltic Sea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 23, 533±540. Glasby G. P. (1997) Disposal of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea. Sci. Total Environ. 206, 267±273. Glasby G. P., Emelyanov E. M., Zhamoida V. A., Baturin, G. N., Leipe, T., Bahlo, R., Bonacker, P. (1997) Environments of formation of ferromanganese concretions in the Baltic Sea: A critical review. In Manganese Mineralization: Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Terrestrial and Marine Deposits, ed. K. Nicholson, J. R. Hein, B. BuÈhn and S. Dasgupta, Vol. 119. Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ. pp. 213±237. HELCOM (1993) Second Baltic Sea pollution load compilation. Baltic Marine Environmental Proceedings, Vol. 45. HELCOM (1994) The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environment Action Programme. Baltic Marine Environmental Proceedings, Vol. 48. HELCOM (1996a) Third Periodic Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea, 1989± 1993; Executive Summary. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings, Vol. 64 A1, 26 pp. HELCOM (1996b) Third Periodic Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea, 1989± 1993; Background Document. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings, Vol. 64 B1, 252 pp. Helios Rybicka E. (1996a) Impact of mining and metallurgical industries on the environment in Poland. Appl. Geochem. 11, 3±9. Helios Rybicka, E. (1996b). Geochemical control of mining operations. In Geochemical Approaches to Environmental Engineering of Metals, ed. R. Reuther. Springer±Verlag, Berlin, 221 pp. Helios Rybicka, E. (1996c) Environmental impact of mining and snmelting industries in Poland. In Environmental Geochemistry and Health, Vol. 113, ed. J. D. Appleton, R. Fuge, and C. J. H. McCall, Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., pp. 183±193. Hultman B. (1992) Water and wastewater management in the Baltic region. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 9, The Baltic University Programme. Uppsala University, Sweden. 37 pp. Jonsson P. (1992) Large-Scale Changes of Contamination in the Baltic Sea Sediments during the Twentieth Century. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Uppsala. Kautsky L. (1991) Life in the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 2, The Baltic University Programme. Uppsala University, Sweden. 37 pp. Marcinkiewicz J. (1987) Pollution in the Heart of Europe. Polish Society of Arts and Sciences Abroad, London, 55 pp. Plaza E., Rybicka, S. and Trela, J. (1992) Poland. In Water and wastewater management in the Baltic region. The Baltic Sea Environment Session 9, The Baltic University Programme, ed. Hultman B. Uppsala University, Sweden, pp. 26±29. Szefer P., Glasby G. P., Szefer K., Pempkowiak J. and Kaliszan R. (1996) Heavy-metal pollution in sur®cial sediments from the southern Baltic Sea o Poland. J. Environ. Sci. Health 31A, 2723±2754.