The project is looking into the most practical and environmentally sound option for wastewater treatment processes to eliminate TBT and reduce heavy metals in dockyards. Pilot projects will test solutions and results will be integrated into a decision support tool for use across the region and beyond.

Heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POP) such as Tributyltin (TBT), are bio-accumulative, persistent in the environment and highly toxic. They pose a threat to the environment of the North Sea with ship and dockyards being major sources of TBT. The ?Green North Sea Docks?, GREEN NSD, main aim is to develop a common decision-support tool in cooperation with local Environmental Protection Agencies, harbour administrations and scientists, in order to provide decision makers with an instrument for sustainable management of the marine environment around dock and shipyards. This will enable advances in the management and development of knowledge, create opportunities for new technologies and a common, systematic and standard format capable of producing a standardised database to facilitate the flow of information on a European scale.

Expected Outcomes

Numerous outcomes are expected including a comparison of treatment processes by small-scale process units leading to the development of suitable treatment processes for TBT and heavy metals and their elimination or reduction in dockyard wastewater. To support the technical processes a holistic approach to environmental management will be developed with analytical tools, cross-border harmonisation of assessment strategies and knowledge transfer, and the accounting of social, economic and environmental aspects for Integrated Costal Zone Management (ICZM). The cross-border transfer of knowledge will also improve regulation criteria with a common strategy tool preventing the distortion of competition for dockyards and harbours between project member states. Finally, experiences from this project will be incorporated into decision-support tools that can be used for assessing the effects of political decisions on the environment and economy with regard to ICZM.

Activities

The project work will take the form of a number of pilots that will apply specific technical processes designed to remove Tributyltin (TBT) from harbour waters. The proposed processes are - the electrochemical decomposition of organotin compounds combined with precipitation to remove heavy metals - removal of the same pollutants from water by two different adsorption processes (eg clay minerals and Metasorb) - biodegradation and photo-oxidation (for comparison purposes) The performance of the projects will be verified by the use of real dockyard wastewater from different European countries. Various assessments will also be carried out to determine the suitability of the technical processes for use in the real world, including the extent to which such processes can be carried out in harbours, the environmental risk of each of the processes, risk assessment of the solid waste and treated water, energy and chemical demands of the processes, cost and so on. The advisory board will critically review project progress. Work will also be carried out on the potential market for new and untested (in the market) processes as well as the willingness of the general public to pay for cleaner discharges from shipyards. A final assessment will be carried out of the results and will include external experts and a stakeholder council to ensure dialogue and the participation of local and regional stakeholders. A website will be produced for both the public and project partners.

Reported Outcomes

In addition to universities and research institutions which are heavily involved in the project work, great efforts have been made to involve other influence sectors. Information and cooperation has been obtained from a dockyard in Germany and environmental administrations in the participating countries. Furthermore, the project partners are active in involving national level organisations like Danish Ports and the Norwegian Pollution Authority. Furthermore, improving environmental conditions is in the heart of the project. A discharge criteria common or the whole region is under development. It is hoped that the implementation of the criteria will help avoid competition among dockyards in the different countries. On the other hand it will also lead to a better protection of the acquatic environment by avoiding input of toxic chemicals at the source. As a result from the project work some of the project analysis has been used in Germany in discussions of sectoral criteria for dockyards. This has been done in cooperation with the local Environment Protection Agency where work was underway for setting up regulation criteria for the German Water Ordinance. This work is now completed and the results from the project provided a useful input. Links with countries from the Baltic Sea region are also established and stakeholder interest from the European Sea Ports Organisation has been drawn to the project. The project organised two surveys on socio-economic aspects of shipyards. The first study aimed to explore the willingness of dockyards for changing the action to sustainable management, whereas the aim of the second one was to investigate the trend of willingness for improvements in the field of shipyards wastewater treatment. In addition to that, the project has been conducting an active dissemination strategy. It took part in the Europe week in Hamburg and in the CoastNet conference organised in Ghent. A newsletter, available at the project website, was also produced. Further details about the test carried out can be obtained from the project website: www.greendocks.de