Requirements to NSR Shore Reception Facilities

(By Gennady Semanov, V.Molchanov, S. Lotukhov, A. Stepanov, L. Gagieva ; INSROP Working Paper No. 64 – 1996, II.6.3)

The Northern Sea Route lies in the severe arctic climatic zone, and therefore such a special feature should be accounted for in both management of ship wastes and development of requirements to the shore reception facilities (SRFs).

Matters of reception and treatment of ship wastes with the SRFs in the NSR were considered in the INSROP project "Shore reception facilities". Two papers were prepared: the INSROP Report of 1994 (Part I) and the INSROP Report of 1995 (Part II).

Part I includes general description of the NSR ports: Murmansk, Archangel, Dikson, Igarka, Tiksi, Pevek and Providenje. The following information is given: short physiographical characterization of the port sites; types and quantities of cargoes handled; ecological state of waters in the port areas; equipment for collection and transfer of wastes to the shore; methods of treatment of ship wastes; the number of ship calls and a questionnaire for making judgement about the ship waste management.

In Part II it is pointed out that in the former USSR national standards of waste water treatment and discharge from ships in the Arctic basin were more limiting than the respective international standards, and that now, in Russia, they have not become less stringent. A not infrequent feature of cargo handling in the Arctic is the transshipment of cargoes from and to ships from the ice. This implies that the ship waste management in the Arctic is rather different from what is common in the ports of other climatic zones.

The fact is that a mistake, if committed, in the ship waste management system in Arctic conditions would cost very much, as the recovery of the ecosystem would be very expensive there and the general-system ecological consequences are unpredictable.

A conceptual suggestion on the NSR ship waste management is made: to integrate management into a double system of sea ways, the western and the eastern sections. At the centers (Murmansk, Archangel, Providenje and Nahodka) central treatment plants and full complexes of the SRFs should be provided. The ship waste management which complies with the MARPOL 73/78 requirements and rules and is used at present in the NSR ports is also considered. A description is given of national types of oil-garbage skimmers, floating receiving facilities, shore facilities for disposal of oily garbage and oil residues.

The possibility of providing some universal SRFs in the ports of Tiksi and Dudinka is indicated. It is worthwhile to consider the use of floating facilities with shallow draught for collecting wastes from ships with deep draught (on roads beyond the port area), as berths of the SRFs may be at shallow depths. The probable waste accumulation during a respective ship's voyage is calculated. Waste quantities discharged in ports are presented in the table not including the river craft which dispose wastes in river ports.

The report emphasises, that the severe climatic conditions in the NSR should be accounted for to develop the requirements for technology and equipment for ship waste treatment in the Arctic ports. For minimization of load on the SRFs, it is recommended that the ships operating along the NSR are extensively equipped with installations for the on-board utilization of wastes. The SRFs in Dudinka, Tiksi and some other ports of the NSR should be burdened only as much as to retain a reserve reception capacity for emergency actions in the NSR.

Gennady Semanov, V.Molchanov, S. Lotukhov, A. Stepanov, L. Gagieva, 1996, Requirements to NSR Shore Reception Facilities, INSROP.©