LOCAL ACTIONS OF LAND-BASED MARINE LITTER PREVENTION: THE CASE OF THE CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG Yulia Menshova, Expert Environmental Committee, City of St. Petersburg Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg One of the major tasks of the Environmental Committee of St.Petersburg is to implement state policy in the field of envi protection and eco safety • To provide eco well-being of water bodies: - treatment waters and coast lines from floating litter, - cleaning of internal waters bed (extraction of sediments and bulk waste from river and channel bed); • To provide safety of hydraulic engineering structures, incl. litter collecting; • To organize and carry out monitoring of the city’s coastal zones and internal waters and the Russian part of the GoF bed, incl. identification of illegal dumps; • To carry out the state eco control of water bodies, incl. identification of illegal dumps; • To format eco culture and advertise eco education on littering issue, incl. planned and volunteers actions on costal natural protected areas treatment; Relevant to actions oа land-based marine litter prevention on the local stage Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg 1. Annual activities on treatment waters and coast lines from litter and cleaning of water bodies bed Annual Local Programs on waters treatment (Committee’s responsibility) covers more than 90 water bodies in all 18 city’s districts: appr. 35-38% ( 275-300 km) of channels and rivers length requiring of treatement. Annual Municipal Programs on water tratment covers appr. 40- 43% of channels and rivers length requiring of treatement. Annual volume of litter collected during Local Programs implementation period exceeds 700 tons / 1 200 m3 of litter. Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg In 2000-2015 bed-cleaning campaigns covered 32 channels and rivers of SPb. The volume of extracted sediments exceeds 1 240 000 m3 in total. In 2013-2015 more than 8 900 pieces of bulk waste were collected from the rivers and channels bed (ferro-concrete structures, rail-tracks, timbers etc.) The most significant water transport and recreational arterias of the city such as Fontanka, Moyka, Slavyanka, Smolenka, Obvodny Channel etc. that join the Neva River were cleaned during last 3 years. Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg 2. Eco safety of hydraulic engineering structures (dams, water sluices, channels etc.) The functional idea of hydraulic engineering facilities is preventing adverse water impact and sustainable use of water resources by providing a controlled flowage Importance of timely litter and bulk waste collecting measures considered as mitigation of accident risk In 2015 total amount of registered HES in St.Petersburg was 33 facilities (operated by Committee’s subordinate enterprises). Annually HES amount increases by 1-3 facilities. In 2013-3015 the volume of collected litter exceeded 910 tons / 3 000 m3. Unregistered HES are considered as more dangerous than registered. Committee’s subordinate enterprises are responsible for flood-protection activities (waste collection) also for unregistered HES (in 2015- 50). Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg 3. Identification and timely removal of illegal dumps during monitoring and eco control campaigns In 2013-2015 44 illegal dumps in water protected zones were identified (by now 57% have been removed) in the framework annual operating eco control based on public complaints and appeals. In 2013-2015 during monitoring campaigns of the city’s coastal zones and bed of internal waters and the Russian part of the GoF (222 observation sites) 86 illegal dumps were identified (all of them were removed). Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg 4. Public awareness campaigns focusing on littering issue April, 23th 2016 – CLEAN BEACH campaign St.Petersburg, Tallinn, Turku and Helsinki Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg Composition of Smelt from the Gulf of Finland THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION! mail to: [email protected] Соmmittee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St.Petersburg.