1. INTRODUCTION: PROJECT METHODOLOGY.

 

1.1. The Project “Environmental Audit of the System of Management of Wastewater and Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities of the City of Nezhyn, Ukraine” has been implemented in accordance with the overall goal and objectives as specified in the research assistance agreement within the framework of the UNDP-GEF Dnipro Basin Environment Program.

 

The overall goal was to develop general approaches and methodology of conducting a comprehensive environmental express-audit of the municipal wastewater management system in a small city located on a small Dnipro Basin river (Oster River which is a tributary of the Desna River).

 

1.2. Taking into account the fact that the Project was implemented for demonstration purposes and in view of complexity of its tasks which included the demonstration of the potential of a comprehensive environmental express-audit in a small city and development of complex conclusions and recommendations concerning the condition of its environmental wastewater management system and technical condition of its treatment facilities we selected and used the methodology of a comprehensive express-audit as a basis. This methodology was tested by the International Dnipro Fund in the course of implementing a number of projects aimed at introducing environmental; audit in various branches of the Ukrainian economy and regions of Ukraine as part of the Environmental Management Development in Ukraine Program jointly conducted by Ukraine and Canada (Dnipro Basin).

 

1.3. In view of the above the preparatory phase included the development of a comprehensive environmental express-audit protocol and the setting up of a multi-profile team of auditors (See Addendum 1).

 

The comprehensive environmental express-audit protocol was considered at the preliminary meeting of the Nezhyn city state administration (chaired by the deputy city administration head L.O.Karmanov). The list of the participants is presented in Addendum 2. The audit team members detailed those present on the Project goal and objectives and updated them on the general environmental audit methodology of an environmental audit and its legal international and national framework (ISO 14000 standards, European Rules 1836/92 and the international cooperation strategy in the field of the Dnipro Basin environmental rehabilitation). After considering the Protocol the meeting participants made appropriate changes and distributed it among all the Nezhyn Project participants.

 

1.4. During the subsequent stages of a comprehensive environmental audit the audit team worked further on the Protocol to bring it in line with the actual state of affairs in Nezhyn city if practicable and to the extent required. The audit was conducted from June 4 through June 27, 2002.

 

1.5. Taking into account a short time limit set for an environmental audit (express-audit) a preliminary discussion of municipal environmental problems took place at the city-wide workshop devoted to environmental issues and based on the audit results. The participants included not only representatives from the city administration and industry but also the general public and teachers and students of the city educational establishments.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN.

 

2.1. Overall Project goal was to develop a methodology of conducting a comprehensive environmental express-audit of the municipal system of wastewater management in small cities located in the Dnipro Basin.

 

2.2. Certified environmental auditors: Yuriy Mykolayovych Satalkin, candidate of technical science, assistant professor of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Environment and Resources; Viacheslav Valeriyovych Serenko, wastewater treatment specialist.

 

2.3. Consultants – Experts: Serhiy Vadymovych Kalynovskyi, department head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; Yevhen Mykhailovych Motoryn, department head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; Heorhiy Olexiyovych Biliavskyi, professor, doctor of geological and mineral sciences, head of the environmental policy and education department of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Environment and Resources; Kostiantyn Olexiyovych Chebotko, candidate of chemical science, head of the Hydrochemistry Department of the Joint Stock Company “Ukrvodoproekt”; Mykola Mykolayovych Tsyhankov, director of the Center for Preparation and Implementation of International Investment Projects.

 

2.4. Objects of the Comprehensive Environmental Express-Audit (CEEA):

 

- Nezhyn city environmental management systems (administrative, departmental, enterprise-level);

- Nezhyn city water supply and sanitation department (WSSD);

- Nezhyn city wastewater treatment facilities.

 

2.5. CEEA’s Goals:

 

- raise public awareness of the present-day role and methodology of the environmental management and audit;

- make an express-assessment of the status of the Nezhyn wastewater management system at the three hierarchical levels: administrative, departmental, enterprise-level.;

- make an express-assessment of the level of interaction of the administrative management system with the city civic organizations;

- assess whether the wastewater management system meets applicable standards, including international ones;

- make an express-assessment of the technical capacity of the Nezhyn water supply and sanitation system;

- develop recommendations to improve the municipal wastewater management system;

- develop an educational program based on the environmental audit results with a view to introducing it into the municipal environmental education system.

 

2.6. Environmental Audit Criteria: The effective Ukrainian environmental legislation, state standards of the DSTU 14000 type, regulatory acts of the central housing and communal economy agency, local regulations, environmental programs, and hands-on experience in conducting environmental audits and improving the environmental management system.

 

2.7. Evidence Produced by the CEEA:

 

Positive:

- active ecological position and activities of local civic organizations: MAMA-86 (head V.M.Schokin) in partnership with UNED-Forum (UK), Nezhyn environmental youth organization – NEMO (MTO NEMO Council head I.I.Chornyi), Green World (head R.I.Nahorniuk); and of educational establishments (Dean of the Economics and Technology Faculty, professor B.S.Kondratenko);

- availability of the infrastructure underpinning the cooperation between the local administrative system and the city community in the environmental field (City-District Council of the Society for the Protection of Nature of Ukraine affiliated with the City Executive Council, Commission for Technogenous and Environmental Safety and Emergency Situations, Public Committee for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Program affiliated with the Nezhyn City Council);

- constant environmental efforts of the city administration head’s consultant, chairman of the Presidium of the City-District Council of the Society for the Protection of Nature of Ukraine, Mykhailo Opanasovych Kharchuk;

- Municipal Environmental Action Program for Nezhyn for a period from 2001 to 2005;

- Environmental Rehabilitation Program covering the area inhabited by the city community;

- Public Local Action Plan on Environmental Hygiene in the Nezhyn city for a period from 2002 to 2006, which was developed by the civic organization called MAMA-86 in accordance with the National Action Plan in the field of environmental hygiene and endorsed by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No 1556 of 13/10/2000. The Plan, inter alia, envisages the improvement of drinking water quality;

- public management of environmental education in Nezhyn and Nezhyn region with the main managerial and organizational duties being performed by NEMO which brings together environmental movement enthusiasts from the city and district education departments, school teachers, senior school pupils and students;

- active environmental position of the local press, notably the Nezhyn News Bulletin;

- establishment of a subdivision responsible for the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the city within the Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy. The subdivision is concerned with the improvement of sanitary and epidemiological situation of the city area and tightening of control over unsanctioned waste dumps;

- non-existence of the municipal river water extraction system on the Oster River (the city uses groundwater sources to cover its water needs);

- water treatment facilities do not work at their full capacity (while their designed capacity is 14 343 m3/per 24 hours their operating capacity is 10 000 m3/per 24 hours);

- practice of issuing discharge permits to enterprises authorizing them to discharge effluent into the city ponds;

- wells were drilled for monitoring groundwater pollution levels in the municipal water intake system;

- 4 refuse collectors were built which allow for the separate storage of waste;

- local environmental funds are being used for their intended purpose: improvement of the hydrological status of the Oster River, planting of trees and shrubbery, building of channels to drain water-saturated land plots.

 

Negative:

- weak and irregular (occasional) coordination of efforts at the three levels of the municipal environmental management: administrative, departmental and enterprise-level;

- non-existence of the local economic source of the leverage over the environmental policy and city industrial activities;

- non-existence of the common and concerted municipal environmental policy which meets national legislative requirements and standards of the DSTU ISO 14000 type

- non-existence of responsible persons in the municipal environmental management system (city chief ecologist in the city administration, engineers-ecologists at polluting enterprises);

- inconsistencies in administrative and civic environmental programs and action plans;

- non-existence of the municipal sewage collection system resulting in wastewater from the city center, embankment and the city market being discharged into the Oster River;

- failure to fix boundaries of shore-line strips (buffer zones) along the Oster River and its tributaries and to set up landmarks, which results in the unsanctioned construction of cottage houses, land dissipation and accumulation of waste and refuse;

- soil and peat extraction on certain shore-line strips;

- Oster River bottom is overgrown with algae and is littered with withered tree stumps;

- Oster river banks are not being fortified while vegetation is being cut out;

- Nezhyn city is located inside the Chernobyl zone and has a high mortality rate;

- drinking water extracted from artesian wells from a depth of 130 to 200 m does not undergo any treatment. Its high iron content needs to be reduced (sometimes it exceeds the maximum acceptable concentration level by 1.7 to 6.7 %);

- 50% of Nezhyn population use 225 private wells to cover their drinking water needs. Water quality in such wells is from 2.4 to 10.1 times worse then that in the centralized water supply system. The major pollutants are nitrogen-containing compounds (nitrates and nitrites);

- Nezhyn water supply system has been in service since 1928 and needs capital reconstruction. The water distribution network is connected up? however it has a large number of cul-de-sac branch pipes. It is not flushed (washed) on a regular basis and 44% of the network cost has been depreciated to zero;

- non-existence of alternative drinking water sources as well the application of methods of further treatment and water bottling;

- water treatment facilities are in an extremely poor condition (on the verge of a breakdown);

- the quality of wastewater discharged by industrial polluters is not monitored on a regular basis;

- legal relations between the Nezhyn Water Supply and Sanitation Department (WSSD) and the city administration, on the one hand and industrial polluters, on the other, have not been settled;

- the legal status (Charter) of the Nezhyn WSSD needs to be brought in conformity with regulatory and legal acts of the Ukrainian central housing and communal economy agency as far as licensing and rating are concerned;

- enterprises discharge into the municipal sewage collection system contaminated water whose COD exceeds the permissible concentrations 10 times. This has resulted in the loss of biocenosis of the activated silt stored at wastewater treatment facilities;

- when the wastewater treatment facilities were overloaded with rainwater ( at the capacity of 28 000 m3) they underwent emergency decontamination without proper compensation.

 

2.8. CEEA Findings:

 

- In the city of Nezhyn the city administration, executive committee and local community are taking concerted measures to rehabilitate and improve the environmental status of water bodies as well as to refine wastewater management. However, these measures are not sufficient to improve the current demographic situation in the city and its main utilities.

- Taking into account the state standards DSTU ISO 14001 and 14004, Nezhyn has no coherent municipal environmental management system, nor does it have consistent and balanced allocation of responsibilities among its three hierarchical levels, namely: administrative, departmental and enterprise.

- Wastewater management carried out by the Nezhyn WSSD is not legally regulated since even though it provides state centralized water supply and disposal services this department in fact operates in accordance with the Regional Community Charter which does not provide for water supply and disposal services. This situation contravenes current regulatory acts governing issues pertaining to the housing and communal economy of Ukraine as well as rules governing the rating and licensing of water supply and disposal services.

- Legal and economic problems of water supply and disposal are not regulated. Privatized industrial polluters and Nezhyn WSSD have not entered into any contractual relations and in cases where they have done so these relations are a mere formality which has been proven by the losses incurred by the Vodokanal. The city administration efforts to enhance the effectiveness of contractual relations in the field of water supply and disposal are inadequate.

- Nezhyn wastewater treatment facilities are extremely overloaded (as a rule, they operate below capacity) when rainwater and contaminated process water of certain enterprises (the dairy factory, railway station, etc.) are discharged into the municipal sewerage system. The wastewater discharged by enterprises does not receive any pretreatment. All this disrupts the production cycle of water treatment facilities and damages their activated silt.

- Wastewater treatment facilities accumulate sludge in quantities exceeding the estimated targets. The sewage collection system contains considerable concentrations of phenols, oil products and other harmful substances that are threatening the wastewater bio-treatment process.

- The city’s main drinking water sources are artesian wells comprising the centralized water supply system as well as privately-owned wells (50% vs. 50%). Centrally supplied water does not undergo any pre-treatment (removal of iron), and drinking water in private wells is contaminated by nitrogen-containing compounds (nitrates and nitrites). The quality of water supplied to the city may be classified as unsatisfactory and as a high risk to people’s health.

- The environmental status of the Oster River within the city boundaries should be classified as inconsistent with the environmental legislation requirements and Water Code of Ukraine.

- The city has no regular environmental control nor does it monitor its wastewater quality. The mechanism of state environmental sanctions has been put in place but is not truly effective.

- The technical condition of wastewater treatment facilities and of the sewerage system may be assessed as critical with high probability of a breakdown in which case the Owner of the facilities and the city administration are likely to bear heavy administrative responsibility and incur great material losses.

 

2.9. CEEA Recommendations for the City of Nezhyn:

 

1. Develop and proclaim a coherent municipal environmental policy while enlisting the support of the general public in compliance with the effective state environmental policy (Top Priorities of the State Policy of Ukraine in the Field of Environmental Protection, Natural resources Use and Environmental Safety”), National Program for the Dnipro Basin Environmental Rehabilitation and Drinking Water Quality Improvement, European Rules on Environmental Management and Audit and state standards DSTU ISO 14000.

 

2. Create administrative and legal framework under[pinning the implementation of the municipal environmental policy. This calls for the adoption of local regulatory and legal acts by the City Executive Committee of the City Council of People’s Deputies and the City State Administration Head. Facilitate greater responsibility for implementing the municipal environmental policy by appointing City Chief Ecologist who will work for the City State Administration and will be designated as Deputy City Administration Head, by appointing Leading Ecologist of Nezhyn WSSD and engineers-ecologists of major industrial dischargers.

 

3. Bring the legal status of the Nezhyn WSSD in line with the legislation and regulations of the Central Housing and Communal Economy Agency by re-registering the Charter and taking into account the need to clearly separate compulsory state duties from economic contractual duties in its dealings with economic agents and financial sources.

 

4. Ensure transparency of the allocation of local environmental funds in accordance with recommendations of independent environmental auditors and ensure the public participation in this process in order to implement a consolidated environmental policy.

 

5. With the assistance of the International Dnipro Fund experts, develop programs aimed at raising the expertise in environmental matters of officials responsible for implementing the municipal environmental policy, who work at all the levels of the municipal environmental management (administrative, departmental and enterprise). Allocate local environmental funds for such purposes and assign local educational establishments to conduct such programs.

 

6. Develop and endorse a municipal program of support for eco-friendly businesses in compliance with the Edict of the President of Ukraine on the Support for Entrepreneurship with due regard for the priorities of the municipal consolidated environmental policy. The first priority to be taken care of is the construction of a technological landfill for the production of organic fertilizers from wastewater sludge and local organic fillers (stacked straw stored on the fields surrounding Nezhyn). The landfill is expected to be built on the concrete ground of Nezhyn WSSD wastewater treatment facilities.

 

7. Review priorities and financial sources of endorsed local environmental programs including the public ones. Priority should be given to the capital-saving modernization of industrial dischargers at their own expense, creation of capacities for drinking water treatment and wastewater pre-treatment, as well as to the monitoring of wastewater and of contamination of privately owned wells by nitrates.

 

8. Develop and endorse a local Oster River Environmental Rehabilitation Program to be implemented within Nezhyn boundaries as part of the National Program for the Dnipro Basin Environmental Rehabilitation and Drinking Water Quality Improvement.

 

9. Speed up activities of the local environmental control bodies: Nezhyn Ecology and Natural resources Department and Nezhyn Environmental Inspectorate by actively involving them in the implementation of the municipal consolidated environmental policy.

 

10. Include an environmental specialization for senior school pupils and students in the curricula of local educational establishments taking as a case in point the resolution of applied problems of the municipal consolidated environmental policy and on the basis production and training centers (Nezhyn Vodokanal, etc.).

 

11. Recommend that the following training courses be introduced into the specialized program of study “Municipal Environmental Management and Audit System” (MEMAS):

- Goal of the MEMAS Program;

- Municipal environmental management system and its functions

- Municipal environmental policy and its implementation mechanisms;

- d)Local and national environmental programs;

- Management of water supply and disposal;

- Municipal wastewater management;

- Environmental rehabilitation of water bodies and territories;

- Drinking water sources and municipal systems of drinking water treatment and wastewater pre-treatment;

- Municipal eco-friendly entrepreneurship;

- Municipal environmental monitoring and control system;

- Interaction with the environmentally-conscious city community.

 

2.10. Recommendations for the GEF – Strategic Action Plan (SAP) concerning the improvement of wastewater management in small cities located in the Dnipro Basin and based on the implementation of MEMAS.

 

1. CEEA findings for Nezhyn confirmed the distinguishing features of wastewater management in small cities located in the Dnipro Basin:

- the wastewater management system as it exists in small cities for the most part does not comply with state standards DSTU ISO 14000 – the fact that demonstrates its low level of professional sophistication;

- interrelationship among all the levels of municipal environmental management (administrative, departmental and enterprise) is out of legal balance;

- ineffectiveness of the economic mechanism that regulates relations between the city authorities and the Nezhyn WSSD and privatized enterprises that discharge their effluent into the municipal sewerage system;

- the fact that municipal environmental programs give priority to capital intensive measures given at a time when the city incurs a budget deficit results in the non-execution of these programs and discredits them in the eyes of the local community. At the same time, environmental audits conducted in the Dnipro Basin (Zaporizhia city, Kyiv Oblast, etc.) with the assistance of Canadian specialists show that the greatest benefits may be derived from capital-saving measures and above all from managerial ones (such as legal and economic mechanisms of interaction among different types of ownership, and identification of responsibilities);

- low responsibility of officials of the municipal environmental management system and its high functional non-compliance with the existing legislation and environmental norms and standards;

- municipal water supply and disposal system relies heavily on the water extracted from privately-owned wells on livestock farms, which are contaminated by nitrates.

 

2. Taking into account the above-mentioned specific features of the wastewater management system, which are common to all small cities, it is recommended that the SAP should require that all small cities based in the Dnipro Basin conduct compulsory express-audits. Such audits should be financed from local environmental funds and be conducted in accordance with the methodology devised in Nezhyn.

 

3. Recommendations to conduct compulsory CEEAs may be endorsed by a joint decision of oblast state administrations and local government bodies (local communities). It is expected that these recommendations will be used to bring the operation of the existing municipal wastewater management systems in conformity with the legal and regulatory framework governing water supply and disposal services.

 

4. It is recommended that the SAP envisage that small cities should gradually introduce the position of a Chief City Ecologist who will act as a proponent of the municipal environmental policy. The measure should be financed from local environmental funds and thanks to the flexible system of licensing and rating water supply and disposal services. Cities whose environment is at the greatest risk of being damaged should be covered first and in accordance with the matrix-based priority-setting technique based on the CEEA results.

 

5. Ukraine has developed a sectoral regulatory framework governing centralized water supply and disposal services. This framework guarantees that consumers are supplied with good quality drinking water, regulates the environmental protection and wastewater disposal, treatment, monitoring, registration and control. At the same time, cities are governed by local communities and this local government system is out of balance from the standpoint of the water supply and disposal management.

The wastewater management problems should be regulated by local community charters and administrative rules of small cities with due regard for the reallocation of communal property, responsibilities and a contractual mechanism of interaction with the private sector, i.e. private water users and polluters, and taking into account the relative significance of this sector.

 

6. Ukraine has joined the European Local Government Charter thereby incorporating it into its legislation. Additionally, it has ratified the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. It is therefore necessary to develop a mechanism of ensuring the public participation in the adoption of decisions facilitating the sustained development and management of the local water supply and disposal system. Activities of local civic environmental organizations should be promoted in the following way:

- develop joint administrative and public action plans aimed at preventing contamination of water intakes located on small rivers and of aquifers and at protecting wells from contamination by nitrates;

- guarantee the participation of civic environmental organizations in the wastewater monitoring, especially at individual enterprises;

- ensure the mass media’s efficient support for civic organizations’ activities and distribute printed explanatory and cautionary materials;

- conduct environmental street raids in small cities with the participation of young people in order to raise awareness and educate local communities in the issues such as safety of consumption of drinking well water and decontamination of wastewater and street, industrial and domestic water.

 

7. It is recommended that the SAP should incorporate a special chapter covering small cities and settlements and entitled “Drinking Well Water”. This problem is vital for the whole Ukraine as was proven by an environmental audit conducted in Nezhyn. In this city the ratio of centralized public water supply to well water supply is 50% vs. 50%, which means that some 40, 000 city residents consume nitrate-containing drinking water. It is evident that there is a clear causal link between this factor and the high mortality rate registered in the city. The accumulation of nitrogen-containing pollutants (due to private and collective livestock production and application of fertilizers) that continued for many years has resulted in a massive contamination of privately-owned wells. While public wells are regularly cleaned up and disinfected, private wells are practically left intact – the situation which can be traced among other things to a low environmental awareness of the population. Environmental composting of livestock production and human wastes is practically not used. As farm production grows the risk of drinking well water getting contaminated by nitrates will increase considerably.

 

8. It is recommended that the SAP should include an optimal methodology of drafting action plans envisaging capital-saving comprehensive measures implemented in accordance with the “factor 4” principle. The latter means cutting expenses by half and doubling the resultant effect as well as using the business scheme of a “snowball growth” (i.e. a small project generates capital for a big one). A good example of a small city project might be the development of a fertilizer production technology using wastewater sludge and organic fillers (such as rotten stacked straw stored in the fields for many years).

 

9. To promote the SAP among the population it is very important to demonstrate the effectiveness of local remedial action plans using as evidence capital-saving measures recommended in the CEEA’s findings. Therefore, in the opinion of the Project executors it would make sense to extend this Project but under a different name such as “Implementation of Comprehensive Capital-Saving Measures Aimed at the Environmental Rehabilitation of Small Cities Based on the Recommendations of the Comprehensive Environmental Express-Audit”. This will help make capital-intensive programs and projects more successful.

3. GENERAL INFORMATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT OBJECT.

 

3.1. City of Nezhyn.

 

Nezhyn is a city located in the Chernihiv Oblast. It is a district (rayon) center situated on the Oster River (a tributary of the Desna River) some 80 km of the oblast center – the city of Chernihiv. It is a motor road and railway junction. The city covers an area of 42 sq. km and has a population of 79,900.

 

As regards its physical and geographical location, the city is located in the center of a forest-steppe zone and enjoys a moderately humid climate. The city area belongs to the left-bank lowlands of the Dnipro-Desna bench plain.

 

It is first mentioned in the Ipativsk chronicles as early as 1147 under the name of Unenezh. Nezhyn can be rightfully considered as the most brilliant pearl in the Slavutych necklace - a tourist route across famous historical sites of Ukraine.

 

The city infrastructure includes a drama theater, a cultural center, 22 medical institutions, 17 secondary schools, 3 vocational training schools, a school of culture and arts, agrotechnical institute, musical school, M.V.Hohol pedagogical institute, medical school, choreography school and an arts school.

 

Nezhyn is an important administrative, industrial, educational and cultural center. The city has a number of industries among which the major ones include machine manufacturing, food-processing, consumer goods and chemistry. The city’s 16 major industrial enterprises account for the following shares in the city’s industrial potential: food-processing enterprises - 31.7% machine manufacturing enterprises – 33.3% and chemical enterprises – 15.0%.

 

Some products manufactured by the city enterprises are well-known throughout Ukraine. These include paint and varnish produced by the ZAT “Nifar”, beer made by the VAT “Brewery”, furniture of the VAT “Furniture Factory” and the Production and Industrial Complex “Kurier”, food oil produced by the VAT “Fat-Products Plant”, and medical equipment manufactured by laboratories of scanning devices and NVP “Metekol”.

 

During the 6 months of 2001 the city’s industrial output reached UAH 31.2 mn. The growth rate relative to the corresponding period of the last year totaled 114.4%. The volume of production of consumer goods reached UAH 13.8 mn.

 

All industries, excluding the wood-processing and food industries, exceeded last year’s production targets. 10 enterprises which account for 62.5% of the total number of city enterprises, increased their volume of production. During six months the total retail trade turnover (including that of the public food catering system) amounted to UAH 19.1 mn as expressed in current prices.

 

3.2. City Major Enterprises – Effluent Dischargers.

 

1. Nezhyn Water Supply and Sanitation Department.

2. NVK “Progres” – produces photo goods and devices, hunting shotguns, medical equipment, and household goods

3. VAT “Nezhyn Mechanical Plant” – produces equipment for the agro-industrial sector.

4. “Nezhyncilmash” Plant – produces equipment for poultry production, spare parts for motor cars and bicycles as well as fittings and fixtures for oil and gas pipelines.

5. VAT “Nezhyn Brewery” – produces beer.

6. VAT “Nezhyn Fat-Products Plant” - produces and sells drying oil, paint and varnish, oil and oil cake.

7. ZAT “Nifar” - produces and supplies paint and varnish, scouring powders and plant protection agents.

8. VAT “Nezhyn Furniture Factory” – produces furniture.

9. Firm “Kurier” – produces and repairs furniture.

10. VAT “Nezhyn-Agrokhim” – produces agricultural fertilizers

11. Nezhyn Central Repair Plant – produces petroleum and diesel electrical accessories, and welding plants with a diesel engine. Repairs crankshafts and engines of the Moskvich motor car.

12. ARK “Nezhynskyi” Plant

13. Milk Plant – produces a wide variety of high quality dairy products.

14. “Arsenal” Plant

15. Meat-Processing Plant – produces a wide range of high quality meat productsї.

16. Tinned Food Factory“Polissia”

17. Food and Vegetable –Processing Plant – produces a wide range of fruit and vegetable products.

18. Nezhyn branch of the ZAO “Lozovskyi Plant “Tractor Accessories” – manufactures spare part of tractors and agricultural equipment.

19. Multi-purpose branch “Nezhyninvestbud” – manufactures concrete and iron constructions, invests in housing construction, implements civil and industrial engineering projects , repair and construction works and sells building materials..

20. “Nezhyn” Railway Station.

4. FINDINGS OF THE COMPREHENSIVE EXPRESS-AUDIT OF THE MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

 

1. In the city of Nezhyn the city administration, executive committee and local community are taking concerted measures to rehabilitate and improve the environmental status of water bodies as well as to refine wastewater management. However, these measures are not sufficient to improve the current demographic situation in the city and its main utilities.

 

2. Taking into account the state standards DSTU ISO 14001 and 14004, Nezhyn has no coherent municipal environmental management system, nor does it have consistent and balanced allocation of responsibilities among its three hierarchical levels, namely: administrative, departmental and enterprise.

 

3. Wastewater management carried out by the Nezhyn WSSD is not legally regulated since even though it provides state centralized water supply and disposal services this department in fact operates in accordance with the Regional Community Charter which does not provide for water supply and disposal services. This situation contravenes current regulatory acts governing issues pertaining to the housing and communal economy of Ukraine as well as rules governing the rating and licensing of water supply and disposal services.

 

4. Legal and economic problems of water supply and disposal are not regulated. Privatized industrial polluters and Nezhyn WSSD have not entered into any contractual relations with each other and in cases where they have done so these relations are a mere formality which has been proven by the losses incurred by the Vodokanal. The city administration’s efforts to enhance the effectiveness of contractual relations in the field of water supply and disposal are inadequate.

 

5. Nezhyn wastewater treatment facilities are extremely overloaded (as a rule, they operate below capacity) when rainwater and contaminated process water of certain enterprises (the dairy factory, railway station, etc.) are discharged into the municipal sewerage system. The wastewater discharged by enterprises does not receive any pretreatment. All this disrupts the production cycle of water treatment facilities and damages their activated silt.

 

6. Wastewater treatment facilities accumulate sludge in quantities exceeding the estimated targets. The sewage collection system contains considerable concentrations of phenols, oil products and other harmful substances that are threatening the wastewater bio-treatment process.

 

7. The city’s main drinking water sources are artesian wells comprising the centralized water supply system as well as privately-owned wells (50% vs 50%). Centrally supplied water does not undergo any pre-treatment (removal of iron), and drinking water in private wells is contaminated by nitrogen-containing compounds (nitrates and nitrites). The quality of water supplied to the city may be classified as unsatisfactory and as a high risk to people’s health.

 

8. The environmental status of the Oster River within the city boundaries should be classified as inconsistent with the environmental legislation requirements and Water Code of Ukraine.

 

9. The city has no regular environmental control, nor does it monitor its wastewater quality. The mechanism of state environmental sanctions has been put in place but is not truly effective.

 

10. The technical condition of wastewater treatment facilities and of the sewerage system may be assessed as critical with high probability of a breakdown in which case the Owner of the facilities and the city administration are likely to bear heavy administrative responsibility and incur great material losses.

 

11. No assessment is made of the efficiency of the municipal environmental management which prevents its constant updating viewed as an importance component of the operation of this system.

 

12. Liquid domestic and industrial waste is removed by several economic operators (Nezhyn WSSD, Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy [City Sanitary Clean-up Workshop] and industrial dischargers). Also, industrial dischargers have been occasionally reported to dispose of liquid waste at their discretion without any prior approval. The liquid waste disposal management system does not envisage the implementation of a common and agreed environmental policy, institution of uniform and effective contractual mechanisms with customers and effective control over liquid waste removal and quality.

 

13. City government officials are not familiar with the provisions of the Aarhus Convention. As a result, the city community does not participate in environmental decision-making and community participation has not become a full-blown component of the municipal environmental management system.

 

14. Active environmental position and activities of civic environmental organizations and the local mass media whereby they raise the population’s awareness of the city’s environmental problems, problems of public water supply, protection of maternity and childhood and involve young people in these activities are viewed as a facilitating factor and should receive special attention of the local authorities and should be coordinated with measures taken within the municipal environmental management system.

 

15. In the light of the basin principle of water resources management the Oster River, which is a water body of oblast and district-level significance, does not receive proper attention within the municipal environmental management system. The coordination of efforts between the municipal and regional authorities in the field of basin management is inadequate. .

 

16. Centralized water supply and disposal services provided by the WSSD are underfinanced by the State.

 

17. The WSSD Charter does not have a chapter setting forth the framework of the declared environmental policy in the field of water resources protection. Nor does the Charter give an insight into interrelationship and cooperation in the field of eco-management between the WSSD an the local authorities, bodies of the State Environmental Inspectorate, State Water Economy Committee, etc, as well as local civic organizations.

 

18. The technical and organizational level of wastewater treatment facilities does not meet technogenous and environmental safety requirements established for objects classified as dangerous (emergency power supply source has not been installed, the facilities are not fenced in or protected, emergency action plans to be followed in case of emergency of a technogenous or natural nature are unavailable).

 

19. A positive example for the Nezhyn enterprises is the operation of the VAT “Nezhynskyi Meat-Processing Plant” which implements an effective environmental policy, fulfills its contractual obligations and purposefully carries out environmental management measures.

 

20. The fact that the municipal environmental management system has no responsible workers (chief city ecologist in the city administration and engineers-ecologists at industrial dischargers) impedes the development of effective environmental management systems.

Addendum 1.

AUDIT TEAM MEMBERS

 

Project leader:

 

Vasyl Mykolayovych Navrotskyi, Chairman of the Board of the International Dnipro Fund

 

Environmental auditors:

 

Yuriy Mykolayovych Satalkin, candidate of technical science, assistant professor of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Environment and Resources, environmental audit methodology specialist

Viacheslav Valeriyovych Serenko, specialist in wastewater treatment technologies

Valeriy Vasylyovych Hetman, senior research worker of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Environment and Resources, specialist in environmental management systems.

 

Consultants – Experts:

 

Serhiy Vadymovych Kalynovskyi, department head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources;

Yevhen Mykhailovych Motoryn, department head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources;

Heorhiy Olexiyovych Biliavskyi, professor, doctor of geological and mineral sciences, head of the environmental policy and education department of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Environment and Resources;

Kostiantyn Olexiyovych Chebotko, candidate of chemical science, head of the Hydrochemistry Department of the Joint Stock Company “Ukrvodoproekt”.

Addendum 2.

LIST OF THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE NEZHYN WORKSHOP ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

 

The city workshop was held on June 7, 2002 in the premises the Nezhyn City Council. The workshop participants focused their attention on the implementation of the Project “Environmental Audit of the System of Management of Wastewater and Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities of the City of Nezhyn, Ukraine”, environmental profile of Nezhyn and the Oster River, municipal water supply and disposal problems and the operation of the municipal wastewater management system.

 

The participants were greeted by the deputy city administration head responsible for the functioning of the Council executive bodies, L.O.Karmanov. He updated the participants on the environmental situation in the city and environmental policy pursued by the Nezhyn City Council in the field of water supply and disposal.

 

H.O.Biliavskyi made a presentation devoted to global environmental problems, noospheregenesis and Ukraine’s state environmental policy aimed at ensuring safety of water resources.

 

V.M.Navrotskyi briefed the workshop participants on the priorities of the International Dnipro Fund and its role in the implementation of the National Program for the Dnipro Basin Environmental Rehabilitation and Drinking Water Quality Improvement.

 

Yu.M.Satalkin detailed the workshop participants on the environmental audit methodology, current status of environmental management and audit systems and on the relevant Ukrainian legislation. He also highlighted the Project goal as well as objectives of the comprehensive express-audit of the Nezhyn city system of management of wastewater and wastewater treatment facilities.

 

K.O.Chebotko familiarized the workshop participants with the technology of manufacturing and using organic and mineral fertilizers, which is based on wastewater sludge and on methods of their production by municipal water supply and sanitation utilities.

 

Other presentations were devoted to problems of municipal environmental management in the field of water disposal and protection of Nezhyn water resources.

 

Nezhyn city representatives:

 

L.O.Karmanov - deputy city administration head responsible for functioning of the Council executive bodies;

M.P.Kharchuk – adviser to the city administration head. chairman of the Presidium of the City-District Council for Environmental Protection of Ukraine.

B.S.Kondratenko – director of the Scientific Research Institute of People’s Medicine, dean of the Nezhyn Institute of Economics and Modern Technologies.

A.V.Ponomarenko – head of the Nezhyn WSSD;

Yu.M.Khoptiana – deputy head of the Nezhyn WSSD;

V.O.Tarasenko – head of the Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy;

N.M.Marchenko – deputy head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Nezhyn city and Nezhyn District

M.P.Kryvoshein – executive secretary of the City-District Council for Environmental Protection of Ukraine;

V.M.Schokina – head of the Nezhyn civic environmental organization “Mama – 86”;

I.I.Chornyi – head of the Nezhyn environmental youth organization “NEMO”;

R.I.Zhaivoronok - head of the Nezhyn civic environmental organization “Green World”;

M.I.Koidan – chief engineer of the VAT “Nezhyn Meat-Processing Plant”;

O.H.Leikin – engineer of the VAT “Nezhyn Fat-Products Plant”;

V.M.Bilousenko – biology teacher, secondary school No 12;

Students of Nezhyn educational establishments.

 

Audit team members:

 

M.Navrotskyi

Yu.M.Satalkin

H.O.Biliavskyi

K.O.Chebotko

V.V.Serenko

V.V.Hetman

Addendum 3.

WORKSHOP RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE NEZHYN CITY ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS

 

1. Raise environmental awareness of the population and introduce a compulsory ecology course into secondary school curricula. The course should be taught to both junior and senior school pupils.

 

2. The city authorities should regularly inform the population of the real environmental situation in the city and especially of the safety of water resources (drinking water quality, water quality in the Oster River and its tributaries).

 

3. Organize regular raids on (check-ups of) municipal environmental agencies and involve community representatives in order to exercise routine control over the city environmental status.

 

4. Institute environmental management at the city and enterprise-level in accordance with current environmental requirements.

 

5. Restore the natural river bed of the Oster River, its tributaries and outflows. Bring shore-line strips in line with the Water Code of Ukraine

 

6. Enhance control over quality of water in private and public wells and develop a package of measures to ensure safety of well water consumed by the local population.

 

7. Continue to further adjust activities of the municipal environmental agencies in accordance with environmental laws in force.

 

8. Modernize obsolete equipment used for water supply and water disposal purposes.

 

9. Allocate more state environmental funds for water supply services and enhance control over the use of allocated funds.

 

10. Enhance compliance with environmental requirements at the enterprise-level and tighten control over such compliance. Increase responsibility for violations of environmental laws and effectiveness of penalties.

 

11. The city authorities should work more actively towards making businesses environmentally-friendly, introducing clean technologies and waste disposal.

 

12. Raise the level of professional skill of the staff of municipal environmental agencies, especially in the field of personnel recruitment.

Addendum 4.

LIST OF DOCUMENTS MADE AVAILABLE DURING THE ENVIRONMENTAL EXPRESS-AUDIT

 

1. Nezhyn City Environmental Action Program for 2001 – 2005, endorsed by the Nezhyn Executive Committee.

 

2. Environmental Action Program Priority Measures which need investments in order to be implemented

 

3. Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Nezhyn City Council on the Formation of the Public Committee for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Program.

 

4. Nezhyn City Local Action Plan on Environmental Hygiene for 2001-2006 developed by the civic environmental organization Mama-86.

 

5. Report of the civic environmental organization NEMO on remedial measures aimed at environmental rehabilitation of the Dnipro Basin rivers (conducted in 2000-2002).

 

6. Statistical data on Nezhyn residents’ health and impact of the environment on it (provided by the senior research worker of the Laboratory of Water Supply and Protection of Water Bodies, Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology, NAS of Ukraine, candidate of medical science, S.B.Tarabarova)

 

7. WSSD Charter

 

8. Technological rules of wastewater treatment facilities that fall under the responsibility of the WSSD

 

9. Information on the Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy.

 

10. Program for environmental rehabilitation of the territory inhabited by the city community for 2000-2003 (developed by the Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy).

 

11. Action Plan to be followed by bodies that fall under the responsibility of the Nezhyn Production Department for Housing and Communal Economy in case of emergency or risk of an emergency.

 

12. Action Plan on wastewater management for 2002; contract for water supply and disposal services in 2002; contract for collection and removal of solid and liquid domestic waste (provided by the VAT “Nezhyn Meat-Processing Plant”).