File: eco93.29 ========================================================== NATO ECONOMIC Colloqium, 30 June, 1 and 2 July 1993, Brussels ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN COOPERATION PARTNER COUNTRIES FROM A SECTORAL PERSPECTIVE EVOLUTION DE LA SITUATION ECONOMIQUE DANS LES PAYS PARTENAIRES DE LA COOPERATION DU POINT DE VUE SECTORIEL ========================================================== PANEL VI ECONOMICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT (INCLUDING NUCLEAR SAFETY) Chair: Deniz Yuksel-Beten, CCMS Programme Director NATO Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division Panelists: Jens Jacobsen Panelists: Murray Feshbach Panelists: Rein Ratas Panelists: Sara Reva Greenblatt Panelists: Shirin Akiner -------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION IN ESTONIA Rein Ratas I. Introduction Estonia is relatively rich in natural resources (oil-shale, phosphates, limestone, dolomite, peet, forests, 4,000 km of coastline, a lot of islands). Our geographical position, being between West and East, is quite contradictory. Today the environmental situation in Estonia is relatively satisfactory, even critical in some regions. Our environment is threatened from several directions. II. The Environmental Impact of Industry This includes oil-shale mining, the chemical and thermal processing industries. As a matter of fact, much of our industry has outdated technology. The main air polluters in Estonia are two thermal power plants in the north-east of the country (a total capacity of three million kilowatts). The annual air pollution emission from these two plants is 320,000 tons (including 160,000 tons of flue gas). In Tallinn, 75% of air pollution is emitted from transport (from vehicles). The main water polluters are: the chemical industry and municipalities. In 1992, 42% of sewage was either treated insufficiently (37%) or not at all (5%). III. The Environmental Impact of Agriculture Our traditional, small farmers agriculture, which was formed during 4,000 years was destroyed in 1949-1950. The following 35 years developments we can summarize by the words: "Gigantic is best". Our agricultural landscape was transformed into very large fields (100 up to 400 hectares per field), piggeries (up to 70,000 pigs in one building), etc. This kind of agricultural concentration, combined with unbalanced use of mineral fertilizers with a prevalence of nitrogen fertilizers, left serious pollution in our surface and ground waters and in soils. The consumption of Ordovioian ground water complex has been prohibited in many regions due to the high concentration of nitrates. Now, instead of the former 300 Soviet collective and state farms, we have 8,600 private farms, some state farms and cooperative societies. IV. Soviet Military Heritage More than 500 Soviet military units and bases were located in Estonia. During the Soviet period they covered an area of 90,000 ha., about 2% of Estonia's territory. Among these bases, the biggest were the military training polygon at Aegviidu, with an area of more than 33,000 ha; five airfields with areas of 900-1100 ha. each, and a large number of special fuel bases in different parts of Estonia. Separate problems are connected with the islands of Big-Pakri, Small-Pakri and Naissaar, which were used as bombing polygons and weapons storage areas. Military pollution within Estonia includes: - pollution of surface water, ground water and soils due to leakages of fuel pipelines at military airfields; - pollution of, and danger to, bottom sediments and water via dumping of out-of-date explosives and weapons, and sinking of ships; - land, water and air pollution from different chemicals and toxic materials. Also different components of rocket fuel, which are very dangerous to the environment if these are stored in such a careless way as was found in some units. At present one of the most acute questions regarding military pollution concerns the town of Paldiski. Here there are two nuclear reactors, which have been in operation in the Soviet submarine base (with a total capacity of 150 MW). In order to decommission the reactors and take them out of Estonia in a way which would be safe for both public health and the environment, it is necessary to perform comprehensive expert assessment of all stages of the decommissioning project documentation and the actual execution of decommissioning. The second urgent problem concerns the tailing of radioactive waste of the Sillamee Chemical and Metal Production Plant, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Sillamee Plant was built in 1948 as a top secret facility for uranium production, for military and civil use, processing originally alum-shale from Estonia. Later, uranium ore from Eastern Europe was processed. In total, more than four million tons of uranium ore were processed at the plant. Until 1970, only uranium ore and alum-shale were processed at the plant. At the beginning of the 1970s the plant switched to processing loparite - a mineral from the Kola Peninsula, rich in niobium, tantalum, titanium and other rare earth metals. The depot was reconstructed a couple of times in the last few decades. In 1969, it was expanded to its present size. Today, the depot is an oval retention impoundment on the coastline of the Gulf of Finland, with an overall area of about 33 hectares. It contains some millions of tons of waste including: 1200 tons of uranium and 800 tons of thorium. The radioactively polluted area covers some 100 ha. in total. Assessment of the current state of the mill tailings is already under way, in cooperation with Swedish and Finnish experts. Once results are obtained, assistance will be necessary for the design of a project for remedial and restoration actions of the tailings, thus minimizing the risk to public health and the environment. Taking into account that the Sillamee plant and the Paldiski reactors were established for realization of the former USSR nuclear programme, and that we have no nuclear installation under our responsibility, the Republic of Estonia insists that Russia (as the legal successor of the former USSR) be held liable for the present situation there. Being aware of the difficult economic situation in Russia and the other areas of the Former Soviet Union, we have sought assistance from neighbouring countries and the CEC to provide for a quick and effective solution to the problems connected with the waste depository and reactors at Sillamee and Paldiski. We hope that better understanding between Estonia and Russia on the political level, and international activities through NATO and other organizations on a practical level, can help us in solving our environmental pollution from military sources. V. Results of Combined Impacts on the Environment - 21% of Estonian ground water is polluted, 18% is under actual threat of pollution. - 10% of our lakes are polluted. - Most of north and west Estonian rivers are polluted. - The Estonian part of the whole continental pollution load to the Gulf of Finland is 15% (by P - 17%, by N - 13%, by organic load - 19%). - In 1992, of 23 Estonian sea beaches, five were closed because of pollution. This year the most beautiful beach in Pernu was reopened. - Due to the polluted environment and psychological stress, human life expectancy is lower than the average for the climaticzone, being 74 years for women and 66 years for men. VI. To Protect the Environment - an Expensive Occupation Every pollution of the environment always has a rebound, including the economical component. The question is only: on WHAT SCALE OF IMPACT? At one end of the scale is Chernobyl, at the other end a smoking man. Preliminary experiences show that the economic mechanism of nature use can be the main basis for sustainable development. The main conclusion - it is better (cheaper) to anticipate pollution than to eliminate the results. Especially vulnerable are ground, soil and ground water. Relatively small-scale short-term pollution may cause results that we cannot abolish, or at least not for very many years. In the USA, the cleaning of a 2 metres ground-layer of oil-products on the territory of one hectare costs $1 million. But what is the cost of eliminating the oil contamination at the Tapa, former Soviet military airfield, where 1600 hectares are damaged to a depth of eight metres? A lot of wells are full of water-oil mixture. The avoidance of nature contamination assumes a system of educational methods, with economic stimuli. It is necessary to explain to producers and businessmen that the ecological economy is economically useful. At the same time it is clear that we cannot manage to eliminate the results of the previous pollution (at nuclear reactors in Paldiski, nuclear wastes in Sillamee, large-scaleground and ground water pollution at the former military airfields). We have to confess that during the next few years we have no finances for the beginning of big environmental projects. What we wish in our relations with other countries is partnership, on the first hand, in the use of reestablished nature resources and in introducing economic mechanism for nature protection and the principals of ecological economy. In such a way we hope to modernize our economy and get the means for restoring our environment. Estonia is trying to find its way by these steps. ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 NATO All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the copyright holders. Authorization may be requested for redistribution of the text on a non commercial base by research and educational services. Requests should be addressed to the Economics Directorate, NATO, via e-mail 'scheurweghs@hq.nato.int'. First edition 1993 ISBN 92-845-0079-6 This is the latest in a series bringing together papers presented at the NATO colloquia organised by the NATO Economics Directorate and Office of Information and Press on economic issues in the former USSR and Central and East European countries. For further information please write to the Director, Office of Information and Press, 1110 Brussels, Belgium. The articles contained in this volume represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion or policy of member governments or NATO.