Phosphorus discharges at Yara Finland’s Uusikaupunki site Seppo Knuuttila SYKE 30 October 2014 HELCOM PRESSURE
Ph Phos osph phog ogyp ypsu sum stacks stacks in in th the e ca catc tchme hment nt area area of the of the Balt Baltic ic Sea Sea YARA Suomi, Oy, Siilinjärvi Yara Suomi, Uudenkaupungin tehtaat Yara AB, Köpingsfabriken EuroChem, Phoshorit Yara AB, Gipsön EuroChem, Lifosa 8 Gdańskie Zakłady Nawozów Zakłady Chemiczne Fosforowych "Fosfory" Sp. z o.o. "POLICE" S.A.
Ph Phos osph phog ogyp ypsu sum stacks stacks in in th the e ca catc tchme hment nt area area of the of the Balt Baltic ic Sea Sea Amount of phosphogypsum waste as millions of tons in 2012 Yara Landskrona Sweden 2,3 Yara Uusikaupunki Finland 5,4 Fosfory Poland 16,6 Yara Siilinjärvi Finland 50 Foto: Yara Finland Lifosa Lithuania 50 Fosforit Russia 58 Police Poland 88,5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Ya Yara ra Fin Finlan land, d, Uu Uusika sikaup upun unki ki site site - Phosphoric acid production started in1965 - At first the gypsum was silted to sea water (common procedure in Europe at that time) - Phosphorus load into the Bothnian Sea up to 200 tons/year between late 1960s and early 1980s – largest single source of P to the Baltic Sea from Finland - Phosphoric acid plant was shut down in 1990 Foto: Yara Finland - Phosphogypsum stack consists of approximately 5 Mt of gypsum including 3800 tons of phosphorus
Wat Water er protecti protection on mea measu sure res in 19 in 1990 90s Geolock was installed in two places in bund wall in 1990 (400 m, total length of bund wall is 1000 m) The gypsum surface area was covered with moraine (average thickness 30 cm) in 1993 The amount of phosphorus leakage into the sea through the bund wall gradually decreased to 10 kg/d (about Source: Pöyry Finland 2011 4 tons/year)
Ph Phos osph phor orus us concentrati concentrations ons at at th the e se sea a in f in fro ront nt of the of the bu bund nd wall wall Source: Pöyry Finland 2011
Ad Addit dition ional al mea measu sure res in 20 in 2012 12-2013 2013 According to environmental permit given to Yara in December 2008 the site was obliged to restrict the discharge from the phosphogypsym area as low level as possible Permit for building an insulation wall in the gypsum bund wall to prevent phosphorus leaking into the Bothnian Sea was Foto: Yara Finland given in December 2011 The construction of the The aim of additional insulation insulation wall was completed is to reduce phosphorus in the end of 2013 leakage by 95 percent from the preceding level (4 tons/year).
Cr Cros oss-se sect ction ion of the of the bund bund wall wall with with addit ad dition ional al insu insulat lation ion Additional insulation Bund wall Sea Source: Yara Finland
Monito Monitoring ring site sites s at at th the e se sea a in f in fro ront nt of of th the e bu bund nd wall at wall at Yara’s Uus Uusika ikaup upun unki ki site site The phosphorus concentrations in the sea in front of the bund wall are monitored four times a year at 18 sites locating at 5 meters distance from the bund wall and 4 sites at 20 m and 100 meters distance from the bund wall Groundwater level is monitored through 7 pipes in gypsum area. Surface water level of the insulation ditch between the sea and gypsum area is monitored continuously, water samples are taken weekly Additionally water quality in the Source: Pöyry Finland 2011 near-by sea area is monitored in 19 sites 8 times a year
Cur Curre rent nt situ situat ation ion Preliminary results suggest that the leakage has decreased in consequence of construction of insulation wall; the target level has not yet been achieved Local supervisory authority has called for monitoring of phosphorus concentrations on both sides of the insulation wall, water balance of phosphogypsum stack and phosphorus concentrations in the sea until the end of 2015 in order to verify the solidity of insulation wall At the next phase Yara has planned to start “washing” of soluble phosphorus from the gypsum area in order to accelerate the reduction of the amount of soluble phosphorus in the gypsum area and thus also the risk of phosphorus leakage to the sea According to the plan clean water would be pumped to the gypsum area after which phosphorus containing waters would be collected and phosphorus chemically precipitated and returned to the fertilizer factory
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