Governance of Small-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants in the Near-Coast Touristic Areas – A Baltic Sea Region Case

Wastewater discharged from near-coast Baltic Sea tourist destinations, often from very small treatment plants (<2000 Person Equivalent, PE), is characterized by a large variability of flow due to seasonality. Such conditions make it difficult to obtain continuously the required effluent quality and may endanger the overall quality of the touristic place and clients satisfaction. Finding technological solutions adapted to tourist areas would reduce nutrient inputs to the sea across the region. The clear challenge is the adaptation to high seasonality. The project results constitute a comprehensive inventory of wastewater treatment installations and their operation data in the region, presented in the GIS-based format. This covers not only locations, but also basic effluent parameters (flowrate, BOD, COS, suspended solids, Total N and P), type of recipient and type of technology installed. Such prepared spatial information can serve as a tool for the local authorities for the better management of the wastewater in the touristic areas. The advantage of such an approach for the local authorities is a capacity building and increased knowledge of problems and different aspects of the water value chain, gaps and problematic areas. The status of data collection was: 45,18%/39,00% - annual for 2019/2021; 6,80%/2,76% - quarterly for 2019/2021; 6,05%/6,46% - monthly for 2019/2021. The status of collected data by country: 38,11% - Denmark, 46,14% - Estonia, 26,36% - Finland, 15,56% - Germany, 23,47% - Latvia, 34,77% Lithuania, 14,51% - Poland, 45,40% - Sweden.