Bay of Gdańsk feared polluted after sewage plant failure

Thousands of tonnes of untreated sewage were dumped into the Motława River and the Bay of Gdańsk after pumps broke down as a result of flooding at a sewage pumping station in the northern Polish city of Gdańsk on Tuesday, according to reports.

Local sanitary inspectors on Thursday said that preliminary checks in the Bay of Gdańsk indicated that acceptable pollution levels may have been exceeded.

“The latest reading suggests that there is a great probability that pollution limits in the Bay of Gdańsk have been overstepped,” Provincial Sanitary Inspector Tomasz Augustyniak said on Thursday, as quoted by Poland’s PAP news agency.

Sewage was being discharged untreated directly to the river as an emergency measure designed to prevent the city from being flooded by a blocked-up sewer system, PAP reported.

The agency quoted broadcaster Radio Gdańsk as saying that sanitary authorities were likely to press for the closure of beaches in neighbouring Gdynia and Sopot.

The Ołowianka Sewage Pumping Station in Gdańsk collects 60 percent of all sewage produced in the city, according to PAP. Work was on Thursday under way to make the facility operational again.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP