- Mar 2014
- Mar 2014
- Mar 2014
- Mar 2014 Updated maps of all areas of the Baltic Sea contaminated with chemical munitions
- 13.02.2014 CHEMSEA - Final Conference
- 01.03.2013 CHEMSEA - Invitation to CHEMSEA Open Day Event
- 14.09.2012 CHEMSEA - Registration Open Day at 3rd CHEMSEA meeting
- 29.02.2012 2nd meeting CHEMSEA
- 27.09.2011 CHEMSEA Kick-off Conference
Lead Partner:
Instytut Oceanologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IO PAN)ul.Powstancow Warszawy 55, P.O. Box 148
81712 Sopt
PL
Jacek Beldowski
E-mail: hyron@iopan.gda.pl
Phone: 0048 587311 737
Fax: 0048 585512130
Project Manager:
Instytut Oceanologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IO PAN)ul.Powstancow Warszawy 55, P.O. Box 148
81712 Sopot
PL
Katarzyna Flis
E-mail: flis@iopan.gda.pl
Phone: 0048 58 7311706
Fax: 0048 58 5512130
Information Manager:
iuro projektów fidlerFriedelstr. 12
12047 Berlin
DE
Jan Fidler
E-mail: jf@eu-projects.pl
Phone: 0049 30 787 585
Fax: 0049 30 347 164 07
Summary description of the project:
Around 55 000 tons of chemical warfare agents (CWA) were dumped into the Baltic Sea after the World Word II. Official dumpsites are Bornholm Deep and Gotland Deep, but there is evidence for their presence also in other places on the seafloor. Their metal shells are corroding and leaking to the environment at a rate that has not been measured so far. Moreover, a large-scale leakage in case of disturbance would pose a serious biohazard to the entire Baltic ecosystem. Unaware of this risk, hydrotechnical installations and other sea-bottom activities such as trawler fishing are increasingly claiming space within the contaminated areas.
CHEMSEA is a cooperation of leading scientific institutes and maritime decision makers, established in order to assess and minimise risks related to sea-bottom activities near CWA dumping sites. CHEMSEA increases safety of underwater activities, by defining guidelines and educating the relevant stakeholders and administrations. For the first time CHEMSEA
compiled all available information concerning CWAs in the Baltic Sea – their known locations, environmental effects and the so-far practiced methods for both their detection and analysis. New methods for environmental effects analysis of CWAs will be developed and tested in laboratory conditions.
CHEMSEA fills not only methodological, but also physical gaps in CWA research, by screening for dumped munitions in the so-far not examined dumping site in the Gotland Deep and suspected locations in the Gdansk Deep and along the routes. With help of intelligent underwater vehicles samples are taken to identify the level of CWA degradation. The produced GIS maps showing actual munition’ positions and the range of polluted sediments will be used to update nautical maps and will significantly contribute to maritime security, including fishery and exploitation of sea bottom.
Ecological risk assessment, taking into account different dispersion scenarios will help maritime administrations
to assess the environmental effects as well as human health hazard in selected offshore areas in case of CWA accident, and handle responsibly in case of a major disaster.
At the moment safety recommendations regarding CWAs are regulated by a number of national legislations, as well as HELCOM recommendations. CHEMSEA will propose updated and unified guidelines, including recommendations for CWA hot-spots where special procedures should be applied. On this basis, trainings will be organised for employees of the relevant authorities, environmental and fishery organisations and other key maritime stakeholders.
Moreover, CHEMSEA partners will form a Baltic CWA advisory body for maritime administrations, acting at the same time as hands-on transnational analytical center of CWA related hazards. Its task will be also lobbying for adoption of CHEMSEA recommendations into national legislation.
Achievements of the project so far:
CHEMSEA project has been acknowledged by its stakeholders as an extremely successful one. Our partners were not only taking a very active part in the international scientific scene dealing with the CWA problematic, but pushed forward the political debate which raised a broad medial response. The OPCW, IDUM, HELCOM MUNI, EU BSRS and almost all responsible national authorities closely collaborated with the project within these 3 years, working out new approaches and solutions.
The project reviewed all available methods for analysis of CWAs and their degradation products from environmental and biological samples, and selected those most suitable, which were then introduced in participating laboratories, and their performance was tested internally. Afterwards intercalibration study has been performed to test the precision and efficiency of introduced methods. All participating labs successfully adopted unified methods.
A sound database of distribution of CWA objects in theGotland Deep and Gdansk Deep and describing their environmental characteristics has been compiled both as a result of desk-top study and cruise data. At the known positions where chemical weapons were detected sediment and water samples were collected for chemical and biological analysis. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) samples were collected at immediate vicinity of suspicious objects. All collected sediments were classified according to the distance from confirmed munitions, and distribution plan was constructed. Samples were analyzed by participating laboratories.
Positions of the detected objects and descriptive data has been post-processed to produce comprehensive GIS maps.
National procedures concerning reactions against threat posed by chemical warfare agents have been assessed. A BSR contingency plan was developed and consulted with the relevant authorities during the on-the-spot trainings and information events.
Awareness-raising meetings for fishermen have been organised in Poland, Lithuania, Finland and Germany. Guidebook for Fishing Boat Crews, including easy-to-read flyer and stickers with pictograms have been prepared and distributed in Poland and Lithuania.
Several recommendations such as Guidelines for safe disposal of sediments, Guidelines for operation in CWA contaminated areas were written, consulted with stakeholders and summarized in the “CHEMSEA Findings” publication. All the project results were immediately published on the highly informative www.chemsea.eu and www.chemsea.pl websites. Finally, CHEMSEA produced also a policy paper to better transport its recommendations to HELCOM and national ministries.
Agreement on the foundation of the International Center of Excellence for Dumped Chemical Munitions (CoE-DCM) was developed and signed by all PPs, thus committing themselves to long-term cooperation within the results and investments obtained during CHEMSEA.
| Project Duration: | Jun 2011 - Mar 2014 |
| Approximate total project budget in EUR: | 4.586.560,00 |
| ERDF co-financing: | 3.621.910,00 |
| ENPI co-financing: | 0,00 |
| Norwegian national contribution: | 0,00 |
List of partners
| Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAS) | ||||||||
| 81712 Sopt | POLAND ul.Powstancow Warszawy 55, P.O. Box 148 Region: Pomorskie |
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| Contact person: Jacek Beldowski Phone: 0048 587311 737 E-mail: hyron@iopan.gda.pl Web: www.iopan.gda.pl |
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| Polish Naval Academy (PNA) | ||||||||
| 81-103 Gdynia | POLAND Śmidowicza 69 st Region: Pomorskie |
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| Contact person: Jacek Fabisiak Phone: 0048 58 6262955 E-mail: j.fabisiak@amw.gdynia.pl Web: www.amw.gdynia.pl/ |
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| Military University of Technology (MUT) | ||||||||
| 00 908 Warszawa | POLAND ul.generala Sylwestra Kaliskiego 49 Region: Mazowieckie |
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| Contact person: Stanislaw Popiel Phone: 0048 22 6839900 E-mail: spopiel@wat.edu.pl Web: www.wat.edu.pl |
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| Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) | ||||||||
| 90182 Umeå | SWEDEN Cementvagen 20 Region: Övre Norrland |
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| Contact person: Rune Berglind Phone: 0046 90 106 735 E-mail: rune.berglind@foi.se Web: www.foi.se |
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| Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) | ||||||||
| SE-601 78 Norrkoping | SWEDEN Slotttsgatan Region: Östra Mellansverige |
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| Contact person: Ulf Olsson Phone: 0046 11 191517 E-mail: ulf.olsson@sjofartsverket.se Web: www.sjofartsverket.se |
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| Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN) | ||||||||
| FI-00014 Helsinki | FINLAND A.I.Virtasen aukio 1 ( P.O. Box 55) Region: Etelä-Suomi |
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| Contact person: Paula Vanninen Phone: 00358 9 191 56350444 E-mail: paula.vanninen@helsinki.fi Web: www.helsinki.fi/verifin |
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| Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) | ||||||||
| FI - 00251 Helsinki | FINLAND Erik Palmenin aukio 1, P.O.Box 140 Region: Etelä-Suomi |
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| Contact person: Anu Lastumaki Phone: 00358 E-mail: anu.Lastumaki@ymparisto.fi Web: www.environment.fi/syke |
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| Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute, Federal Institute for Rural Areas,Forestry and Fisheries, (vTI/FOE) | ||||||||
| 22767 Hamburg | GERMANY Institute of Fishery Ecology, Palmaille 9 Region: Hamburg |
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| Contact person: Thomas Lang Phone: 0049 40 38905 290 E-mail: thomas.lang@vti.bund.de Web: www.vti.bund.de/de/institute/foe |
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| Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) | ||||||||
| 27570 Bremerhaven | GERMANY Am Handelshafen 12 Region: Bremen |
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| Contact person: Katja Broeg Phone: 0049 471 48310 E-mail: Katja.Broeg@awi.de Web: www.awi.de |
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| Lithuanian Environmental Protection Agency (LEPA) | ||||||||
| LT-09311 Vilnius | LITHUANIA A. Juozapavičiaus str. 9 Region: Lietuva |
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| Contact person: Galina Garnaga Phone: 0037046380478 E-mail: galinagarnaga@yahoo.com Web: www.gamta.lt |
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| European CBRNE Center of Umeå University Center for advanced Studies of Societal Security and Vulnerability | ||||||||
| 901 87 Umeå | SWEDEN KBC Building Region: Övre Norrland |
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| Contact person: Dzenan Sahovic Phone: 0046 90 786 5774 E-mail: dzenan.sahovic@cbrnecenter.eu Web: http://www.cbrnecenter.eu |
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