The aim of the study tour was to give information about best practices, examples, recommendations and advices in municipal communal services administration in waste water treatment as well as costs/tariff structures and amounts of subsidies from municipal budgets.
On Monday 15th the group representing mainly local administrations around the northern end of Lake Ladoga visited Finnish Environment Institute Joensuu office. Ilona Joensuu gave a presentation about general principles of waste water management, and answered in it questions received beforehand. After the presentation there was a lively discussion about the topics.
On Tuesday morning the group visited Kuhasalo waste water treatment plant in Joensuu. Riitta Paganus from Joensuun Vesi company, which manages water supply and waste water treatment in Joensuu and the neighbouring municipalities Kontiolahti, Liperi and Polvijärvi, gave a presentation about waste water management in Joensuu, and the purification process in Kuhasalo. The plant is relatively large, and its capacity is 25 000 cubic metres of waste water per day. It corresponds to the waste waters of 76 000 inhabitants. There are 12 persons working in the plant, and the annual expenses of waste water treatment are about 2 million euros. After the presentation Riitta Paganus guided the group through the plant following the process so that it was possible to see what kind of waste comes to the plant and what kind of water is released to the river Pielisjoki.
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Also the treatment of sludge was seen. The process is being improved so that next year all energy needed for the purification process is produced in the process.
On Tuesday afternoon the group visited Outokumpu waste water treatment plant. It is smaller, and the capacity is for 6300 inhabitants. The process is similar to Kuhasalo. In Outokumpu there is an experiment to increase the purification, especially for nitrogen, by pumping the purified water to an overflow field where willow is grown for bioenergy. The Outokumpu plant is managed by only one person.
The study tour gave an overview about the waste water treatment in Finland, processes, expenses and investments. The participants were active to make questions to the guides, and they were satisfied with the information they received.