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Developer Accused of Damaging Ecology of Neva Bay

By Maria Kiselyova

The St. Petersburg Times

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times Land reclamation for the Marine Facade, pictured in the foreground, has been a cause for concern among scientists.

Local scientists are claiming that the Marine Facade project and other construction on reclaimed land is a threat to the ecological situation in the Neva Bay.

In December, the Federation Council approved the enlargement of the territory of St. Petersburg by 400 hectares of reclaimed land between the town of Sestroretsk and the Lisy Nos headland. A group of scientists who have studied the ecological situation in the Gulf of Finland organized a press conference last month to express their position on the project, based on research into the impact of recent construction. The scientists argue that future construction on reclaimed land is a threat to the ecological situation in the Neva Bay. 

The research was mainly focused on work carried out by the Marine Facade company, which carried out dredging and building on reclaimed land in order to construct a new passenger port terminal off Vasilyevsky Island. Other projects examined were building work on St. Petersburg’s flood barrier, and the construction of a new stadium on Krestovsky Island. The evaluation of the damage is mostly based on images of the bay taken by satellites and studied in the State Research Institute of Cosmoaerogeology.   

Images shown to journalists at the press conference mostly dated back to 2006 and 2007, when according to Leontina Sukhachyova, senior researcher at the Institute of Cosmoaerogeology, the ecological situation in the Neva Bay was at its worst.

In the images, soil was shown to have dissolved in water, creating areas of muddy water. Sukhachyova said that according to international regulations during dredging, a maximum of 5 percent of the seabed soil should dissolve into the water. If the percentage is any bigger, work should be stopped and addition environmental protection measures should be taken. The scientists say that their research into the Marine Facade project showed that the rate of dissolving soil was up to 50 percent, but no measures were taken.

According to experts, such water pollution is harmful for the flora and fauna of the Neva Bay. Georgy Noskov, director of the Ladozhskaya ornithological laboratory of the biology institute at St. Petersburg State University, says the destruction of shoal water areas is a major problem, as they are home to many unique species of fish and birds. Water pollution affects the plankton that is the main source of food for most fish. When the disturbed soil settles on the bottom, it destroys aquatic plants — another source of food for marine inhabitants. As a result, Noskov said, some areas of the Neva Bay are already “dead.”

The number of fish being caught there has been decreasing dramatically since the 1970s, but according to ecology experts, the situation will get even worse in two or three years when the generation of fish that has grown up in muddied waters reaches adulthood.   

According to Sukhachyova, the situation could improve in the future if construction firms make the results of environmental monitoring public — currently, it is often classified commercial information. She also said that the areas monitored should be bigger and go beyond the area of construction.

Alexander Ribalko, chief researcher at the Sevmorgeo monitoring center, said control over developers was not sufficient. “You know the way it is done here — for example, a truck takes away the soil, but petrol costs money, so the truck leaves it somewhere on the way to its destination,” he said.

The ecologists said an attempt had been made by scientists to create two protected areas off the north and south coasts of the bay. They were included in the St. Petersburg General Plan law, but the idea was spiked by a federal law that declared all areas of water to be federal property and free from protection. Experts are currently trying to solve this legal collision. 

Alexander Shemberg, head of PR for Marine Facade, told The St. Petersburg Times that construction is now complete and was carried out in keeping with the plan, which was in turn developed in accordance with the law. Commenting on the scientists’ claims, he said, “It might be a personal point of view and might just be that they are offended that they were not hired to carry out the [official] examination.” 

“Some sinister trucks that are said to take away dust at night are simply more interesting,” said Igor Merkulov, head of the permitting department at Marine Facade. “More interesting than ordinary construction going on.”

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