1. Marine Systems Institute at Tallinn University of Technology
Investigation of pollution sources and transport mechanisms along the southeast coast of Tallinn Bay
Ants Erm, Fred Buschmann, Ilja Maljutenko,
Natalja Kolesova & Irina Suhhova
Marine Systems Institute at
Tallinn University of Technology
This study is funded by Estonian Environmental Investment Centre (projects 609 and 657)
and supported by grants (9381 and 9382) of Estonian Science Foundation

2. The problem: unsavory smell on the SE coast of the Tallinn Bay, inside the Tallinn City.
Source of the smell: decaying algae and maybe some other pollutants.
Questions to answer.
Where the algae will be produced?
What are the limiting factors of the blooms (nutrients, light, temperature...)?
What are the main sources of nutrients (storm water outlets, river inlet, bottom sediment...)?
Why the algae will bea teared away from the bottom and/or stones (mortality, storms, ship wakes...)?
From to where they will be transported (by wind, by currents...),
and last at least, what to do?

3. Study area SE coast area of the Tallinn Bay
Käesoleva KIKi projekti eesmärk oli hinnata Kadrioru-Maarjamäe rannikumere keskkonda, mis põhjustab sealset ebameeldivat lõhna eelkõige siis palavatel suvekuudel. Lisaks põhialale võtsime proove ka Merivälja kai lähedaselt alalt, kus on uuringualale küllaltkilähedane sademevee sissejooks.

4. Main inflows Merivälja kai Pirita River Lasnamäe outlet Vanasadam
Merivälja outlet
Mähe creek
Pirita River
Antud kaardil on näha põhilised allikad, mis on suure tõenäosusega antud probleemi põhjustajateks. Tegu on siis Pirita jõe ja erinevate sademevee väljalaskudega. Läheduses on ka Tallinna sadama Vanasadam. Kus kiirlaevalainetele on ka oma roll antud probleemil.
Saare outlet
Kadriorg outlet
Lasnamäe outlet
Vanasadam
Ülemiste outlet

5. Ülemiste and Kadriorg outlets
Ülemiste outlet,
26 September 2012
Ülemiste
outlet
Kadriorg
outlet
Russalka väljalasku kogutakse sademe- ja drenaažveed Suur-S6jamäelt ja Tartu mnt. piirkonnast.
Lisaks sellele juhitakse kollektorisse ka Ülemiste järve ülevool ning kuivendusvesi Ülemiste poldrilt.
Vesi suunatakse Tallinna lahte Russalka mälestusmärgi läheduses.

6. Lasnamäe outlet Lasnamäe outlet, 26 September 2012
Lauluväljaku väljalasu kaudu juhitakse merre suurem osa Lasnamäe sademeveest.
Kollektori suue asub Lauluväljaku läheduses meres kaldast mõnikümmend meetrit eemal.
Koosneb 3-est torust. Mida on ka järgneval pildi näha..

7. Methods
Taking water samples and analysing them against nitrogen and phosphorus.
Measuring wave , wake and current activity.
Taking samples and analysing surface sediment and near bottom water.
Comparing these data with the hydro- meteorological database.

8. Technique used ADCP for current profiling;
pressure sonde for logging of wave characteristics;
grab sampler for taking samples to determine the bottom type;

9. developed in Marine Systems Institute and patented (U. S. Patent No
developed in Marine Systems Institute and patented (U.S. Patent No ) sampler (Voll sampler) to take undisturbed samples from the bottom bounadary layer;

10. constructed in Institute a PIV (particle imaging velocimeter) to visualise and measure moving of particles above the bottom.
A snapshot from the video clip
Drift vectors calculated
using a cross-correlation method

11. Sediment samples taken by a grab sampler
Fine or very fine sand is domonated in the shallow areas;
massive occuring of mussels show a quite good living conditions in the bottom.
Mussels
in sediment
(g/380 cm2 )

12. Phosporus, some PCB-s and HELCOM metals in surface sediment (sampling by the Voll sampler)

13. Nutrients, in the sea at first...
Distribution,
20. June 2013

14. Temporal variability in the sea...

15. ...and in inflows

16. Impact of precipitations

17. Calculated inflows of water and nutrients
Catchment
Flow
% of flow
[N]
[P] N P %N %P
Year
Day ha
m3/y
m3/d %
mg/L
kg/day
Russalka
734
856436
2346
0.38
2.3
0.03
5.4
0.08
0.62
0.27
Lauluväljak
961
6246
1.02
3.2
0.12 20
0.75
2.29
2.74
Saare
176
176605
484
2.4
0.09
1.2
0.04
0.13
0.16
Merivälja 44
22076 61
0.01
4.2
0.3
0.005
0.02
PiritaRiver
80780
604800
98.5
1.4
847 26 97
All
82695
613938
100
874 27

18. Current near the River mouth (Station 3) – near the syrface (upper) and near the bottom (lower)
Surface current is more variable, mean direction seems to be NE, but nore intensive are S and SW currents;
near bottom flow is meanly to SE direction.

19. Suspended matter concentration three (a) and four (b) days after opening the inflows (now wind!)

20. Distribution of inflows’ water by several winds

21. Mean winds in the Tallinn Bay (01.06.12 – 30.09.12)

22. Conclusions
Pirita River is an absolute dominating source of nutrients on the south east coast of Tallinn Bay (~97% of nutrients’ load).
By weak winds this load distributes along the Pirita Beach and Merivälja coast. Only by Aeastern winds the river water does not extend these areas. As the mean winds are blowing from the sector south to west, the high pollution of the Merivälja coast is caused by the Pirita River rather than by storm water outlets.
The coast southwest from the River is loaded by the river water especially by northern and eastern winds. By other winds the pollution of a narrow coastal area is mainly originated from Lasnamäe and Ülemiste outlets (the inflows of the Saare outlet, but also of the Merivälja outlet and Mähe Creek are marginal).
We are hesitating achieving discernible positive changes in the Merivälja coast and Saare area with rational costs.

23. A better status of the southwestern part of the coast could be recreated by pumping of Ülemiste and Lasnamäe storm water to the deeper area of the Tallinn Bay and running mechanical cleaning of the beach.
Beach
Käesoleva KIKi projekti eesmärk oli hinnata Kadrioru-Maarjamäe rannikumere keskkonda, mis põhjustab sealset ebameeldivat lõhna eelkõige siis palavatel suvekuudel. Lisaks põhialale võtsime proove ka Merivälja kai lähedaselt alalt, kus on uuringualale küllaltkilähedane sademevee sissejooks.
A view from the sea

24. Thanks!
This study was funded by Estonian Environmental Investment Centre (projects 609 and 657) and Estonian Science Foundation (grants 9052, 9381 and 9382). Also we are thankful to the Ministry of Environment and Estonian Maritime Administration for the support and to Dr. Madis Listak and Ing. Martin Voll for the technical solutions.