John Nurminen Foundation together with City of Helsinki arranged an expert workshop in Helsinki for commenting the draft of BEST guidelines for co-treatment of industrial and municipal sewage. Experts represented waterworks personnel, water work association, authorities, research organizations and industries. Very useful comments and suggestions were presented, this is a good premise to continue work both in Finland and around Baltic Sea Region.
The ultimate goal of BEST project is to produce Baltic Sea Region wide and national guidelines for treatment of industrial wastewaters in municipal waste water treatment plants. These guidelines consist recommendations for legislative developments concerning national legislation and implementation of EU directives as well as how to grant optimal environmental permits for both industry and WWTP; recommendations for technical and contractual developments, for example best practices for co-treatment and instructions for forming and implementing industrial waste water contracts, best methods for pre-treament of industrial sewage and guidelines for monitoring waste water quality; and institutional developments like roles of supervisory authorities in regulation and monitoring the industrial effluents and co-operation between industries and WWTP.
John Nurminen Foundation from Finland is leading the work of compiling and writing the guidelines, and moreover, all countries participating BEST involve experts to comment and supplement the guidelines. Expert information is gathered by contacting experts personally, arranging workshops or skype meetings. This way, also national special characteristics can be taken into account when writing guidelines.