SUE “Vodokanal of St.Petersburg” has been implementing the following major projects:

• The Neva Untreated Wastewater Discharges Closure Project

This program presupposes, among other things, the completion of the extension of the Northern Tunnel Collector, and the modernization of the Northern and Central Wastewater Treatment Plants to comply with the requirements of HELCOM (The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) in terms of enhanced removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater.

The program financing is performed out of city and federal budgets, Vodokanal's own funds and raised extra-budgetary funds.

The project of the construction of the Northern Tunnel Collector was approved in 1989 by the order of the Council of Ministers of RSFSR. The city's demand for a new 12 km long section of the Tunnel Collector was dictated by the need for transportation of wastewater from residential houses and industries of Primorsky, Kalininsky, Krasnogvardeisky, partialy Nevsky and Central districts to the Northern WWTP in Olgino. Originally, the period for NTC extension construction was estimated as ten years. But from 1993 to 2000 the construction was stopped due to the lack of financing. In 2001, allocation of funds from St.Petersburg budget began aiming to maintain the construction works, but these funds were not enough for the planned large-scale works. In 2005, a new stage of the collector construction began. The first line of the NTC extension was put into operation in autumn 2008. It enabled us to connect direct discharges in the amount of 90,000 cubic meters per day to the sewage system and reach the level of 88% of wastewater treatment. Further connection of direct discharges to the NTC allowed to provide treatment of 91% of wastewater in late 2009; and 93% - in late 2010. The extension of the NTC is a complex of very complicated engineering facilities: two lines of main tunnels with length of 12.2 km each and external diameter of 4m each laid at a depth of 40-90 m; dozens of inlet and distribution chambers; kilometers of connecting micro-tunnels. Besides, the NTC includes a unique facility - flow regulation unit; it is a powerful pumping station which regulates velocity of wastewater stream coming through the collector to prevent silting.

The completion of the direct discharges closure in the NTC service area will ensure treatment of 95% of wastewater.

To increase this value up to 98% it is necessary to construct a tunnel collector along Robespiera embankment, close direct discharges of Petrogradsky district, construct a collector in the area of the Okhta River, and build wastewater treatment plants in the towns of Lomonosov, Metallostroi, Molodezhnoe.

• Modernization of the city water treatment plants

In 2010, the construction of a new 350,000 m3/day water treatment block K-6 was completed at Southern WTP. In early 2011, the supply of water from the new block to the citizens began.

The distinctive features of the technological solution used in the designing and construction of of K-6 block are as follows:

- preliminary ozonization of water with small doses of ozon to ensure surface oxidation of humic compounds and improvement of their further coagulation,

- coagulated water precipitation in the lamellar clarifier ensuring more effective removal of suspended solids compared to traditional sedimentation tanks,

- filtration of water on double-layer filters loaded with granular activated carbon and quartz sand to ensure additional removal of dissolved organic matter, including oil products.

Flush water produced at the K-6 Block is treated with the release of sludge, which is disposed separately to prevent the Neva water contamination. All water treated at the Block is disinfected with sodium hypochlorite and ammonium sulfate, and further is also UV-disinfected.

In the coming years new blocks at Northern, Main and Kolpino Water Treatment Plants will be built.

The reconstruction of Northern Water Treatment Plant (The Neva Water Project) that assumes the construction of a new block with a capacity of 800 thousand cubic meters per day will be carried out with using the public-private partnership mechanism. Tender for the NWTP reconstruction was announced by the Saint-Petersburg Government in February, 2011. Four companies - LLC "AquaNeva", LLC "Project Company "Nevsky Company "The Neva Water", EVN AG, Consortium OJSC "Foreign Economic Association "Technopromexport" and CJSC "Aqualia New Europe B.V" - sent their applications to the tender for the Northern Water Treatment Plant reconstruction based on the public-private partnership (The Neva Water Project). All of them passed the pre-tendering stage and will be able to submit their bids till 1/16/2012.

The construction of a new block at Main Water Treatment Plant l (with a capacity of 500 thousand cubic meters per day) and Kolpino Water Treatment Plant is planned as well.

• Creation of the water supply complex control system

Saint-Petersburg is one of the first Russian cities where a water supply innovative system is being created. That will allow to automatically adjust parameters of feed water and receive real-time data on water consumption volumes. In 2010, the results of a pilot project on creating such a system within the area of Uritskaya pumping station - the territory with the population of about 140 thousand people - were summed up. Under this project, the modernization of 12 pumping stations was carried out and the existing pumping equipment was replaced with energy-efficient. State-of-the-art equipment was installed - automated air valves, shock-proof valves; "control points" were determined and on the basis of their data the output pressure is automatically adjusted. Water quality control devices appeared in the networks. Advanced high-precision water meters with real time readings transmittance equipment were installed in the networks and on the customer's side. The implementation of the project for creating the water supply management system in the Uritskaya area allowed to achieve good results. The energy consumption reduced almost by 43 percent. The unaccounted for water reduced by 39 percent. The number of network breakdowns reduced by 32 percent.

Now, the water supply management system is being created within the South zone of St. Petersburg - with a population of about 1.5 mio people. In the future, it will be extended to the whole city.

• Improvement of sewage sludge treatment and disposal technologies

Today, all the sludge originated from wastewater treatment is being utilized at three sludge incineration plants. However, in the previous years (prior to the plants) sludge had been transported to special landfills. In particular, Severny landfill located in Novoselki is about 83 ha.

To eliminate the negative impact of sewage sludge landfills on the environment, a project for sludge treatment with using Geotube technology was developed.

This technology implies using special geotubes (filter geotextile containers) where sludge is treated with chemical agents. As a result, sludge is disinfected, dewatered, stabilized; odor is removed as well. A safe, odorless substance is generated, which can be used for preparing technogenic soils.

In 2010, Vodokanal began sludge treatment at Severny landfill. It is expected to fully treat sewage sludge stockpiled at the landfill by 2017.