Building PFAS-safe future with Lithuanian stakeholders in Kaunas

Local stakeholder seminar, arranged by ECAT-Lithuania within the EMPEREST project on 19 March, brought a lot of knowledge to increase the capacity of local authorities and water utilities when dealing with harmful substances. 50 participants representing water companies, local and national authorities, and research, learned about:

• PFAS restrictions and new EU requirements, presented by the Lithuanian Ministry of the Environment
• PFAS situation in the Baltic Sea Region, introduced by HELCOM
• EMPEREST tool for municipalities to assess PFAS risks, developed in Riga
• EMPEREST training package on PFAS to build individual capacities, launched by Berlin University of Technology
• Further cooperations and opportunities: the AchievingZeroPFAS project developing guidelines for PFAS management in Lithuania, and the LIMIT project research into potential PFAS treatment technologies in the South Baltic region.

Participants of the EMPEREST event for Lithuanian stakeholders

Markus Raudkivi, HELCOM, presenting the results of the PFAS monitoring activities from the last two years.

At the event, participants noted that there had been little information about PFAS available until now, and so the presentations were very helpful, covering a wide range of issues related to PFAS: their use, monitoring, removal of PFAS from wastewater, and legislation. During the discussions, participants were interested in the new EU legislation regulating PFAS and how to implement it in practice, and where the funding for implementation could be obtained.

Kaunas Water Ltd., EMPEREST partner organisation, presented their first results of PFAS removal from wastewater, currently tested with the project’s mobile pilot container. Participants followed with much interest, raising technical questions: what is the efficiency of new technologies, and where the PFAS materials collected from the filters are further disposed of.

In the feedback, participants indicated legal regulation of PFAS and technical innovations for PFAS removal as important topics they would like to hear more about.

Nikolaos Tzoupanos, Berlin University of Technology, presenting the EMPEREST training package for water utilities and local authorities, first chapters ready to take into use!

• More pictures from the event for Lithuanian stakeholders in the gallery

EMPEREST progress in the third year of implementation

The stakeholder event in Kaunas was a great opportunity for the EMPEREST consortium to meet up and progress in the project implementation. Among other things, over three days of the discussions we have:

• Learned the insights from the Methodological recommendations for the monitoring and assessment of PFAS, published by HELCOM.
• Planned the best way of preparing the other upcoming outputs for our target groups: 1) PFAS risk-assessment tool and framework for local authorities (to be ready in a couple of months), and 2) Strategies and technological means for minimising organic micropollutant emissions from WWTPs (coming mid-2025).
• We also visited the Kaunas wastewater treatment plan and checked our mobile pilot plant in action. This is the pilot container, constructed in Gdansk by Gdansk Water Utilities Ltd., which has already tested wastewaters in Szczecin, and this spring it supports Kaunas WWTP in making future investment decisions! After the testing period in Kaunas, this container will be further transferred to Riga WWTP to get an even more comprehensive picture from the region.

EMPEREST mobile pilot container connected to the Kaunas wastewater treatment plant for testing different technologies to remove micropollutants.

EMPEREST consortium in Kaunas!

Photos: (1, 3) Environmental Center for Administration and Technology (ECAT-Lithuania), (2) Lotta Lehti and (4, 5) Mariia Andreeva, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission
Written by: Mariia Andreeva and Vaiva Ramanauskienė (ECAT-Lithuania)

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