REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA ADJARA SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT FEASIBILITY

SWECO INTERNATIONAL Gjörwellsgatan 22 P.O. Box 34044 SE-100 26 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone +46 8 695 65 00 Fax +46 8 695 65 10

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European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA ADJARA SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PROJECT PREPARATION C17146REV/SODA-2007-12-01

Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment Stockholm 04-09-2008 Project No. 1989177 Anders Rydergren, Team Leader

SWECO INTERNATIONAL Gjörwellsgatan 22 P.O. Box 34044 SE-100 26 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone +46 8 695 65 00 Fax +46 8 695 65 10


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Table of contents Environmental Impact Assessment 6 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Project Objectives 8 1.2 Project Owner 8 1.3 Stakeholders 9 2 Background 11 2.1 Present Situation in Adjara 11 2.1.1 Population 11 2.2 Waste Amounts and Types 11 2.3 Waste Collection 14 2.3.1 Summary of waste Collection Systems 16 2.3.2 Waste collection areas 16 2.4 Waste Transportation 18 2.5 Source Separation and Recycling 18 2.6 Hazardous Waste 19 2.6.1 Industrial Waste 19 2.6.2 Healthcare Waste 21 2.7 Construction Waste 24 2.8 Current Quality and Efficiency of the Waste 24 2.9 Existing Non-compliant Landfills 25 2.9.1 Batumi Non-compliant Landfill 25 2.9.2 Kobuleti Noncompliant Landfill 27 2.10 Illegal Dumping 32 3 Legal Requirements 33 3.1 Georgian Regulations and Administrative Systems 33 3.1.1 Administrative structure 33 3.1.2 Framework Legislation 35 3.1.3 Georgian Regulations on Waste management 35 3.1.4 Legislation Related Environmental Permitting in Georgia 36 3.1.5 Other Environmental lows Pertinent to the project 37 3.1.6 Environmental standards and Norms 39 3.2 European regulations on the Waste management 40 3.2.1 EU Waste management Legislation 40 3.2.2 EU regulations Related to EIA Environmental Permitting 41 3.3 EBRD Environmental and Social Policy 41 3.4 Screening Determination 43 4 Sitting of New landfill 44 4.1 Background 44 4.2 Pre-selection of the Sites 44 4.3 Description of the Sitting Process 46 4.4 Public Participation on Site Selection Process 48 5 Natural Conditions at the Proposed New landfill site 51 5.1 Climate 51 5.2 Topography 52 5.3 Geotechnical Conditions 53 5.4 Geology 54 5.5 Hydrology 54 5.6 Groundwater 54

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5.7 Landscape and Vegetation 55 5.8 Fauna 56 5.9 Background Noise 56 5.10 Background Radiation 57 5.11 Cultural Heritage 58 5.12 Infrastructure 58 6 Land Ownership and Land Use 60 7 New Sanitary Landfill – Facilities an operation 64 7.1 Entrance Road 64 7.2 Control of Incoming Waste 64 7.3 Buildings 64 7.4 Sorting and Recycling 64 7.4.1 Fractions to be Separated 65 7.4.2 Technical Solutions 65 7.4.3 Markets for Recycling 65 7.5 Hazardous Waste 66 7.6 Landfill Design Criteria 66 8 Environmental Impact 70 8.1 Emissions to Surface Water 70 8.2 Emissions to Soil and Groundwater 70 8.3 Emissions to the atmosphere 71 8.3.1 Greenhouse Gases 71 8.3.2 Other substance 72 8.3.3 Odour 72 8.4 Effect on Waste transport 72 8.5 Occupational Health Risks 74 8.6 Impact on valuable natural reserves 74 8.7 Impact on Cultural Heritage 74 8.8 Noise and Littering 74 8.9 View of the site 74 8.10 Construction Impact 75 9 Mitigation Measures 76 9.1 Control and separation of hazardous waste 76 9.2 Landfill Lining 76 9.3 Leachate Collection and Treatment 76 9.3.1 Leachate Volume and Quality 76 9.3.2 Leachate Quality 77 9.3.3 Leachate Collection 79 9.3.4 Proposed leachate Treatment 79 9.3.5 Treatment Efficiency 80 9.3.6 Construction 81 9.4 Landfill Gas Collection and utilisation 81 9.5 Covering of Waste Cells 82 9.6 Odour 83 9.7 Noise Abatement 84 9.8 Hidden from View 84 9.9 Labour and Working Conditions 85 9.10 Occupational Health and safety management 85


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9.11 Mitigation and construction Impacts 85 9.11.1 Pollution Prevention and waste management 85 9.11.2 Topsoil Protection and Prevention of Erosion 87 9.11.3 Protection of ecological Receptors 88 9.11.4 Protection of Cultural Heritage 88 9.11.5 Safety During Construction 88 9.11.6 Control of Suppliers 88 10 Social Impact 89 10.1 Living Conditions of Neighbours 89 10.2 Effect on Present Land Use and Involuntary resettlement 92 10.3 Diversion of Traffic Flow 93 10.4 Infrastructure 94 10.5 Sanitary Risks 94 10.6 Scavengers 94 11 Closure of Noncompliant lanfills 95 11.1 Batumi Noncompliant landfill 95 11.1.1 Description of the Site 95 11.1.2 Environmental Impact 102 11.1.3 Proposed Measures 102 11.2 Kobuleti Noncompliance landfill 105 11.2.1 Description of the Kobuleti landfill 106 11.2.2 Environmental Impact 110 11.2.3 Proposed Measures 111 12 Compliance with the EU Directive on landfill 116 13 Environmental Monitoring 122 13.1 Environmental monitoring Programme 122 13.1.2 Incoming Waste Control 122 13.1.3 Leachate 122 13.1.4 Surface and groundwater Monitoring 122 13.1.5. Landfill Gas Control 122 13.1.6 Environmental reporting 123 13.2 Construction Supervision 123 14 Public Consultation 124 14.1 European and Georgian Regulations an Public Consultation 124 14.1.1 Georgian Regulations on public Consultation 124 14.1.2 European Regulations on public Consultation 125 14.1.3 EBRD’s Public Information Requirements 125 14.2 Public Consultations and Disclosure plan for the project 126 15 Conclusions 128 Addendum #1 The Zone of Impact on Human Health and

Residential Surroundings and Recommendations for Restricting Certain Types of Activities Within the Sanitary Protection Zone

Addendume #2 Public Consultation Process Addendume #3 Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Assessment and

Resource Use

Annex 1. Landfill Site Selection; Prequalification of the Site "Microrayon 7"


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Annex 2. Baseline Environmental and Social Conditions Annex 3. Public Consultation

Annex 4. Environmental Management and Monitoring Plans Annex 5. Land Use and Resettlement Issues

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Autonomous Republic of Adjara, Georgia Adjara Solid Waste Management Project

Environmental Impact Assessment

1 Introduction

This document is the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Adjara Solid Waste Management (SWM) Project – Feasibility Study and Project Preparation, financed by the Swedish Fund at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD; Grant Agreement No.: C17146rev/SODA-2007-12-01).

SWECO International AB has prepared the EIA in accordance with EBRD, EU and Sida guidelines on environmental standards. Compliance with EU environmental standards defined in EU Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the Landfill of Waste is provided in Section 11 of the current document.

The Autonomous Republic of Adjara (further “Adjara” or the “Republic”) is located in southwest Georgia and covers 2900 km2. The population is 380,000 and the average population density is 132 inhabitants/km². The Autonomous Republic of Adjara is conventionally subdivided on high mountainous and lowland Adjara. Mountainous terrain is dominant. Some peaks are over 2,500 m above the sea level. High mountainous Adjara comprises Shuakhevi, Keda and Khulo administrative regions. Here densely populated areas are interlacing with sparsely populated and unoccupied territories. The western part of the republic is washed by the Black Sea; The Lowland Adjara, comprising Capital of Ajara – City of Batumi and Kobuleti and Khelvachauri administrative regions, represents hilly area and narrow coastal strip of the Black Sea. Generally these areas are densely populated or used for agricultural purposes.

The city of Batumi constitutes the project area along with the municipalities Kobuleti and Khelvachauri. Although this project is conceived as a regional Adjara operation, the Project is intended to improve the solid waste management in Adjara in two stages, namely, first focusing on the City of Batumi, the nearby resort Kobuleti and coastal zone and stripes along the main road in Khelvachauri. In a second stage the solid waste management practices in Adjara’s rural areas will be addressed.

The project area is located along the coastline of the Black Sea and approximately 80% of Adjara’s population lives in this area.


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One important feature for the SWM in the project area is the large number of tourists (around 100,000 people/year) visiting the coastal zones mainly in July and August.

It is increasingly hard to cope with the growing quantities of waste as the population of Adjara expands, tourism develops and economy grows. Indicators of the development trends are given in the Baseline Study. The solid waste services suffer from inadequacy in technical equipment as well as in organization and in financial management, which was the reason for launching the current project. The objective for the project is a general improvement of solid waste management (SWM) in Adjara. The project has identified mainly three areas for technical and environmental improvements: waste collection points, transports and landfills.

The new landfill site will, besides the sanitary landfill, include relevant buildings, weigh-bridge, leachate collection and treatment system, sorting and storage facilities for recyclables and hazardous waste and vehicles necessary for the operation. A gas extraction system is planned for construction after 3-5 years of operation.

The EIA is based on compilation and evaluation of collected information during the project period and complementary field works made by the consultant to obtain necessary additional data. Such field investigations have included inter alia a weighing campaign to identify the density of the waste, a topographical survey of the existing (Batumi and Kobuleti) and planned (Chakvi) landfills. Geological, hydrological, hydrogeological surveys have also been carried out for the planned landfill in Chakvi.

The current EIA describes briefly the existing physical, environmental and socio-economic conditions of the current landfills. However, the major component of the project is the planned establishment of a new landfill and thus, the EIA focuses on this matter. The EIA describes the proposed improvements of the environmental and sanitary conditions in the region by eliminating the negative impacts of the currently used landfills on one hand and the planned construction and operation of the new landfill with reduced impact on the environment and protection of people's health on the other hand.

In the Conclusions section a no-project alternative is compared with the potential outcomes of the project in case it will be executed. The no-project, for this EIA is thus, the present situation where no measures for environmental improvements are taken. This no-project alternative is compared with the situation after implementation of the measures proposed in the investment programme.


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1.1 Project Objectives The overall objective for the project is to improve the Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Adjara in a two stage approach focusing initially on the City of Batumi and the municipalities Kobuleti and Khelvachauri.

Concrete objectives are to:

• create a sanitary landfill, compliant for non-hazardous waste with the EC Directive 99/31/EC

• close down and remediate non-compliant landfills

• create a new waste management company for operation of the new landfill

• propose an affordable tipping fee for treatment of primarily non-hazardous solid waste.

1.2 Project Owner The Republic of Georgia and the Autonomous Republic of Adjara will be the Borrower and Sub-borrower, respectively. As it is planned today the loan will be up to EUR 3 millions, while the grant is planned to be EUR 4 millions.

It is a municipal responsibility to collect household waste and clean the streets. They can do it by there own or they can choose to hire private companies to perform the services. In this case, they should

• Prepare tenders for collection and streets cleaning • Evaluate the tenders and select the most suitable company for the

assignment • Monitor and evaluate the performance of the assigned company.

As it is suggested a landfill company will be created to own and operate the new sanitary landfill site and the associated assets at Chakvi and to provide landfill services for the population of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara including the City of Batumi and the Municipalities of Kobuleti and Khelvachauri. The Government of Adjara is planned to be the owner of the new landfill company initially. Closure and covering of the existing landfills in Batumi and Kobuleti are tasks for the Adjara Government, but not for the new landfill company.


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1.3 Stakeholders Governmental Organizations Government at central level:

1. Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources (MoE): Department of Licenses and Permits Department of Integrated Management of Environment International Relations Department Black Sea Convention MoE inspection Service of Public and Media Relation

2. Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia:

Construction Department

3. Ministry of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sports Department of Monuments Protection Center of Archeological Search

4. Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia

Local Government:

1. Directorate for Environmental and Natural Resources Autonomous Republic of Adjara

2. Municipalities and Rayon Administrations of Autonomous Republic of Adjara:

Municipaly Address Contact

Person Tel/Mail:

Batumi Municipality

#5 Luka Asatiani str.

Robert Chkhaidze

8882272626

Khelvachauri Municipality

Khelvachauri Settlement; # 21 D. Agmashenebeli str.

Jemal Shavlidze

893786167

Kobuleti Municipality

#141 Agmashenebeli av., Kobuleti

Emzar Jincharadze

895222488

Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can be distinguished into three groups of NGOs:


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1. Environmental NGOs working on issues related to environmental protection, management and regulations;

• Local NGOs working in Adjara • Central NGOs based in Tbilisi, etc.

2. NGOs working on social issues in the communities on topic like health, education, social inclusion and sociological research;

3. Other NGOs (like associations of lawyers, think-tanks, etc.) Private Sector

The private sector is a broad and complex sector. Preliminary we identified the following sub-groups under this private sector (while detailed list is given in PCDP):

1. Private Tourist Operators (Hotels, etc.) 2. Port of Batumi and Batumi Oil Terminal 3. General Industry 4. Neighbours to the proposed sanitary landfill at Chakvi and to non-

compliant landfills in Batumi and Kobuleti. 5. Waste recyclers, working on non-compliant landfills.


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2 Background

2.1 Present Situation in Adjara

2.1.1 Population

The total population 2006 in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara was 383 737 and around 80 percent of the total population lives within the project’s target area, which includes municipalities of Batumi, Kobuleti and Khelvachauri (Table 1).

Table 1. Population with SWM services from Sandasuptaveba LTD

Municipality Population 2006

Population with SWM services 2006

Assumed future extension of waste collection

Batumi 125 671 125 671 125 671

Kobuleti District

90 834 30 000 40 000 +

Khelvachauri District

93 974 20 000 30 000 +

Total 310 479 175 671 195 671 +

The population increase has been estimated at 2000 persons per year.

2.2 Waste Amounts and Types The new landfill is intended to serve Batumi, Kobuleti and Khelvachauri Municipalities.

In order to obtain improved data for waste amounts a one-week weighing campaign for waste disposed at Batumi landfill was carried out March 10-16 2008. By this method the waste amounts have been converted into tons to allow a better understanding of the actual situation.

The waste density in compacting vehicles was 314 kg/m3 and in non-compacting vehicles 230 kg/m3. Taking into account that roughly 80 % of all incoming waste


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was disposed by compacting vehicles the overall average density for all incoming waste was 300 kg/m3.

The incoming waste to Batumi and Kobuleti year 2007 was 34 000 and 8 000 tons, respectively, providing a total of 42 000 tons.

The yearly distribution of waste amounts, in tons, disposed each month in the existing Kobuleti and Batumi landfills in 2007 are shown in figure 1.

Waste amounts 2007

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Month

Tons

/mon

th

BatumiKobuleti

Figure 1.Monthly waste amounts disposed at Batumi and Kobuleti 2007

The peak months for waste generation are the summer period, mainly July-August, due to the tourist season.

Taking the assumed increased waste collection into consideration the waste amount incoming to the new landfill is estimated to increase up to 47 000 tons per year.

Three growth scenarios for future waste amounts have been assumed: high, medium and low. Based on the above indicated increase of the population in combination with possible improved living standards the waste amounts the annual growth rate for each scenario was estimated at 1, 3 and 5%, respectively, over a 15 year period. The three scenarios are shown in Figure 2 below.


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Figure 2 Waste generation for three growth scenarios over 15 years. The medium scenario has been used for all calculations on future waste amounts in this report and thus, also when estimating the lifetime of the landfill.

An above indicated increase of the population in combination with possible improved living standards the waste amounts may be estimated to increase by some 3% per year over the next 30 year.

The household waste is the dominating waste type by far, over 95% of the total. Only minor amounts of construction waste are disposed at the non-compliant landfills, less than 1%. In addition, the City Cleaning of Sandasuptaveba disposes street sweepings, beach cleaning waste, snow, and liquidated animals, but this is estimated at a few percent of the total amount only.

Data provided by Veterinary Service indicates the following amounts of various types of biological matter disposed at the existing noncompliant landfills year 2007

Cattle – 220 heads Poultry – 1611 heads Street dogs - 3615 heads Bad products – 3431 kg


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2.3 Waste Collection There are three different systems for household waste collection in Adjara:

Container system Bunker system Ring-bell system

The most common method for waste collection is the container system and about 65 % of the waste is collected this way. The containers are placed in the streets, near buildings, schools, kindergartens, enterprises, institutions, etc. and the size of the containers varies between 0.18 - 1.1 m3. Up to 200 households are serviced by one 1.1 m3 container. In addition, large size containers are as well used for enterprises. Batumi City is supplied with European standard waste collection containers and trucks with back-loading devices, which means that the waste is automatically emptied in the trucks. The waste is collected several times a day along the main streets and in the city centre. According to the collection service contract the containers should be emptied twice a day. The container system is generally accepted by the public and deemed as practical, although in some cases their location is disputed by the nearby residents. Sandasuptaveba would prefer to construct concrete slabs for placement of containers, at least nearby public gathering places (sidewalks, lawns), which would facilitate collection and cleaning. The service provided by “Sandasuftaveba” LTD for cleaning beaches along the Adjara coastline during tourist season should be also taken into consideration) The following numbers and types of containers are supplied in Batumi:

For smaller districts located along the boulevards, 474 plastic containers and 20 cast iron containers are used.


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More than 500 containers have been displaced or stolen. In addition, containers are regularly damaged due to carelessness of the population or poor handling by the service staff. The bunker system is mainly used in multi-storey (9+) houses in Batumi, Kobuleti and Khelvachauri. The total number of such residential houses is 155 and the total number of bunkers is 320. The waste pipes and bunkers are an integrated part of these buildings and the volume of each bunker is 2-3 m3. Based on information provided by Sandasuptaveba Service Administration, the bunkers are normally filled in about one week and commonly emptied once or twice every week. According to the prevailing contract they shall be emptied every 5th day. The emptying is carried out by one or sometimes two labourers. The waste is first thrown out of the bunker and placed on the ground, after which it is loaded on the trucks. The process of empting and loading the truck takes 1-1.5 hour. Open trucks without any compaction devices are used for waste collection from the bunkers. Thus, the bunker system is a simple system to use for the inhabitants, but there are a number of disadvantages of which some are described below:

Poor sanitary working conditions for the labourers. The tedious loading procedure creates a nuisance for the residents in those

densely populated areas. The collection frequency appears to be irregular. Storage of waste in the bunkers is an excellent breeding ground for rats,

cockroaches, flies, etc. No cleaning or disinfection is done by the service staff. The bunkers are not locked, which sometimes results in scattering of waste by

scavengers. The pipelines occasionally get blocked by construction or bulky waste.

Thus, for many obvious reasons the bunker system should be prohibited and replaced by a container system. The ring-bell service is mainly applied in the suburbs of the city as well as in the communities in the mountainous regions. The ring-bell system is applied in areas without bunkers or containers mainly in rural settlements. The collection is a daily routine and the collection us made in the mornings. The trucks, owned by Sandasuptaveba, ring a bell at their arrival and the people carry their waste to the truck when they hear the bell, where it is loaded on the truck by the drivers. The system is quite time consuming and thus rather inefficient. Also in those areas the container system would be a preferable option. There is a large discrepancy in waste collection in various parts of Adjara. In the centre of Batumi City and along the main roads in Kobuleti and Khelvachauri the waste collection is made at regular intervals and the visual impression is that the streets are clean. However, in other parts, especially in Khelvachauri the collection rate is poor and there are large areas without any waste collection at all.


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2.3.1 Summary of Waste Collection Systems The waste collection system can be summarised in the table below.

Table 3 Waste collection in Adjara.

2.3.2 Waste Collection Areas It is only in Batumi where a complete collection of waste is carried out. In the figures below the areas where waste collection is taken place is shown for each municipality.

Figure 3. Waste collection in Batumi is carried out inside the red-marked area.


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Figure 4 Waste collection in Kobuleti; along the coastline in city centre and in parts of Chakvi settlement.

Figure 5 Waste collection in Khelvachauri; Khelvachauri and Makhinjauri districts and along motorways Batumi-Sarfhi and Batumi- Khelvachauri.


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2.4 Waste Transportation Sandasuptaveba has a vehicle fleet including 29 vehicles of different types. As an average 15-20 vehicles are used daily for waste collection. Out of those vehicles nine are new, from 2007 or 2008, and they are equipped with compacting device. In general, 8,000-11,000 inhabitants are serviced by each truck. This figure can be compared with experiences from similar conditions in other countries: In Turkey the corresponding figure is 5,000-12,000 and in Serbia 4,000 to 9,000. The distance from Chakvi to Batumi centre is less than 10 km and to Kobuleti about 15 km. Based on experience from several other studies it is not feasible to establish transfer stations at such short distances. As a general rule one may say that if the transportation distance exceeds 30 km one may reflect in establishing transfer stations and thus, such facilities are not deemed feasible in this first phase, when the collection is focusing on the densely populated areas along the coastline and the transport distances are short. It should be noticed that one strong reason for selecting the location at Chakvi was the advantage with short transportation distances to the main population centres. 2.5 Source Separation and Recycling There is no formal sorting of waste. However, there is a certain separation of waste in the chain of collection and disposal. Drivers, waste collectors and street cleaners scavenge and select metal scrap, plastic material, glass and other household objects in the waste, which provides an additional income for them. Two levels of people are involved in the sorting chain: 1) the middlemen buying the recyclables from the 2) scavengers actually performing the sorting from bunkers, containers, landfill etc. Some cardboard is also sorted at the landfill, although in a more unorganized manner. Glass materials (bottles) are washed by hand and delivered to glass reception sites. Nowadays, there are 30 such commercial sites. There are 45 metal scrap and other color metal reception centers in the region. There are no enterprises recycling or processing the waste in Adjara although a waste separation project was planned by the Environment Protection and Natural Resources Administration of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, though it failed to be implemented due to the absence of funding. In average up to 100 scavengers are daily engaged at Batumi Landfill.


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Table 3 Indicative prices for some recycled materials.

Furthermore, the scavengers are also sorting food products for the village cattle as well as other household stuff. Cattle are regularly found at the landfill site, feeding from the organic waste disposed at the landfill. 2.6 Hazardous Waste 2.6.1 Industrial Waste Industrial and commercial waste is commonly stored at the industry sites. Below in Table 4.5 a list of such waste produced year 2007 is presented. Table 4. List of industrial and commercial waste year 2007.


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Note: the remains indicated above are stored on the industries’ own territories. At present different types of industrial waste are stored on the industries’ own territories. An estimation of such storage of waste is provided below in Table 4. Table 5 Estimated stored waste at industrial sites 2007.

The storage of the above-mentioned waste types is normally made without proper environmental protection and thus, is often a threat to the environment. 2.6.2 Healthcare waste Within the frame of an EU financed project an incinerator was constructed within the Batumi landfill in 2007. Prior to the construction the following activities were carried out:


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- Inventory of all the healthcare institutions in Batumi and Kobuleti cities (Table 5 below) - Site selection for the incinerator - Preparation of an EIA along with Public Consultations - Design, tendering and purchasing of incinerator and transport vehicles - Training on safe management of the Healthcare Wastes - Development of management plan for medical institutions Taking into account the privatization and restructuring of medical institutions in Georgia and compliance with the relevant sanitary norms, the Batumi landfill was selected for location of incinerator. Public consultations were held inviting people in the neighbourhood of the future incinerator. It was explained that the incinerator would not make any harm neither to the environment nor to the people’s health. The incinerator was completed already in 2007 but has not yet been put into operation. The reasons are of technical and administrative nature. Based on the experienced difficulties of installation of the incinerator, which problems would be repeated in case of re-locating it to Chakvi, the Consultant suggests to leave the plant on the present location. The site is approved by the EIA and there will not be any change in the status of the area as it will still be an exclusion zone even after terminating and covering the Batumi landfill. Waste amounts from hospitals, medical centres etc. are provided in the table below.


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Table 6 Annual amounts of healthcare waste year 2006. Unit: kg.

- Category A represents household type of waste, which is collected in the medical institutions and transported to the landfill. - Category B is hazardous healthcare waste, which is planned to be transported by special container-carrier trucks for incineration in the recently installed incinerator. - Category C represents a class of hazardous healthcare waste collected in psychiatric and infectious clinics, which shall be incinerated together with the Category B waste after disinfection in a thermal process.


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- Category D represents outdated medicines collected in medical institutions as well as chemical reagents, similar to industrial toxic waste. -There is also a fifth category E, consisting of radioactive waste, which is separated from the other waste and thus, not transported to the landfill. 2.7 Construction Waste Construction waste is transported to the Batumi landfill in small quantities, about 2-5 tons per day. The waste is mainly coming from household repair works. The construction waste from the destruction of old buildings located in the Black Sea coastline was stored in marshlands, in Kobuleti and Khelvachauri Municipal District territories. Some 50 000 m3 of construction waste was collected and removed from the city territory during 2007. As the result of re-installation of the old buildings 100 000 m3 of construction waste is planned to be stored in the erosion sensitive coast of the Black Sea, located near Khelvachauri District Village Adlia, in the river Chorokhi bed, at the bank of rivers Dekhva and Kintrishi. There are plans to re-process the collected waste and use them for other construction works. 2.8 Current Quality and Efficiency of Waste Management The visual impression of Batumi is that it a clean city due to regular street sweepings and collection of waste. The service is carried out by waste sweeping and watering vehicles as well as containercarrying vehicles. The waste is regularly collected in the city. Street cleaning and waste service is provided for 125,000 out of 125,000 citizens living in Batumi and the service indicator is thus100%. Cleaning service is provided for presumably 30 000 out of 90,000 people living on Kobuleti Municipality territory – i.e. the service indicator is approximately 35 %. However, the services are considerably increased during the tourist season. Cleaning service is provided for 10-20 000 people out of 94,000 people living in Khelvachauri Municipality territory – i.e. service indicator is approximately 15 %. The service is provided by “Sandasuptaveba” LTD. The reasons for the lower portions of service in Kobuleti and Khelvachauri are further elaborated in Section 2.2. To our understanding the lower service degree is due to contractual-financialreasons rather than lack of collection capacity or management skills in the collection system. The main problem in Adjara is the lack of proper treatment and disposal of waste. The existing landfills are all non-compliant with the EU directive on landfills and pose a threat to people’s health and the environment. It is recommended that the project shall focus on establishment of a new sanitary landfill.


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2.9 Existing Non-compliant Landfills

There are five non-compliant landfills in Adjara. The locations of those are shown in Figure 5. Two of those are within the project’s target area and will be closed as a part of this project.

Figure 6 Landfills in Adjara.

2.9.1 Batumi Non-compliant Landfill

The landfill covers an area of 19 ha and is situated in the alluvial river bed about 10 km south of the Batumi city centre, between the airport, the Chorokhi River and the Black Sea shoreline ( Figure 7).


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Figure 7 Location of non-compliant landfill in Batumi

The area has been used as a landfill for quite a long time (since the Soviet time). The waste pile reaches 6 meters height in some places.

Figure 8. Erosion of wastes by the flood

Noncompliance of Siting and Design The landfill is situated close to the r.Chorokhi, in a flooding zone. According to Georgian regulations the landfill should not be located within the sanitary protection zone of the r. Chorokhi and estuary. The required distance is 300m. As we have mentioned above, the river bank protection engineering installations were not adequately designed and constructed and that resulted in river bank erosion and wash out of the significant section of the landfill.

The landfill is located near the Batumi airport. The members of state commission for the site selection requested that a distance from the municipal landfill to the airport should be 10km.

The geological and hydrogeological requirements for landfills are not met. Permeability of soils and groundwater conditions do not provide required level of groundwater protection.


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The landfill is not designed in accordance with the European design standards: no special protection lining, leachate collection and treatment and gas collection and treatment facilities are installed. The landfill is not fenced.

Noncompliance of management There is a control point at the entry for recording the incoming trucks, but the area is unfenced and large number of animals is feeding from the organic wastes at the landfill and about 20-30 scavengers are occupied on the landfill site (Figere #9).

Figure 9. Scavenging people and grazing animals on landfill in Batumi.

Conclusion The landfill should be closed and further disposal of wastes at the site should be prohibited. Rehabilitation of the river bank protection design is a separate but necessary element for the final closure of the landfill.

2.9.2 Kobuleti Non-compliant Landfill

Solid household waste, construction debris and other wastes have been dumped along the road from the city of Kobuleti to the former aerodrome. The area is covered with peat with a shallow groundwater table.


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The landfill has been functioning since 1961 and very intensively used during the 10 last years. Total landfill site occupies 4.2 ha while the waste surface is around 3.8 ha. More then 10 cells can be distinguished within the area.

Figure 10. Kobuleti dump site (Situation in early 2006)

The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous Tacis report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m.

Figure 11. Kobuleti dump site (Situation in early 2006)

The landfill site is not in use anymore because of the military airport in the neighbourhood. Initially after the termination, the wastes were transported to


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Batumi landfill, but because of the high petrol expenses a temporary landfill was recently opened by Municipality of Kobuleti.

Figure 12. Kobuleti dump site (current situation)

Figure 13. Kobuleti dump site (current situation)


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Figur 14. Closed Landfill in Kobuleti.

Noncompliance of Siting and Design The landfill is situated within the Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and belongs to Ramsar site. According to Georgian regulations the landfill should not be located within the protected area. According to sanitary norms for the solid waste landfills, the landfill should not be constructed in wetland are.

The geological and hydrogeological requirements for landfills are not met. Permeability of soils and groundwater conditions do not provide required level of groundwater protection.

The landfill is not designed in accordance with the European design standards: no special protection lining, leachate collection and treatment and gas collection and treatment facilities are not installed. The landfill is not fenced.

Noncompliance of management The area is unfenced and grazing animals can be found there, but there is no scavenging here (Figur14), so far as the landfill has been closed and no waste is being deposed here any more.


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Currently the municipal solid waste of Kobuleti region is temporarily disposed on a new dumping site. This dumping site is also noncompliant: no special protective design and management arrangements are introduced. The dumping site is not as sensitive as the closed landfill site. However, the landscape degradation should be considered as impact. The site does not provide enough capacity for construction of large landfill and its location is not feasible from the transportation standpoint.

Figur15. New Dumping Site in Kobuleti.

Figure16. New Dumping Site in Kobuleti Conclusion The landfill, as well as temporary dumping site should be finally closed and further disposal of wastes at the site should be prohibited.


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2.10 Illegal Dumping In addition to the abovementioned, a number of illegal dumpsites are still functioning in Adjara. Known locations are e.g. Upper Military Town of Batumi and Tamari Settlement, Chakvi Community of Kobuleti District, Choloki Settlement, Ochkhamuri, Sanatorium “Georgia” environs, Makhinjauri Community of Khelvachauri District, along Mkho-Erge Automobile Highway, Gonio settlement, Atshesi Settlement of Keda District, at the crossroad of Shuakhevi District Village Skhepi, Football Stadium environs in Khulo Community of District Khulo territory as well as Health Resort Beshumi environs, as well as accidental storage of the waste. In total up to 20 sites are illegally used as dump sites. In total it is estimated that more than 5 hectares is used for illegal dumping. Around 1 300 out of 19 200 residents in Keda District are provided with waste collection services and 900 m3 of waste is collected per resident annually. The collected waste is transported to the landfill located in the River Adjaristskali bed, as well as to former Animal Farm of the Keda Community. Some 700 m3 of waste is collected from 850 out of 21 800 inhabitants in Shuakhevi District annually which is thrown into the River Adjaristskali Gorge without following any sanitary norms, for further transports in the river water without any protection. The current state is dangerous and risky; in fact River Adjaristskali serves as a dumpsite for the Shuakhevi inhabitants. 2160 m3 of waste is annually collected from 2000 residents in Khulo Community out of 34 000 Khulo District inhabitants. The waste is transported to the dry gorge of the River Adjaristskali and further washed away after heavy rainfalls. Furthermore, the existing dumpsite in the Health Resort Beshumi creates an unpleasant environment for the guests, as it is located near the holiday houses.


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3. Legal Requirements

The project implementation has to comply with requirements of Georgian law, European environmental directives and EBRD´s requirements. A brief description of such requirements is presented below.

The project will include “green-field” investments (construction of a new sanitary landfill), which means that according to Georgian law and EBRD Policies an environmental impact assessment has to be carried out, including public consultation. According to EBRD rules a 120 days public consultation is required. This procedure is described in Section 0 4.4 Public Participation .

3.1 Georgian Regulations and Administrative System

3.1.1 Administrative Structure

Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources (MoE). MoE has the overall responsibility for protection of environment in Georgia. The Department of Licenses and Environmental Permits of MoE is responsible for reviewing EIAs and for issuance of the Environmental Permits. The Department of Integrated Management of Environment is responsible for developing policy, legislation and general action plans related to waste management and pollution abatement (protection of ambient air, surface and groundwater and soil). The MoE Environmental Inspectorate is responsible for compliance monitoring, including monitoring of construction activities and auditing of all kind of entities. For the projects, which do not require Construction Permit, the Environmental permit is being issued by the MoE on the ground of State Ecological Examination. State Ecological Examination is carried out by MoE upon official submission of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prepared by project developers The Directorate of Environment and Natural Resources of the of Adjara Autonomous Republic, is responsible on establishing policy of sustainable development of the autonomous republic of Adjara and monitoring in a field of natural resource management and environmental protection. Compliance of developing industrial projects with the environmental requirements set forth in legal documents, standards and norms is conducted by the department at all stages of the project development: preparation of development plans and programs, preparation of EIAs, design of particular projects, construction and rehabilitation activities and operation of facilities.


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For the project Improvement of Domestic Solid Waste Management in Adjara the Directorate of Environment and Natural Resources of the government of ADJARA is one of the main initiators, beneficiary and client for the current assignment. Technical Assistance programs will be useful for capacity building of the Directorate to ensure monitoring of implementation of the project in compliance with the EU requirements.

The projects related to construction or reconstruction of the Municipal Solid Waste Landfills is not classified as the projects of Special Importance. Thus Architecture and Construction Services of Municipalities are responsible for carrying out the review of technical documentation (including conclusion of an independent experts) and issuing Permits on Construction for such projects, as well as for supervision over constructing activities and for arranging Acceptance Commission after completion of construction. The municipalities of BATUMI, KOBUTETI, KEDA… It is the municipality responsibility to evacuate household wastes and to make the streets clean. They can do it by there own, with dedicated trucks and workers. They can also choose a private company to do the job. In this case, they: - set up tenders for collection and streets cleaning. - Select the company - Survey and control the work of the company - Prepare new tenders including new services: collection of semi urban zones with new containers to reduce the wild dumpsites. The municipalities are responsible for developing and control of the municipal solid waste landfills within the frames of their municipalities and their competence. The Ministry of Culture and Sports. The ministry is responsible on supervision of the construction activities in order to protect archaeological heritage. In case if construction is to be carried out in a historic sites or zones of cultural heritage, consent of the Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sport is also required for issuing construction permit. The “National Service for the Foodstuffs Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection” of the Ministry of the Agriculture (NSFSVPP). NSFSVPP is responsible for implementation of complex sanitary protection measures in case of identification of burial sites during earthworks. Information about suspicious burial sites should be delivered to the “National Service for the Foodstuffs Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection” of the Ministry of the Agriculture by the Constructing Contactor (field environmental officer) and RDMED field officer Private Solid Waste Operators:


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At present the government of Georgia, as well as the government of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara is encouraging private companies to be engaged in the waste collection, transportation, processing, and recycling and disposal activities. This includes operators of landfills as well. Technical Assistance programs will be required for capacity building of the private operators to ensure operations compliance with the EU requirements.

3.1.2 Framework Legislation

The basic legal document is “The Constitution of Georgia”, which was adopted in 1995. While the Constitution of Georgia does not directly address environmental matters, it does lay down the legal framework that guarantees environmental protection and public access to information with regard to environmental conditions.

Legislative execution of constitutional requirements in the sphere of environmental protection is implemented through framework Georgian “Law on Environmental Protection” (1996, as amended) and the set of specific laws developed on its basis. The law addresses broad spectrum of issues, like environmental management, environmental education and awareness building, licenses and permits, fines and enforcement, environmental impact assessment, which should be further regulated by specific laws. According to the requirements set forth in the framework law, numerous laws and normative–legal documents were adopted to regulate specific environmental issues in Georgia. Further below the environmental regulations most relevant to the project – and first of all, to the permitting process - are described.

3.1.3 Georgian Regulations on Waste Management

The laws on waste management exist still only in the form of drafts and have no legal force yet. The same refers to “National Action Plan” on waste management. The only legislative act, which has legal force, is “Georgian Law on Transit and Import of Wastes in the Territory of Georgia”.

The following acts of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Protection of Georgia define the waste management rules:

Act on “Approval of arrangement of landfills for disposal of solid household wastes and adoption of sanitary rules and norms” 24 February, #36 (Georgian Legislative Messenger #17, 07.03.03);

The act on “Approval of the rules of collection, storage and neutralization of the wastes of medical institutions” 16 August of 2001, 300 (“Georgian Legislative Messenger” N90 24/08/2001);


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3.1.4 Legislation Related to Environmental Permitting in Georgia

At present, the environmental permitting procedure in Georgia is set out in three laws:

(i) The Law on Licenses and Permits (2005);

(ii) (ii) The Law on Environmental Impact Permits (EIP), and

(iii) (iii) The Law on Ecological Examination (EE) 2008.

The Law on Licenses and Permits was adopted by Parliament of Georgia, on June 24, 2005. The new Law regulates legally organized activities posing certain threats to human life and health, and addresses specific state or public interests, including usage of state resources.

The Laws on Environmental Impact Permit and on Ecological Examination have been published on 14.12.2007 and entered in force on 01.01.2008. These new laws integrate all the amendments introduced in legislation of Georgia during recent years.

The Law of Georgia on Environmental Impact Permit determines the complete list of activities and projects subject to the ecological examination (clause 4 p.1) and the legal basis for public participation in the process of environmental assessment, ecological examination and decision making on issuance of an environmental impact permit.

According to Article 6, the developer is obliged to carry out public consultations on the EIA before submitting it to an administrative body responsible for issuing a permit. A brief description of the Public Consultation and Disclosure requirements is provided in Section 14.1 while the detailed description is given in the PCDP (see annex 3).

Article 8 of “Environmental Impact Permit and on Ecological Examination” specifies the documents to be submitted to receive a permit:

(a) An EIA drawn up under the standards specified by the legislation of Georgia (in 5 hard copies and 1 soft copy)

(b) A situation plan of the planned activity (with the indication of distances)

(c) Volume and types of the expected emissions (a technical report of inventory of the stationery sources of pollution and emitted/discharged harmful substances and project of maximum permissible concentrations of emitted/discharged harmful substances (in 4 copies))


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(d) A brief description of the activity (as a non-technical summary)

(e) A statement about the confidential part of the submitted statement.

3.1.5 Other Environmental Laws Pertinent to the Project The “Georgian Law on Ambient Air Protection” was put into effect from 1 January 2000. This law regulates protection of ambient air from harmful anthropogenic impact on the whole territory of Georgia. In accordance with this law the MoE is responsible for development of ambient air quality standards, regulations for emission inventory and approval of permitted emission limits, execution of emission control and establishment of enforcement mechanisms. In relation with the present project, landfill gas emission, as well as emissions of stationary sources of emission is subject for air protection control. Full inventory of stationery sources of emission is to be accomplished and emission limits are to be approved by MoE. The Law of Minerals of 1996 provides provisions for the mineral resource exploration and management and establishes the requirement to obtain a license according to the procedures established under this law. The Law on Licensing and Permits (June 25, 2005) establishes the most recent regulations for licensing. According to the current legislation all quarries and borrow pits require to obtain a license. The Wildlife Law of 1996 mandates the MoE to regulate wildlife use and protection on the whole territory of the country. The law empowers the MoE control impact of economic activities on wildlife. Impact of construction of landfill, as well as operation activities on wildlife should be considered in EIA. Law of Georgia ‘On the system of the protected areas’ (1996) The Law defines the categories of ‘protected areas’ and specifies the frames of activities admissible in the given areas. The permitted actions are defined by considering the designation of the areas and in accordance with the management plans and provisions of the international conventions and agreements to which Georgia is a party. As a general requirement, the following activities are prohibited in the protected areas:

(a) Disturbance or any other changes of the natural ecosystems (b) Demolition (destroy), arrest, disturbance, damage (invalidation) of any

natural resource with the purpose of its exploitation or any other purpose (c) Damage of the natural ecosystems or species by reason of the

environmental pollution (d) Bringing and breeding foreign or exotic species of living organisms (e) Bringing explosives or toxic materials to the area.

According to this law construction of landfills within protected areas is prohibited. The distant impacts of the project may affect the Kolcheti National Park and Kobuleti State Reserve;. Accordingly, besides the Law of Georgia ‘On the system of the protected areas’, the Law of Georgia on creation and


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management of Kolkheti protected areas (adopted 9 December, 1998) should be taken into account:. Major tasks of the law are: support protection and rehabilitation of Kolkheti natural and altered wetlands notable for their biodiversity; ensure protection, rehabilitation and preservation of biodiversity of natural ecosystems, landscapes, fauna and flora; protection of ecological balance within the limits of the 5 nautical mile water area; rational use of natural resources. According to the Article 7 of the law the categories of protected areas within the limits Kobuleti region are:

• Kobuleti State Reserve; • Kobuleti Sanctuary (managed reserve); • Kobuleti multiple use area.

According to the Management Plan, construction of landfills within protected areas is prohibited. Law of Georgia ‘On the Red List and Red Book’ (2003) According to Article 10 of the Law, any activity, which may result in the reduction in number of the endangered species, deterioration of the breeding area or living conditions, is prohibited. Possible harmful effect of anthropogenization on the endangered species should be taken into account when issuing the permit on environmental impact during the ecological expertise. The Red List of Georgia was approved by the Presidential Decree No. 303 ‘On approving the Red List of Georgia’ (May 2, 2006) Law of Georgia ‘On Tourism and resort’ (1997) Clauses 3, 7 and 8 of the Law specify the requirements for creating the sanitary zones: (7) Zones of sanitary protection are created for each resort and resort area with the aim of protecting and rationally using the resort resources of Georgia, with their drafts developed by a state body of the branch management and approved by the President of Georgia. Law of Georgia ‘On the zones of sanitary protection of the resorts and resort areas’ (1998) The Law specifies the necessary conditions for accommodating the enterprises and entrepreneurship activity, exploitation of natural resources and settlement of the population on the resorts and in resort areas of Georgia. According to the Article 6. there are three zones of sanitary protection specified for the resorts and resort areas of Georgia. The first zone is of a strict regime, the second zone is of a limited regime and the third zone is the zone of supervision. Arranging landfills and discharging industrial, domestic or other remains in any form (except in garbage containers) is prohibited on the territories of first and second zone.

There is a certain probability that the project activity may cause harm to the environment, which will be impossible to mitigate even through planning and realizing the preventive measures. The rules to estimate and compensate for the environmental damage have been developed for such cases under the Decree No. 538 ‘On approving the methods to estimate the environmental damage’


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of the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia adopted on July 5, 2006. Below we site the clauses, which may be useful to estimate the damage within the limits of the project. The ‘Law of Georgia on Cultural Heritage’ was approved in May of 2007. Article 14 of the Law specifies the requirements for ‘large-scale’ construction works. According to this Article, a decision on career treatment and ore extraction on the whole territory of Georgia, as well as on construction of an object of a special importance as it may be defined under the legislation of Georgia, is made by a body designated by the legislation of Georgia based on the positive decision of the Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sport of Georgia. The basis for the conclusion is the archeological research of the proper territory to be carried out by the entity wishing to accomplish the ground works. The entity wishing to do the ground works is obliged submit the Ministry the documentation about the archeological research of the territory in question. The preliminary research should include field-research and laboratory works. In case of identifying an archeological object on the territory to study, the conclusion of the archeological research should contain the following information: (a) a thorough field study of the archeological layers and objects identified on the study territory by using modern methodologies, (b) recommendations about the problem of conservation of the identified objects and planning of the building activity on the design territory, on the basis of the archeological research.

3.1.6 Environmental Standards and Norms

The maximum admissible levels of atmospheric air pollution and noise are of a particular importance to the stage of construction (dust, emission and noise related to construction machinery), as well as for the operation of landfill (biogas production, noise related to vehicles etc.). In accordance with the ‘Law on public health’, the environmental qualitative norms are approved by Decrees of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Security of Georgia (Decrees Nos. 297/N of 16.08.2001, including the changes made to it by further decrees of the Ministry Nos. 38/N of 02.24.2003, 251/N of 09.15.1006, 351/N of 12.17.2007). Ambient Air Quality Norms. The provisions for the protection of ambient air against contamination and the values of Maximum Admissible Concentrations (MAC) of the harmful substances in the ambient air in the vicinity of the settlements is provided in the Environmental Quality Norms approved by the Order #297N (16.08.2001) of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Protection (as amended by the order Order No 38/n of the same Ministry of 24.02.2003). The quality of atmospheric air (pollution with hazardous matter) is also defined by the order of the Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources (#89, 23 October 2001) on approval of the rule for calculation of index of pollution of atmospheric air with hazardous pollution. Table 6. Examples of MAC in Ambient Air mg/m3


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Substance MAC, mg/m3

Nitrogen Dioxide 0,085 Sulfur \ Dioxide 0,5 Carbon Monoxide 5,0 Saturated Carbohydrates, C6-C10 30,0 Inorganic dust 0,3

Noise Standards. The Georgian standards for noise control are approved by the Decree of the Minister for Health, Labour and Social Affairs (297n of August 16, 2001) on the ‘Approval of Environmental Quality Standards’, which specify the tolerable and maximum admissible levels of noise for different zones. Table 7. Georgian Noise Quality Standards in Residential Areas Time Indicative Level La dBA Maximum Admissible Level La

max dBA 7am – 11 pm

55 70

11pm – 7am

45 60

3.2 European Regulations on Waste Management and EIA

3.2.1 EU Waste Management Legislation

The single-most important EU regulation relevant to this project is the Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, where the environmental standards for landfilling within the EU member states are defined. The Directive includes both technical standards required for individual landfills of different classes and demands on the member states regarding reducing amounts of waste to be disposed at landfills and time schedules for implementing the directive.

Thus, as the most significant of the Council Directive the project’s compliance with this Directive is presented in detail in Section 11 Closure of Noncompliant Landfills

Batumi Noncompliant Landfill

11.1.1 Description of the site

The landfill covers an area of 19 ha and is situated in the alluvial river bed about 10 km south of the Batumi city centre, between the airport, the Chorokhi River and the Black Sea shoreline ( Figure ).


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Figure 7.2 Base map of Batumi landfill.

Geomorphology, Geology, Hydrogeology of the Site The study region is located in the zone of the accumulative-type flattened relief and is the delta of the river Chorokhi known as Kakhaberi accumulative valley in the literary sources and is mainly characterized by flattened relief and local bogged areas. Resume: 1. The study region is located on the right bank of the river Chorokhi, within the groove-and-terrace zone. 2. According to the tectonic zoning of Georgia (Gamkrelidze E. 2000), the study region is located in the central sub-zone of Ajara-Trialeti folded zone of the Lesser Caucasioni folded system. 3. The geology of the study region is participated by the alluvial-marine deposits of the Quaternary Period with their bed thicknesses of over 200 meters. 4. According to the complexity of engineering-geological conditions, the study area is of the II (average) category of complexity (Construction Regulation Standards Building Code 1.02.07-87). 5. The levels of the ground waters discharge in fact coincide with the water surface of the river-bed and according to the chemical composition the waters are mainly hydrocarbonate-calcium or hydrocarbonate-calcium-magnesium. No information about the bacteriological pollution of the waters is available. 6. Following the physical-mechanical properties of the constituent rocks in the study area, there is one engineering-geological element identified – shingle with the content of boulder (25%) and sand-and-gravel (15%). 7. Of hazardous geological processes, an intense washout of Seashore and river banks on the study area and its adjacent territory, as well as bogging take place.


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8. The environmental state of the study territory, following the deficient management of the landfill is extremely complex and unless the management measures are improved as soon as possible, this unique recreation zone will face an environmental crisis. At present, the following seems urgent measures to us:

- The deformed concrete wall constructed between the river Chorokhi and landfill is to be restored and lengthened towards the Sea.

- The section from the bank of the river Chorokhi towards Adlia is to be protected against the Sea attack

9. According to the corrected scheme of temporary general seismic zoning under Decree No. 42 of June 7 of 1991 by the Ministry of Architecture and Building of the Republic of Georgia, the building site belongs to the grade 82 earthquake intensity zone (with the index 2 indicating the probability of two-fold recurrence in every 1000 years). Therefore, the seismity of the region should be fixed at 8 points.

Geodynamic hazard of the study region In respect of geodynamic hazard, the stability of the study region is at a certain degree negatively influenced by the changes in the modern tectonic movements of the earth crust and differentiated movements (elevation, subsidence) of ‘live’ tectonic blocks. In addition, the activity of ‘live’ faults is directly evidenced by the intensity of point 8 earthquakes. On the second hand, the territory of the landfill is located in the area of the subsidence block, with intense sea coast washout along this region. Besides, as a result of locking the river Chorokhi with hydraulic dams, its solid alluvium fully feeding the Black Sea beach zone of Ajara does not drift now what will certainly increase the washout intensity of the given region, which is furthermore located in the area of intense washout of Adlia metal-dynamic zone. The sea coast washouts in Adlia metal-dynamic zone have particularly catastrophic nature between Batumi airport and the river Chorokhi, where a part of the landfill is located. According to the data of the regime observations of the Center for Monitoring and Forecasting of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the average annual rate of coast washout along this section is 5-7 m resulting in the width of the shore land reduced by 400 meters during 50 years’ period. If considering that the distance between the existing landfill and the Sea has been reduced to 250 meters, the hazard of the Sea attacking the landfill cofferdam soon is real what will undoubtedly result in a great ecological catastrophe. Moreover, the metal-dynamic zone of the given coast is structured with the geological formations, which are extremely sensitive to washouts. In our opinion, one of the optimal measures to protect this area against the possible sea attack is making a rocky cofferdam in the seashore zone. The cofferdam should be of the size to withstand the waves and diminish high energy waves. The distribution area of the landfill in fact starts at the bank of the right principal branch of the river Chorokhi, west of the old bridge over the Chorokhi. Along this section, the river Chorokhi actively washes out the terrace step (See Fig. 35 and 36).


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Figure 2

Figure 35. There is a 5-6-meter-high concrete wall constructed from the side of the river Chorokhi aiming at protecting the landfill. Most part of the wall (along about 150 meters) is deformed due to the river erosive action and load of the domestic waste and is out of order at some places (See Fig. 2). On its turn, the deformation of the bearing wall has naturally resulted in the deformed anthropogenic relief formed with the domestic waste and as a result, the precipitations accumulated in it discharge on the seashore and bed of the river Chorokhi posing ecological problems. In addition to the above-mentioned, the individual areas of the territory between the river Chorokhi and the airport suffer bogging.

Figure 36.


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Background Radiation Assessment of background radiation at the existing noncompliant landfill sites is important to ensure safe closure and conservation of the sites. The issue is of particular interest, so far as wastes from the Russian military base have been disposed there before its decommissioning. Preliminary studies of the background radiation have been carried out at the existing noncompliant landfills in Batumi. The measurements have been carried out on September 10 using the standard certified Russian device – “СРП 6801”. The sampling points for Batumi landfill are provided below on the map.

Figure 37. Sampling Points at the Chakvi Site

Batumi, Existing Landfill Site Sampling Point No Background radiation,

microrentgen/hours 1 6 2 7 3 7 4 7 5 8 6 7 7 6 8 7 9 7 10 7 11 7 12 6 13 7


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The level of the background radiation, which has been measured during these preliminary studies, is acceptable for landfill sites. However, more comprehensive studies are planned to cover the area of concern in more details.

Flora and Fauna

Delta of the r.Chorokhi is sensitive wetland ecosystem of high conservative value. During recent years a military base was located at the site and this caused anthropogenization and degradation of the landscape. Construction of the Demirel’s Dam in Turkey significantly changed the hydrological regime of r. Chorokhi and reduced biodiversity of aquatic fauna (mainly ichtyo fauna). The conservative value of the ecosystem has significantly reduced. However, the Colchic forest elements and many rare species are partially preserved here and the river itself and its estuary and adjacent marine environs are still considered as sensitive ecosystems. Landscape of the r.Chorokhi delta is represented by the lowland wetlands, where the traditional wetland vegetation (rush and sedge) is partially replaced by cereals, weed and grass vegetation due to anthropogenization of area. The area includes the wide Chorokhi Delta, estuary, hilly lowland on the both banks of the river, which seasonally floods with salty and fresh water, small lakes and pools, fresh streams, grassy and bushy marches, artificial fish pools (35 ha), channels. The width of the wetland area varies between 0,5 and 2 km. The Chorokhi Delta is characterized by a concentration of ancient relict species of Kolkheti flora spread in different habitats. Red Data Book species, like Hippophae rhamnoides are wide spread her. The coastline sandy vegetation grows along the coastline. The following species grow here: calystegia soldanela, Convolvulus cantabrica, Physalis ixocarpa, Physalis periviana, Solanum decipiens, Solanum luteum, Glaucium flavum included in the ‘Red Book’, Glycyrhiza glabra. The following species of mammals ibhabite the area: badger (meles meles), weasal (Mustela nivalis), jackal (Canis aureus), and the following species of small mammals are met here: Shelkovnikov brown-toothed water shrew (Neomys shelkownikowi), white-toothed shrew (Crocidura spp.), Radde’s shrew (Sorex raddei), Caucasian mole (Talpa caucasica). The following species of amphibians and repriles are represented here: hyla (Hyla arborea), marsh frog, (Rana ridibunda), common newt (triturus vulgaris), slow worm (Anguis fragilis), Georgian lizard (Darevskia rudis), sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), grass and dice snakes (Natrix natrix and N. tesselata), Aesculapian Snake (Elaphe longissima). Besides, a banded newt (Triturus vittatus), Turkish lizard (Darevskia clarcorum; IUCN Red List, EN Category) are also expected; Smooth snake (Coronella austruaca) of Charnali gorge is also common. The most diversified are the bird species. There are 39 species of nesting, 30 species of wintering, 50 species of migrant and up to 30 species of irregularly


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migratory birds dwell here. There are following species among them: black-throated diver (Gavia arctica), red-throated diver (Gavia stellata), Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena), black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), little grebe (Tachybaptus Rufficollis), mute swan (Cygnus olor), whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), gray (lag) goose (Anser anser), white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos), shoveler (Anas clypeata), European teal (Anas crecca), garganey (Anas querquedula), tufted duck (Aythya fuligula), common pochard (Aythya ferina), common heron (Ardea cinerea) purple heron (Ardea purpurea), little heron (Edretta garzetta), small and big bitterns (Ixobrichus minutus; Botaurus stellaris), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), black-winged Pratincole (Glareola nordmanni), black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus), great snipe (Gallinago media), curlew (Numenius arquata), marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). Ichthyofauna of the rivers Chorokhi, Chakvistskali and Sea coast in Adjara There are different fish species inhabiting the rivers of Chorokhi and

Chakvistskali: khramulya, mursa, barbel, sheatfish, trout, salmon, asp, chub, sneep, bullhead, sturgeon (in the Chorokhi), royal fish, etc.

The following fish species dwell in the Black Sea: horse mackerel, sturgeon, bullhead, red mullet, bluefish, whiting, pickerel, perch, Black Sea anchovy, sprat, harder, devilfish, Steller's sea cow, flatfish, glossa, flatfish, turbot, chuco, sea fox, dolphin - bottle-nosed dolphin, white-sided, sea pig, etc.

11.1.2. Environmental Impacts

The landfill is not furnished with any environmental protection system and therefore the leachate is directly drained into the Chorokhi River. The landfill is located in Chorokhi delta , which is valuable ecosystem.

A part of the landfill is eroding by Chorokhi River during floods and wastes have been washed directly into the Black Sea. The river bank erosion process is ongoing and the existence of landfill imposes permanent risk of Black Sea contamination.

Occasional fires and waste burning is associated with increased emission impacts and nuisance imposed by smoke.

Smoke adversely affects the safety regime of airplane flights, so far as the landfill is located not far from the Batumi airport. The birds using the landfill site as a feeding site also impose safety risks on airport operations.

The landfill is not fenced and domestic animals are breeding at the site. This is violation of sanitary rules and is associated with the health risks and proliferation of the infectious diseases.


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Not regulated activities of scavengers observed at the site is associated with the health risks for them (infectious diseases, venomous reptiles, etc.).

11.1.3. Proposed Measures

The priority measures are 1) Preventing landfill erosion on the river bank (there is a national project in

process for solving this problem) 2) Terminating the landfilling (it will be possible when the new landfill is put

in operation) Covering the non-compliant landfill (the surface for sub-areas no longer in use can be covered immediately and an intermediate cover should be implemented even on the active surfaces). Preventing the Riverbank Erosion

Hydro-technical structures and a concrete wall were erected earlier for preventing the embankment erosion along the landfill site but they were not effective. These structures have partly been destroyed by the river flow. Thus the new countermeasures should be planned with more care involving a design organisation having enough competence and experience. Since, the earlier well functioning Coastal Engineering Institute in Batumi has lost major part of competent specialists, an international tendering or at least international supervising is strongly recommended for designing the works.

The Consultant see that measures confined only to the erode embankment cannot give any sustainable solution for protecting the landfill from destruction but river training measures should be implemented. On the other hand, the Consultant is suggesting reprofiling the dump site. In connection with these works, the waste pile can be moved further away from the embankment and preventing the wash-away of wastes until the river training works have been completed. The landfill should be terminated and further disposal of wastes at the site should be prohibited. Rehabilitation of the river bank protection is a separate project, but a necessary element for the final closure of the landfill. It is proposed that the waste is relocated into two waste piles to reduce the area for covering and as well reduce the volume by applying proper compaction layer by layer. Those waste piles shall be re-profiled to obtain suitable slopes to facilitate the surface runoff and thus, minimise the leachate generation, see Figure 37.


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Figure 37 Relocation of waste at Batumi landfill. Summary of proposed measures

Re-location of waste into one higher waste pile Cleaning the surfaces formerly filled by waste Compaction of the new waste pile layer by layer Re-profiling the waste pile to obtain efficient surface water runoff Covering with 0,5 m low permeable soil Spreading of seeds to allow a quick vegetation cover Diversion of surface water by construction of ditches around the waste pile Construction of a methane oxidising filter in the upper part of the

waste pile By those measures there is only a minor need for supervision of the site after termination. To our understanding the available funding for this project does not allow a complete compliance with EC directives, but the proposed measures is still a valuable contribution to an improved environment and will facilitate for a possible future complete closure of the landfill as funds become available. This comment regarding the lack of funding is relevant also for the two non-compliant landfills in Kobuleti. It is worthwhile mentioning that the proposed measures were common procedure, than corresponding measures applied in many European countries prior to the introduction of the EC directive.

Covering the Landfill Surface


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When the new landfill is in operation the non-compliant landfill can be finally covered. The objectives for covering are:

• To prevent the wind-blown wastes in the area • To reduce generation of leachate • To reduce landfill gas emission to the atmosphere • To reduce spreading of odour • To prevent the risk for fires • To improve the view of the landscape • To prevent unhealthy scavenging

It is proposed that procedures for covering are made at a robust and affordable level that is the same procedures that was commonly applied in Europe prior to implementation of the landfill directive. Thus, the following measures are proposed:

• Excavation and placing the waste in two piles with slopes allowing an efficient surface water run-off, but still not be sensitive for erosion. The waste pile should be compacted with a compactor to reduce the volume and future settlings.

• Application of a covering on the waste piles with 0.5 m low-permeable soil. The soil shall be locally available to minimise transports. The upper portion of the soil cover, min. 10 cm, shall allow establishment of a vegetation cover.

• Establishment of a methane oxidising filter in the upper part of the waste pile to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. By installation of such passive system future maintenance will be minimised.

A proposed layout of the terminated Batumi landfill is shown in Figure 38


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Figure 38 Proposed layout of Batumi landfill when terminated.

As the non-compliant landfill is rather shallow and there have been frequent fires it is difficult to predict the potential for gas extraction. However, it is possible to make a gas pumping test after covering the waste to assess the feasibility to install a gas extraction system instead of the proposed passive methane oxidising filter.

The biodegradation process will continue to produce leachate and it can not easily be collected as the landfill is located on gravel of the former beds of the Chorokhi Estuary. This soil is very permeable and it is not deemed economically sound to create a waterproof layer under the waste.

After Closure Monitoring

The territory should be guarded after the closure to prevent unsanctioned dumping in the area.

For monitoring two piezometer pipes should be installed. One will be installed about 10 m from the dumping site to the south west and another one on the same distance, but north-east of the waste piles. Water quality samples should be taken and analysed at least once per year.


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11.2. Kobuleti Noncompliant Landfill The part of Kobuleti territory used as a landfill and presenting two sites, belongs to the seaside valley-lowland in a geomorphological respect. One of the sites is located on the right side of the river Choloki, in the vicinity of the bank while another site being an almost flat surface is located 1 km east of Kobuleti centre (see Figure 38, Figure 39 and Figure 40). Solid household waste, construction debris and other wastes have been dumped along the road from the city of Kobuleti to the former aerodrome. The area is covered with peat with a shallow groundwater table. Total landfill site occupies 4.2 ha while the waste surface isaround 3.8 ha. The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous Tacis report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m.

Figure38 Kobuleti dump site (Situation in early 2006). The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous TACIS report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m.


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Figure 39 Kobuleti dump site (current situation),

11.2.1 Description of the Kobuleti Landfill

Solid household waste, construction debris and other wastes have been dumped along the road from the city of Kobuleti to the former aerodrome. The area is covered with peat with a shallow groundwater table. Total landfill site occupies 4.2 ha while the waste surface is around 3.8 ha.

The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous Tacis report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m

Geomorphology, Geology, Hydrogeology of the Site

The part of Kobuleti territory used as a landfill and presenting two sites, belongs to the seaside valley-lowland in a geomorphological respect. One of the sites is located on the right side of the river Choloki, in the vicinity of the bank while another site being an almost flat surface is located 1 km east of Kobuleti center (See Fig. 22 - 25), with a low-mountainous hilly-hillock relief of foothills from south, east and north. The gradient of their slopes on average varies between 20-30°, exceeding 40-65° at some sites. They have a quite dissectioned relief and flattened areas of watersheds, most of which are marine-terrace surfaces. This relief of a tectonic-erosive origination is structured with the volcanogenic rocks of the Middle Eocene, with the zone adjacent to their surfaces strongly transformed as a result chemical weathering and lateralized at the depth of


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several tens of meters. This is why the landslide creeps and taluses of minor volumes and depths are very common on their slopes.

Figure 40.

Resume: (1) In geomorphologic respect, the study regions are located within the limits of Kobuleti sea coastal lowland. (2) According to the tectonic zoning of Georgia (Gamkrelidze E., 2000), the study regions are located within the northern and central sub-zones of the zone of Ajara-Trialeti folded system. (3) The geology of the study region is mainly presented as modern (Holocene) boggy, alluvial-lacustrine and alluvial deposits. (4) According to the complexity of engineering-geological conditions, the study regions belong to the II (medium) category (Construction Regulation Standards Building Code 1.02.07-87). (5) Out of hazardous geological processes, the washout and bogging of the sea shores and river banks take place on the sites and adjacent territories. (6) The ecology of the landfill sites, as a result of the defective management system, is problematic, and proper management measures should be taken even though the landfill should be closed or exploited further. (7) According to the corrected scheme of temporary general seismic zoning under Decree No. 42 of June 7 of 1991 by the Ministry of Architecture and Building of the Republic of Georgia, the building site belongs to the grade 82 earthquake intensity zone (with the index 2 indicating the probability of two-fold recurrence in every 1000 years). Therefore, the seismicity of the region should be fixed at 8 points.

Geological hazard


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Within the lowland zone of Kolkheti Valley with the landfill sites of Kobuleti located in it, the modern tectonic movements and bogging and washout of the river Choloki and sea shores are of importance in respect of geological hazard. The modern tectonic movements are obvious by their difference with the sinking surface of the relief in the lowland zone and elevation taking place in the zone of Ajara-Guria foothill. Besides, there are live faults running between them having a direct influence on the earthquake intensity and sea bogging. This is why Kobuleti and its adjacent territory in a seismological respect belong to the point 8 earthquake intensity zone with the recurrence of twice in 1000 years. The river Choloki, with one of the landfill sites near its right bank is characterized by erosive washout of the banks whose signs are obvious if the morphology and dynamics of the bank is considered, moreover, when the erosive washout of the banks is promoted by the hydrodynamic regime expressed as frequent river flooding and extremely poor properties of the bank constituent rocks to the erosive processes. Intense bogging takes place on the landfill site of Kobuleti what is caused by the topography of the relief, fall of abundant atmospheric precipitations, water permeability of the constituent rocks and their weak drainage. The latter is also limited by the coastal bunds almost all along the coastland zone. One of the most important problems associated with the geological hazards in Kobuleti coastal lowland is the washout of the sea shores, with the infrastructure in Kobuleti and its adjacent territories facing the high risk of the mentioned geological hazards not once in the near past. The risk remains high for the future. This was why since the second half of the XX century aiming at protecting the coast of Kobuleti not one engineering management measure to protect the coast was tested. By considering the peculiarities of the washout of Kobuleti coast, the Georgian specialists have identified 9 litho-dynamic sites on Kobuleti coast. Our study region is located in the morphological-dynamic zone of the concaved site in Kobuleti, where the width of the beach varies between 35 and 60 m and where the beach is structured with shingle-gravely-stony sediments, with the percentage ratios of the materials of 18, 19 and 63%, respectively. An average indicator of the granulometric properties of the beach-forming material is 7,3 mm. This morphological-dynamic site is located in the northern-western and southern-western zones of the sea roughness. The coast of the given zone is mostly characterized by sea abrasive action where 0,3-0,6-meter-high washout steps have been developed.

Flora and Fauna The site is used as a landfill for many years. However the territory could be classified as sensitive wetland habitat – internationally protected as Ramsar site and at the same time belongs to Kubulety State Nature Reserve. The area belongs to sensitive zones described in p. 3.2.1 as “4FL” and “4 Fa” - ."Ispani" wetlands. The area is almost purely dominated by the communities of tall Imeretian Moor-Grass. The above community is quite diverse topologically and is frequently


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associated with peat mosses. Negligible areas are occupied by the groupings of Carex lasiocarpa that is topologycally consistent. The above plant community is characterized by high abundance of Rhynchospora caucasica, Rhyncospora alba, several species of peat moss, etc. On the peatbog of Kobuleti, peats moss communities are composed mainly of Sphagnum imbricatum and Sphagnum palustre. Rarely, some other species also occur here but their coenotic value is relatively low. Synusia of herbaceous plant specis is developed almost through the entire peatbog area consisting of Molinia litoralis, Rhynchospora caucasica, Carex lasiocarpa etc. Of rare components of above synusia a mention should be made of Drosera rotundifolia, Osmunda regalis, Menyanthes trifoliata, Rhynchospora alba, etc. Limited areas are populated with shrubs such as Rhododendron luteum, Rhododendron ponticum, Frangula alnus, Alnus barbata, etc. Scrub with peat mosses are developed on limited areas and on convex surfaces.

The above territories were covered with swamp forests in the past periods. Nowadays only remnants of those forest are still found here dominated by alder. Frequent associates of alder are Pterocarya pterocarpa, Carpinus caucasica (on dry places), Quercus imeretina. Common plants of understorey are Buckthorn Frangula alnus, Hawthorn Crataegus microphylla, Cranberry bush Viburnum opulus, etc. In some areas where the forest is thinned it is overgrown with natural lianas such as Smilax excelsa, Periploca graeca, Vitis sylvestris, Hedera colchica, etc. Alder forests are usually developed in areas where the ground humidification takes place, although alder is poorly growing in extremely waterlogged habitats. Synusia of harbaceous plants in such alder woods is composed of such typical components of wetlands as Molinia litoralis, Iris pseudacorus, Carex lasiocarpa, Carex riparia, Carex acutiformis, Juncus effusus etc. Limited area are occupied by alder communities with ferns, various herbaceous plants and mosses. Alder forest with Rhododendron ponticum are rarely found populating mostly drier places. Area of 7 km long and 3 km wide between Kobuleti and the railway. "Ispani" wetlands between rivers Choloki and Chakva are included into Kobuleti state and managed reserves (approximately 700 ha). Complex of animals of peat moss lowland wetlands extremely vulnerable to oil spill effects. Area of aggregation of migratory birds. Unique biotope of peat-bog.

Aggregation of birds during migration

Haliaeetus albicilla – EN Accipiter brevipes - VU Buteo rufinus rufinus - VU Aquila heliaca - VU Aquila clanga - VU

Aquila chrysaetos - VU Falco cherrug – CR Falco vespertinus – EN Falco biarmicus - VU Falco naumanni – CR Grus grus – EN


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Background Radiation At present the sensitive ecosystem is significantly affected by the waste dumping operations.

Measurements at the Kobuleti site have been conducted at the entrance area and at the two heaps of the dumped waste that were not covered by the bog. The background radiation at the Kobuleti noncompliant landfills is within the range of 6 – 15 microrentgen per hour. The level of the background radiation, which has been measured during these preliminary studies, is acceptable for landfill sites. However, more comprehensive studies are planned to cover the area of concern in more details.


The landfill is situated at the wetland area within the Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and belongs to Ramsar site. The valuable wetland ecosystem is affected by the contamination imposed by the waste disposal.

Degradation of visual scenic aspects of the landscape should be considered as environmental impact in addition to the degradation of sensitive ecosystem and natural habitat for the waterfowls and migratory birds.


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Figure 41 Base map of Kobuleti landfill.


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The landfill site is not in use anymore because of the military airport in the neighbourhood. Initially after the termination, the wastes were transported to Batumi landfill, but because of the high petrol expenses a temporary landfill was recently opened by Municipality of Kobuleti. The landfill is situated within the Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and belongs to Ramsar site. According to Georgian regulations the landfill should not be located within the protected area. According to sanitary norms for the solid waste landfills, the landfill should not have been constructed in a wetland area. The geological and hydrogeological requirements for landfills are not met. Permeability of soils and groundwater conditions do not provide required level of groundwater protection. The landfill is not designed in accordance with the European design standards: no special protection lining, no leachate collection and treatment and no gas collection and treatment facilities are installed. The landfill is not fenced. The area is unfenced and grazing animals can be found here, but there is no scavenging as the landfill has been closed and no waste is being disposed here any more. Currently the municipal solid waste of Kobuleti region is temporarily disposed on a new dumping site (Figure 42). This dumping site is also noncompliant: no special protective design and management arrangements are introduced. The dumping site is not as sensitive as the closed landfill site. However, the landscape degradation should be considered as impact. The site does not provide enough capacity for construction of large landfill and its location is not feasible from the transportation standpoint.

The following closure measures for Kobuleti are proposed:




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Figure42 New Dumping Site in Kobuleti.

Termination of Kobuleti Non-compliant Landfills The old landfill, as well as the temporary dumping site should be terminated and further disposal of wastes at the site should beprohibited after the new landfill is in operation. The same measures as proposed for Batumi are also relevant for the two landfills in Kobuleti. However, it is proposed that the smaller waste areas along the road shall be excavated and transported to the old landfill in order to reduce the risk for continued pollution and as well provide a visual improvement of the ground, see Figure43. Existing groundwater pollution at each of those smaller sites is not deemed possible to rehabilitate at a reasonable cost. It is proposed to apply a robust procedure by excavating the waste down to a depth of 2 m and afterwards back-fill with soil. Any additional excavation below the groundwater table in the peat layer will be very costly and the environmental benefit rather uncertain. A proposed layout of Kobuleti landfill when terminated is presented inFigure 7.12.


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Figure 43 Relocation of waste at Kobuleti landfill.


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Figure 44 Proposed layout of Kobuleti landfill when terminated.


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The territory should be overseen to prevent from unsanctioned dumping.

For monitoring two piezometer pipes should be installed. One will be installed ca 10 m from dumping site to the west and another one at the same distance towards east. Water quality samples should be taken and analysed at least once per year.


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Compliance with the EC Directive on Landfills.

Below we present a series of other EU directives and documents concerning solid waste and landfilling, forming the legal base for the project:

• Directive 75 442/EEC on waste as amended by the framework Directive on waste (91/156 EEC) as further amended by Decision 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000 and further amended by Commission Decisions 2001/1 18/EC, 2001/1 19/EC and 2001/573/EC amending list of wastes;

• Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste as amended by Decision 2000 532 EC of 3 May 2000 and further amended by Commission Decisions 2001/1 18/EC, 200 1/1 19/EC and 2001/573/EC amending list of wastes;

• Amendment 85 467 to Council Directive 76/769 polychiorinated biphenyls and Pollychlorinated terphenyls (PCB/PCT);

• Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste;

• Directive 1 994 67/EC, Hazardous waste incineration;

• Directive 89/369/EEC on Municipal incinerators.

3.2.2 EC Regulations Related to EIA and Environmental Permitting

Council Directive of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment 85/337/EEC Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 amending Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment

3.3 EBRD Environmental and Social Policy The EBRD Environmental Policy covers the environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development. For the purposes of this Policy, the social dimension encompasses (i) labour standards and working conditions including occupational health and safety and (ii) community impacts such as public health, safety and security, gender equality, impacts on indigenous peoples and cultural heritage, involuntary resettlement, and affordability of basic services. The Policy outlines


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how the Bank will put into practice its commitment to promote environmental and social sustainability by:

• Mainstreaming of environmental and social considerations into all its activities;

• Establishing for clients the environmental and social performance requirements that they will be expected to meet in a timeframe acceptable to the Bank;

• Defining the respective roles and responsibilities of both EBRD and its clients in achieving sustainable outcomes in line with the Policy and the performance requirements;

• Setting a strategic goal to promote projects with high environmental and social benefits.

The EBRD will seek to ensure through its environmental and social appraisal and monitoring processes that the projects it finances:

• are socially and environmentally sustainable; • respect the rights of affected workers and communities; • and are designed and operated in compliance with applicable regulatory

requirements and good international practice. In order to translate this objective into successful practical outcomes, the Bank has adopted a comprehensive set of specific Performance Requirements (“PRs”) that clients are expected to meet, covering key areas of environmental and social impacts and issues. The PRs for key areas of environmental and social issues and impacts as listed below:

• PR 1 - Environmental and Social Appraisal and Management • PR 2 - Labour and Working Conditions • PR 3 - Pollution Prevention and Abatement • PR 4 - Community Health, Safety and Security • PR 5 - Involuntary Resettlement and Displacement • PR 6 - Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource

Management • PR 7 - Indigenous Peoples • PR 8 - Cultural Heritage • PR 9 - Financial Intermediaries • PR 10 - Information Disclosure and Stakeholder Engagement

All EBRD-financed projects undergo environmental and social appraisal both to help the EBRD decide if an activity should be financed and, if so, the way in which environmental and social issues should be addressed in planning, financing, and implementation. EBRD’s social and environmental appraisal is integrated into EBRD’s overall project appraisal, including the assessment of financial and reputational risks and identification of potential environmental or social opportunities. Applying “Screening” procedures EBRD categorises proposed projects as A/B/C/FI based on environmental and social criteria to: (i) reflect the level of potential environmental and social impacts and issues associated with the proposed project and (ii) determine the nature and level of environmental and social investigations, information disclosure and stakeholder engagement


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required for each project, taking into account the nature, location, sensitivity and scale of the project, and the nature and magnitude of its possible environmental and social impacts and issues.Projects are classified as Category A when the project receiving EBRD funding could result in potentially significant adverse future environmental impacts which, at the time of screening, cannot readily be identified or assessed. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is therefore required to identify and assess the future environmental impacts associated with the proposed project, identify potential environmental improvement opportunities, and recommend any measures needed to prevent, minimise and mitigate adverse impacts. An indicative list of Category A projects is presented in Annex 1 of the Policy.

The screening process also determines whether an Environmental Audit is required. Environmental Audits are carried out to assess the impact of past and current operations of existing project and/or company facilities. An Environmental Audit identifies past or present concerns, current status of regulatory compliance and environmental performance as well as potential environmental and health and safety risks, liabilities and opportunities associated with the project. Other types of investigations, such as hazard analyses or risk assessments, may also be required.

For many projects, it is necessary to develop an Environmental Action Plan (EAP), sometimes also referred to as an Environmental Management Plan, monitoring plan, or similar term. The EAP will document key environmental issues, the actions to be taken to address them adequately, the implementation schedule and an estimate of the associated costs.

3.4 Screening Determination The project ‘ Adjara Solid Waste Management” includes several components:

i) construction of new municipal solid waste landfill in Chakvi (“Greenfield development”)

ii) ii) closure of two non-compliant landfills in Batumi and Kobuleti; iii) iii) Development of Waste Management System for Adjara AR.

In accordance with the Georgian legislation (Law of Georgia on Environmental Impact Permit, 2008), the development of the project requires preparation of EIA and obtaining of the Permit on Environmental Impact.

In accordance with the EBRD regulations, the project is attributed to the Category A and requires a full scale Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The current EIA is made in accordance with EBRD’s guidelines for “EIA Sample report format” and “Local Disclosure of Environmental Impact Assessments” and in compliance with the Georgian regulations.

Elements of Environmental Audit are used to describe condition of existing non-compliant landfills and current operations. Environmental Action Plans cover


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construction and operation activities related to the new MSW landfill and activities related to the closure of existing non-compliant landfills.


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4. Sitting of New Landfill

4.1 Background Initially the project was considered to cover regional MSW Management system for the whole Adjara AR. However, a complex of factors determined decision to develop separate landfills for high mountainous and lowland regions of Adjara AR. The major of these factors were: terrain limitation for construction of large landfills, poor condition of road networks in sparsely populated mountainous areas and high costs for long distance transportation of the waste.

The present project is dedicated to the organization of the MSW Management system for the Lowland Adjara - focusing initially in the City of Batumi (population 123,000) and the nearby resort of Kobuleti (population 20,000). Therefore, despite the fact that the coastal zone of the Lowland Adjara is densely populated and environmentally sensitive, site for the planned new landfill should be selected within the frames of the Khelvachauri and Kobuleti regions. In order to select appropriate site for the new municipal landfill, special “Temporary Governmental Commission” has been founded with the Decree N7 Issued on February 22, 2005 by Adjara A/R Government. The Commission has pre-selected 5 sites for following detailed assessment of alternatives. The decision was that among the analyzed alternatives only Chakvi site was suitable. In 2006 the Feasibility Study has been carried out by international consultants (Consortium with Thales E&C, GKW Consultant and Sogreah) under the TACIS financed programme “Black Sea Investment Facility”. International experts assessed 6 alternative sites, including those 5 analysed by the Commission. The conclusion made in the Feasibility Study was the same as of Commission – the Chakvi site was considered as preferable site for construction of the landfill. The detailed description of the site selection related chapter of the TACIS Feasibility Study is provided in the annex 1. Below we provide brief summary of the site selection process.

4.2 Pre-selection of Sites The Lowland Adjara, comprising City of Batumi and Kobuleti and Khelvachauri administrative regions, represents hilly area and narrow coastal strip of the Black Sea. Generally these areas are densely populated or used for agricultural purposes. Additional limitations are related to the fact that certain territories of the Kobulety region constitute protected areas (Kobuleti State Nature Reserve, Kobuleti Sanctuary, Kintrishi State Nature Reserve) and almost the whole coastal line belongs to resort area. Construction of the landfills within the protected areas and resort sanitary protection zones is strictly prohibited by the Georgian legislation. On the other hand, the site should meet specific requirements in


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terms of geological characteristics, groundwater conditions, proximity to airport, dwelling houses etc. The Commission has requested that the landfill site should comply with the following principal requirements:

a) Sanitary-Protection zone of the landfill (in view of the winds dominating for the site) must comprise 500 m (distance from the settled area); b) Distance from the Airport – 10 km; c) Distance from the highway not less than 500 m; d) Distance from the River -300m; e) Landfill ground strata must be comprised of clay or heavy clay layers; f) Distance from the city must comprise 4-5 km.

Criteria applied by the consultants in the FS are described in details in annex 1. Below we provide a map with “pre-selected sites” and “strictly prohibited zones” plotted on it. The map demonstrates also the distribution of the private lands and density of population. This gives some overall picture and explains rational of the pre-selection decisions. In fact the choice was not so wide. It should be also considered that City of Batumi and Khelvachauri region generate 4 times more MSW than Kobuleti and, therefore, it is feasible to situate the landfill between Batumi and Kobuleti or closer to Batumi, rather than close to Kobuleti. This is one more reason why the most of proposed sites are located in Khelvachauri region.

No Potential sites 1 Ex military non-

compliant landfill along the left side of Chorokhi river

2 Akhasopeli-Khlobcho Khelvachauri administration

3 Pool establishment territory of Kakhaberi alongside the existing landfill in Batumi

4 Industrial zone of Khelvachauri

5 Tea plantation areas, Salisbury State Establishment (i.e. Benze Field Area)

6 MicroRayon 7 (Chakvi), The region near the new road tunnel

Figure17. Location of selected sites.


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Figure18. Location of selected sites.

(KNR – Kobuleti Nature Reserve; KSNR – Kintrishi State Nature Reserve; Violet contour – administrative boarders of Kobuleti and Khelvachauri regions of Adjara AR; Yellow contour – 600m width coastal protection zone; Pink spots – dwelling houses and agricultural lands (privatized or prepared for privatization).

4.3 Description of the Sitting Process A comprehensive site selection study has been carried out as a part of the previous feasibility study (Tacis, BSIF 2006). The objective was to select a possible place for a new sanitary landfill, compliant with the European Standard requirements.

After a pre-selection of six possible sites (figure 29 and 30), these sites were assessed from environmental and socio-economic point of view, following 23 different criteria including natural conditions, proximity to dwellings and airports, surface and groundwater conditions, access and transportation conditions and possible volume of the landfill. Assessment was conducted by giving each criteria


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for each site following estimation: “+” - (favourable conditions), “0” – indifferent conditions and “-“ – unfavourable conditions.

During the screening exercise, 5 of the mentioned criteria were considered as key parameters. Negative judgement concerning one of these parameters was considered as sufficient argument for rejecting the site from the rest of the selection process. These key (“killing”) parameters were as follows:

• Distance in relation to dwellings (min 500m for the apartment blocks and densely built-up area)1

• Airport Proximity • Proximity to rivers and risk of flooding • Risk of groundwater contamination (depth of groundwater table, soil

permeability etc.) • Sanitary protection zone for potable water headworks

The screening results are provided in the table below

Assessment Criteria No of Site

1 2 3 4 5 6 Sanitary protection zone for potable water headwork

0 0 0 - 0 +

Groundwater Vulnerability

- 0 - - + +

Proximity to Rivers and Flooding Risks

- + - - + +

Distance to Dwellings

0 - 0 0 0 0

Airport Proximity

0 0 - 0 0 +

After this screening two of the sites (No5 and No6) were assessed suitable for a more detailed examination. The final comparison followed a logic scheme including assessment of six main environmental parameters or sources of potential conflicts if a landfill should be established:

Water (situation in relation to rivers, springs and private wells),

Housing and infrastructure (distance to dwellings, exposure of the site),

Tourism (effect on panorama, integration into the landscape),

Geological conditions (bedrock, soil properties, permeability, stability),

Agriculture (land use today, development plans)

Accessibility (distance to main roads, quality of access roads).

1 Proximity of the isolated dwellings was not considered as “killing” criteria, although the requirement to minimize resettlement issues was important in further multi-criteria evaluation.


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The conclusion and recommendation from the site selection study was that two of the sites could meet the requirements and be used for the new landfill (No 6, the Chakvi site (MicroRayon 7) and No 5, the Benze Field Area). Between these two sites it was concluded that the Chakvi site was ranked as better regarding all of the six main environmental parameters (see above). The main factors that determined such conclusion appeared to be: accessibility (95 scores for site No 6 against 19 for site No 5), water pollution risks (30 against 12), terrain morphology (40 against 24), and effect on scenic value of landscape and indirect influence on tourism (70 against 42). Therefore it was recommended that the Chakvi site was chosen for establishing the new landfill.

Figur 19. Location of new landfill in Chakvi. (red line is encountering 50m buffer zone around the landfill)

The Chakvi site has been chosen by the Adjara Government as the main alternative, where further investigations should be made to determine a possible layout of a landfill and the environmental mitigation measures to be implemented.


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Figure 20. View of the new landfill site in Chakvi (towards east).

4.4 Public Participation in Site Selection Process The public consultation and disclosure process should correspond both to Georgian requirements, European environmental directives as well as to EBRD´s requirements.

The Feasibility Study prepared under the TACIS programme has been publicly disclosed and the public meeting has been conducted in Batumi. Accordingly, this was the first channel used for informing general public and local population about the site selection process and taken decisions.

Within the frames of present project the public consultations will be conducted in accordance with the Public Consultation and Disclosure Plan (PCDP) prepared to comply with the European regulations and Georgian legislation.

Up to now, first public consultation meetings have been conducted in Batumi and Kobuleti (22.09.2008 and 23.09.2008 respectively) to disclose the Scoping Report. The site selection process has been discussed on the mentioned meetings.

The persons leaving in the close vicinity to the site selected for construction of the landfill have been specially visited (24.09.2008) and provided with the brief information about the planned project (fact-sheets), as well as with the grievance


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forms. It was agreed that they will be provided with more expended information during the interim meeting planned shortly. After completion of the assessment of cadastral data and drafting of resettlement screening/scoping report, the affected families and population leaving in the isolated dwelling houses close to chakvi site will be consulted individually. These people, as well as population of the nearest village will be specially invited to the public meeting in Chakvi dedicated to the discussions around the first draft EIA and site selection. The same type public meeting is planned before official submission of the final draft EIA.


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5. Natural Conditions at the Proposed New Landfill Site

Two field surveys of the proposed Chakvi landfill site have been carried out as part of this feasibility study.

A topographic survey was made in March 2008 (figure 20). In parallel, a survey was made including drillings and sampling to identify the local geotechnical conditions as well as geological and groundwater conditions. In addition, a description of the geomorphology, geology, hydrogeology and geotechnical aspects has been prepared putting the local conditions into a regional context, which is necessary to obtain the full understanding of those important features of the site. The comprehensive review of the environmental baseline is provided in the annex 2. In particular, the detailed description of geological/hydrogeological conditions of the proposed site could be found in p.2.1 of the annex 2. Below an extract from those reports are provided.

5.1 Climate The proposed site for the new landfill belongs to the so called First Climatic zone. The First Zone is defined as a seaside damp subtropical climatic zone, which comprises the whole West Georgia. The climate of this zone is influenced by its location on the border between subtropical and moderate latitudes, circulation processes in the atmosphere and the orographic patterns. Due to the influence of the mountain ridges bordering from three sides, the damp, unstable air masses coming from the Black Sea, converge and ascend up along the west slopes of the mountains. This causes a damp climate, with large amounts of precipitation almost any time of the year. The strong, warm stream of the Mediterranean Sea, which is passing through Bosporus towards the east coast of the Black Sea, warms up the Adjara coast considerably in the winter period. The average temperature in the coldest month (January) is 4.8-6.7 ºC, and the average temperature in the warmest month (August) is 22.2-23.1 ºC. Summer is not too hot in the region (especially in Kobuleti) due to breezes, rich vegetation and the large amount of precipitation. Autumn is considerably warmer than spring. The Adjara coast is protected from easterly winds by the mountain ridges covered by dense forests. Despite this fact there is an obvious seasonal variation of wind directions. The western winds (from the sea) dominate over the eastern (continental) winds everywhere, almost in every season. However, Chakvi is an exception as south-east winds are prevailing in the area due to local orographic reasons.


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The wind speed reaches its maximum value at the end of winter and in the early spring. The average wind speed in Kobuleti is 3.1 m/s in February. The number of days with strong winds is relatively large, 16-24 days per year. Due to the high thermal regime of the place, precipitation on Adjara coast is mainly falling as rain. Snow occurs very seldom, approximately once in 20-30 years. The annual amount of precipitation varies between 2,320 and 2,621 mm. On the flat lowland, where mountains are at some distance from the sea shores the level of precipitation is lower (for example, in Kobuleti 2,320 mm). Spring is a comparatively dry season, while large amounts of precipitation occur during the autumn, especially in September. In Batumi the daily precipitation has been observed as high as 231 mm in one day. Similar conditions prevail for Chakvi. Such extreme events do not take place often, but they have a great influence on the ground water regime and may cause a substantial rising of the groundwater table. These events must be taken into account in Chakvi, where the groundwater table is shallow.

5.2 Topography A topographic survey has been made for this project and a base topographic map in shown in Figure 28 (section 7.6).

Figure 21. Mapping work on landfill site in Chakvi.


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The proposed new landfill site is located in a valley with a well defined water divider and is furthermore divided into two major valleys. The ground slopes are generally steeper closer to the water divider and the steepest slopes are approximately 1:2.5 (vertical/horizontal).

Figure 22 Base map displaying layout, cells and section of the new landfill in Chakvi.

There is hardly any flat area within the site and the differences in height can be seen on the map.

The site is crossed with several gullies with varying depths, in some place up to 6-8 meters. However, most of the gullies are much shallower.

5.3 Geotechnical Conditions The whole Georgian territory is located in an area with occasional seismic activities up to grade 8-9 earthquake intensity zone. However, it should be noted that the landfill itself is regarded less sensitive to seismic activities compared to more complex structures.


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The landfill site is located in an area where land slides have occurred historically, which is evident from the morphology of the site. The landslide direction is towards west-north west. At present, the landslide body is in a stable state. However, proper considerations to this factor shall be made in detailed design work.

Based on the geotechnical investigations such as (i) drillings and laboratory analyses of samples and (ii) regional assessment, the landfill should first be established in the lower parts of the terrain to avoid the risk for landslides and the maximum slope should not be more than 1:3 (vertical:horizontal) and the total load should not exceed 30 tons per m2.

5.4 Geology The soils in the site consist of laterite clay and loam, originating as a result of intense weathering from volcanic rocks. The thickness of the clay and loam bed is in the magnitude of some 20 m according to the drillings made in the area. The bed thickness increases gradually from the western parts towards the higher elevations in the east.

The permeability values of the soil from four soil samples were determined in the laboratory and the results varied between 8*10-7 to 1*10-9 m s-1.

5.5 Hydrology The site is located between the rivers Chakvistskali and Korolistskali.

The site is located within a well defined watershed and there are no surface waters flowing into the site. All surface water originating from the site, including discharging water from the springs, crosses the central part of the planned landfill area from east to west and is finally collected into one creek in the low western part of the site. The creek is then feeding the left tributary of the Chakvistskali River, which has its outflow in the sea.

In the low western part of the site where the ground slope is very small occasional bogging may occur after heavy rainfalls. However, the flow is not permanent over the year.

5.6 Groundwater Some springs discharging groundwater to the gullies have been observed inside the site. The discharge from those springs is rather low and not permanent over the year.


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The groundwater table is generally close to the ground surface within the site. In the lower parts in the west the depth to the groundwater table varied between 0.3 to 1.6 m in March 2008. In the boreholes located higher up in the valley the depth was between 3.0 to 4.0 meters.

5.7 Landscape and Vegetation It was reported that the piedmont hilly landscape of the site was in the past covered by there forest. Dominating trees in the forest were Fagus gen, Carpinus gen and Chesnut. At present the landscape is strongly transformed and anthropogenized. For many years the site was used as tea plantation. After the collapse of the USSR the tea plantation has been abandoned. Now the dominating plants on the site are degraded tea bushes, fern and blackberry bushes (Rubus caesius). No red data species of flora has been observed at the site.

Figure 23. Tea bushes and fern The site is surrounded by the wind belt plantation, which is represented by Cryptomeria japonica. About 40% of the wind belt trees have been felled by the local population.

A smaller area less than 10 % of the total size of territory has been fenced and is used for grazing of cattle. Some burning for cultivation is also occurring at some areas.


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The site is not sensitive from the biodiversity standpoint.

5.8 Fauna Usually the similar sites covered by bushes, which is typical for the Adjara piedmont hilly landscape, are inhabited by small mammal species, as jackal (Canis aureus), fox (Vulpes vulpes), badger (Meles meles), hare (Lepus europeus), squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), as well as reptiles and amphibians. The landscape at the site is strongly transformed and anthropogenized, however there is evidence that some of the mentioned species may occur at the site. In relation with the birds, common species like crows, seagulls, blackbirds could be observed at the site. Actually this place is not used as a usual stop over site for the migrating birds, although occasional appearance of such species can not be excluded. This may be more probable for the short periods when some parts of the site could be flooded and temporary ponds and swamps exist for several weeks or days, providing stopover sites for waterfowls.

The area is strongly anthropogenized and no valuable and endangered population of animals requiring urgent conservation measures occur at the site. The site is not sensitive from the biodiversity standpoint.

5.9 Background Noise Below we provide results of measurement of the background noise at the proposed landfill site (Higher values of noise in points 1,2, 9 and 10 is related to closer location to the highway (East to the site) and dwelling houses. Comparison of the measurement data with the values determined under the statutory act (sanitary norms and rules – noise at workplaces, residential and public places (#90, 24.08.2001, m.647)) shows that the noise on the site is below the maximum permissible level. The measurements have been carried out on September 10 of 2008 at 10.00AM, 14.00PM and 18.00PM using the standard certified Russian device - “Шум 1М30”. The map for the sampling sites and average results of measurement are provided below.


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Higher values of noise in points 1,2, 9 and 10 is related to closer location to the highway (East to the site) and dwelling houses. Comparison of the measurement data with the values determined under the statutory act (sanitary norms and rules – noise at workplaces, residential and public places (#90, 24.08.2001, m.647)) shows that the noise on the site is below the maximum permissible level.

Table 8 Results of measurement of the background noise

5.10 Background Radiation Assessment of the background radiation at the proposed site is of interest as baseline for further monitoring.


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Preliminary studies of the background radiation have been carried out at the proposed new landfill site in Chakvi. The measurements have been carried out on September 10 using the standard certified Russian device – “СРП 6801”. In Chakvi the sampling points were the same as for noise assessment

Chakvi, Proposed Landfill Site

Sampling Point No Background radiation, microroentgen/hours

1 7 2 9 3 13 4 10 5 7 6 7 7 7 8 7 9 7 10 6

The background radiation at the Kobuleti noncompliant landfills is within the range of 6 – 15 microrentgen per hour. The level of the background radiation, which has been measured during these preliminary studies, is acceptable for landfill sites.

5.11 Cultural Heritage According to the letter of Batumi Niko Berzenishvili Scientific Research Institute (letter of No 02 – 17/201,1 of 28.01.2005 addressed to the Head of Environment and Natural Resources Protection Administration of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara), there are not any sings of archeological monuments on the land area selected for new landfill construction according to surface and visual observation. However, in the nearby lower and upper hillock environs there have been proved some archeological monuments of stone and later age (previous settlement area and metallurgical industrial sites, as well as the samples of Hellenistic Age Graves).

5.12 Infrastructure There are some minor walking paths inside the area, but no roads possible for driving cars. The paths were probably used at the time the tea plantation was in operation.

The minimum distance to the central highway (west to the landfill site) is about 250 – 300m. Along the southern crest there is a track road of rather poor condition leading to settlements further east.


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There is a gas pipeline crossing the watershed and sanitary protection zone of the proposed landfill in the south-eastern part of the site. This will not be affected by the operations of the landfill.

From the north side, at a distance of 50m high voltage transmission lines are crossing neighbouring territory.


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6. Land Ownership and Land Use

The area for the proposed landfill in Chakvi is owned by the State and recorded as such in the Land Cadastre. However, Kobuleti Municipality wish to transfer the ownership to the municipality itself and an application for modification of the Land Cadastre has been submitted to the Ministry of Finances and Economics of Adjara. The contour line of the planned landfill including a surrounding 50 meter zone was mapped by the current Project and maps submitted to the authorities and in turn Kobuleti Municipality has preserved the area for the future landfill. Recently the required changes have been introduced and the land is officially allocated for the landfill needs. Official documents confirming this fact are available at the Kobuleti Municipality. However, this fact does not exclude requirement of resettlement.

It should be noted that according to Georgian legislation2, no dwelling houses and agricultural land can be located within the sanitary protection zone of landfill. Accordingly, identification of the sanitary protection zone is required to assess the social impacts of the project and resettlement requirements.

The boarder of the sanitary protection zone is defined by the aforementioned regulations as 500m around the landfill. This zoning principle is valid in case of the apartment blocks and densely located houses and distance from landfill contour to such dwelling zones should not be less than 500m. However, in case of the isolated dwelling houses the legal requirement is not so unambiguous. In principle, the restriction zone may be reduced. This may be done on the basis of environmental impact assessment, if it would be possible to demonstrate that the zone of adverse impact of the landfill is less than 500m. Accordingly the width of sanitary protection zone is subject for analysis and MoE approval within the frames of the EIA process. The Department of Integrated Management of Environment of the MoE should be consulted in that regard. As example, we would like also to note that the previous Feasibility Study (TACIS, BSIF, 2006) considered that a distance of 300m to the isolated houses should be taken as sanitary protection zone (radius of safety).

In the Addendum 1 to this EIA we provide analysis of the zone of physical impacts related to construction and operation of the new landfill. According to the analysis the zone of physical impact (water and soil contamination; biogas diffusion in fissured rock and soil structures; dispersion of biogas and dust emitted into the ambient air;), as well as disturbance related to insects, rodents etc. is limited and does not exceed 200m safety radius. The only disturbing factor

2


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that is hardly quantifiable and may have impact within the 500m zone is odour. However, the odour related nuisance is not reason for restricting agricultural activities. Therefore, we recommend following restriction zones around the new landfill:

• 500m safety radius for the dwelling houses. All the persons and households living within the 500m zone should be physically relocated and adequate compensation at the replacement costs should be provided.

• The zone prohibited for the agricultural activities should be limited to the 200m restriction radius . The persons and households having the agricultural lands beyond this 200m restriction radius should not be subject for resettlement.

The sanitary protection zone and restriction requirements will be finally specified upon the MoE approval of the EIA and issuance of the Environmental Impact Permit. Meanwhile, we provide analysis of available cadastral information for different possible scenarios.

Fig. 1 represents cadastral data for years 2002/2003. The green line outlines contours of the 50m buffer zone around the landfill. This is the area officially allocated for construction of the landfill.

According to this data, for the 2003 the situation was as follows: • No private or disputable land plots are located within landfill site and the

50m buffer zone around it • Within the 200 - 300m buffer zone 5 private land plots are represented with

isolated dwelling houses on each plot • Within the 500m buffer zone 24 private land plots are reported with some

buildings on 11 of these plots

During the recent two years the Adjara AR Government initiated privatization of the land and, as a result, substantial amount of the state lands have been transferred to the private owners. The process is ongoing and municipal land commissions and local branches of the National Agency of the Public Register are developing new cadastral maps and related data bases. Based on provided official information, following conclusions could be made:

• According to the cadastral maps certain amount of land plots (about 30) are marked within the 50m buffer zone and 22 inside the actual landfill contour. However, these land plots have been prepared for privatization but have not been transferred to the private owners. This land (including


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50m buffer) has been officially allocated to the Kobuleti municipality for construction of landfill. During the site visits we did not observe any fenced or cultivated land parcels in this area. Accordingly no resettlement issue arises in relation with the mentioned land plots, although the social impact related to “not realized expectations” of the potential land owners should be regarded and mitigated to the extent possible.

• Within the 500m buffer zone 188 land plots are marked on the cadastral maps. Privatization of the most of these land parcels has not been completed. According to the data provided by the Property Recognition Commission, 44 land plots have been allocated for private owners and registered in Public Register. Registration of three of the mentioned 44 land plots have been cancelled later, although this decision could be disputable. The site visit revealed that the 5 closest to the landfill land plots (within the 200m buffer zone) are inhabited. The dwelling houses are at place and each household consists in average of 4-5 persons. Within the 500m buffer zone at least 29 land parcels of those marked at the cadastral maps are occupied and cultivated. Besides that about 10 – 15 land parcels not mapped but fenced and cultivated have been observed. The occupied lands are used for agricultural needs (mainly maize, and fruit trees; to some extent - hazelnut);

Conclusions: Following conclusions could be made at this stage:

• As minimum 5-6 households should be physically relocated in case if the sanitary protection zone is established with a radius exceeding 200m; The mentioned land plots are occupied before 2003.

• Within the 500m buffer zone about 41 land plots are registered in Public Register as privately owned land parcels. The names of owners are provided in the attachment 1. Besides that, about 10 – 15 not marked land parcels are cultivated.

• The resettlement policy is triggered according to the EBRD environmental and social policy, and the project implementation requires preparation of the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP). The ToR for preparation of RAP is provided in the attachment 2 to this Annex.

• The affected persons should be consulted and adequate mitigation/compensation should be provided.

In the surrounding area within 1 to 5km radius from the landfill site the agricultural activity is important item of income generation for the local population. In general, tea, hazelnut and citrus production is typical. There are vineyards and plenty of fruit gardens with different types of fruit trees, particularly grape and subtropical fruits, like persimmon, feijoa, fig trees.


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Figure 25. Dwelling houses and cultivated land in the landfill surrounding area (more than 500m)

Chakvi is not officially approved as resort area and no intensive activity of tourist operators is observed in the area. However, for the local population renting their apartments and small individual tourist business is important source of income.


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7. New Sanitary Landfill – Facilities and Operation

7.1 Entrance Road The entrance road to the landfill will be separated from other roads and the existing road on the edge of the watershed will be improved and rerouted to avoid potential future conflicts in traffic streams. Waste trucks waiting for registration at the weigh-bridge shall be parked inside the fenced area.

7.2 Control of Incoming Waste Only waste types eligible for disposal in a landfill for non-hazardous waste will be accepted at the site.

A weigh-bridge will be installed at the entrance and all waste and other material, e.g. for covering shall be registered. A system shall be established where all drivers submit a signed certificate of the waste type and the origin of the waste.

The registration system will form the base for the invoicing.

7.3 Buildings In addition to the weigh-bridge and registration office described above the site will also include the following buildings:

• Administration building incl. office space and washing facilities • Workshop • Hazardous waste storage • Guard house

7.4 Sorting and Recycling An area will be allocated for introduction of sorting of recyclable waste. The area shall include one part for sorting and one part for temporary storage of recyclables until transported to the end-user.

Landfill Gas Collection and Utilisation The gas collection system is not shown in the landfill layout at Chakvi because basic concept is that perforated gas wells are installed into the waste pile after the corresponding area has been sealed with an impermeable intermediate cover. A landfill gas extraction system will be installed in the waste pile some 3-5 years after start of operation. The main components of the gas extraction system are (Figure 6.13):


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• gas wells • gas collection pipes • gas pumping station • condensate traps • gas motors • gas torch

7.4.1 Fractions to be Separated

The fractions potentially available for recycling are mainly:

• Metals • Glass • Papers • Wood • Other materials of economic interest In addition, hazardous waste that may appear in the waste should also be separated and placed in the hazardous storage temporarily.

7.4.2 Technical Solutions

The allocated area will divided into three compartments, where waste is dumped in compartment 1, sorted in compartment 2 and reloaded and transported up to the landfill in compartment 3. The process will follow a rolling scheme. At the end of each working day the compartments should be emptied and cleaned to reduce risk for nuisance for the neighbours.

The sorting will be made manually and the labour force should be informed about health risks and provided with proper protection, gloves, masks etc. (See section 9.10.) In first hand employment should be provided for the scavengers at the existing non-compliant landfills.

7.4.3 Markets for Recyclables

The scavengers are selling glass bottles for refilling, while plastic bottles are re-processed or refilled. The firms buying the recycled materials are working illegally and may be prosecuted for their activities.

Paper is collected for burning and textiles (clothes) for reuse.

There is no metal scrap in the disposed waste today due to the low industrial activity in the region. The reusable metal scrap from the Soviet time was then sold for export.


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7.5 Hazardous Waste Control and Separation of Hazardous Waste One of the major environmental concerns is the risk for contamination of waters and soil caused by the leachate leaking from the site. In order to reduce the hazards from leachate the content of hazardous substances disposed at the landfill shall be minimised. The basic approach to achieve this is to ascertain that only the eligible types of waste are disposed. For example no hazardous waste shall be disposed on the new landfill in Chakvi. There is no existing facility for destruction of other types of hazardous waste in Georgia today. Thus, eventual incoming hazardous waste can only be sorted out and stored at site until a final solution has been found. A ventilated building for storage of hazardous waste is included at the site.

An initial screening of waste types will be carried out at the entrance as part of the registration procedure. In addition, the personnel, the bulldozer driver and others, at the working face will also make a visual inspection of the waste when it is un-loaded as a second control. Enforcement mechanisms shall be established for those violating the Rules.

7.6 Landfill Design Criteria The landfill will be constructed according to EU directive on landfilling for a non-hazardous waste landfill, i.e. mainly household waste.

The available volume is estimated at 3.4 Mm3 and the lifetime for the landfill until it has been fully filled up is estimated at 35 years (figure #26).

0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000

3500000

4000000

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35

Year

Volu

me

m3

Waste m3

Figure 26. Estimated lifetime for the proposed Chakvi landfill.


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In first hand the vegetation will be removed and existing gullies will be filled with gravel or similar course material to allow eventual discharging groundwater to be drained below the bottom of the landfill and not mix with the leachate.

The landfill bottom will consist of an impermeable sealing layer below a drainage layer for collection of leachate. A proposed design of the landfill bottom is shown inFigere 27.

Figure 27. Proposed bottom sealing for the landfill.


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Figure 28. Cells and section in new landfill in Chakvi.

The waste will be disposed in cells to minimise the working face at a minimum at all times. Step by step as the waste pile reach the final height an intermediate cover will be applied to allow diversion of the surface runoff and reduce the generation of leachate.

Daily cover shall also be applied to minimise wind-blown waste and bad odour to the surroundings. In addition, the exposure of organic material will minimised and this will in turn reduce the amount of flies, birds, rats etc.

A gas extraction system shall be installed at a proper time after full height has been reached and an intermediate cover is applied for the relevant part of the landfill, thus the risk for oxygen intrusion is avoided. The gas may be flared off for environmental reasons. However, it is assumed that there will be a market for utilising the energy content for heating or for other industrial purposes.

The gas system can obviously not be installed immediately and it is estimated that such system may be considered after some 3-5 years.

Each cell of the waste pile shall gradually be filled up to the planned final elevation. The surface shall be given a slope of maximum 1:3 (vertical:horizontal) to allow reasonable working conditions during operation as well as for applying the final cover during the closure of the site. The maximum slope is also adapted to reduce the risk for erosion (Figere #29).

Figure 29. Surface and bottom profiles of the section (see even Figure 1).


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The maximum slope will be applied as high as possible to utilise the available volume at an optimum. After reaching a certain elevation the surface will be given a gentle slope up to a ridge in the middle of the landfill allowing surface water runoff. The minimum slope shall be 1:20 to avoid future ponding of water on the top. Surface waters flowing towards the waste pile shall be diverted around the waste and thus, kept unpolluted. Once the whole volume has been completely filled up a final cover will be applied according to valid regulations at that time.


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8.. Environmental Impact 8.1 Emissions to Surface Water The location of the proposed landfill close to local water divider will minimize the inflow of surface water that may be polluted by the leachate.

The leachate will be collected and treated to meet required standards before discharged to the recipient, the Black Sea via the Chakvistskali River. Dominating pollutants in the leachate from the landfill will be organic matter, partly oxygen consuming (measured as BOD and COD) and nitrogen in the form of ammonium. The ammonium content may give the impacts of oxygen consumption, as well as toxicity to water-living organisms. Suggestions for treatment, adapted to the composition of the leachate, see section 0.

The suggested treatment is an aerobic biological treatment, with the purpose of efficient reduction of the leachate’s content of oxygen consuming and other organic substances, as well as oxidation of the ammonium to nitrate-nitrogen. Thus, also the toxic effect will be reduced or virtually eliminated. However, the exact composition of the future leachate from the Landfill, as well as of the treated leachate, cannot be predicted.

As regards standards, there are no specific EU or Georgian standards, concerning the composition of leachate after treatment. It is suggested that such standards, if required, be set by the Georgian authorities after start up of the landfill and the leachate treatment, and after experience from the plant operation has been gained.

Georgian standards for water quality exist, i.e. “Rules for Georgian Surface Water Protection” (Adopted by Decree no. 130 issued on 17.09.1996 by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia). It is assumed that these rules must be complied with. There is no reason to believe that the treated leachate from the Adjara Solid Waste Management will lead to any breakage of these rules.

8.2 Emissions to Soil and Groundwater Leakage of polluted water to the ground and to the groundwater will be minimized through a bottom construction, meeting the requirements in the EC directive for landfills of non-hazardous waste. This will be achieved by construction of a bottom liner on top of the natural soil as well as a drainage layer on top of the liner to collect the leachate for further treatment.

Consequently, no influence on the groundwater quality is expected. This will be monitored by the installation of monitoring wells, for sampling of groundwater, at suitable positions around the landfill.


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8.3 Emissions to the Atmosphere

8.3.1 Greenhouse Gases

Landfill Gas Collection and Utilisation The gas collection system is not shown in the landfill layout at Chakvi because basic concept is that perforated gas wells are installed into the waste pile after the corresponding area has been sealed with an impermeable intermediate cover. A landfill gas extraction system will be installed in the waste pile some 3-5 years after start of operation. The main components of the gas extraction system are (Figure 6.13):

gas wells gas collection pipes gas pumping station condensate traps gas motors gas torch

Landfilling of organic, or partly organic waste, always results in a degradation of the waste and consequently a production of landfill gas, consisting mainly of methane and carbon dioxide. If not collected and burnt the gas can cause odour problems in the neighbourhood and also globally contribute to the increased level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The landfill will generate landfill gas starting some few months after disposal and during the whole active lifetime as well as during a long period after landfilling has ended. The whole period of landfill gas generation from the site can be estimated at about 70 years.

A sub-pressure to extract the gas will be arranged by blowing machines in the gas pumping station. From an environmental point of view the final step is destruction of the landfill gas by incineration in an environmental-friendly torch allowing a high incineration temperature. However, one additional concept commonly applied is to utilise the energy content in the gas for e.g. heating purposes or in other industrial processes. For this project it is proposed to convert the energy to electrical power by adding gas motors to the system. The total amount of landfill gas during the full cycle is estimated at about 700 Mm3 landfill gas. The efficiency of a gas extraction system varies from site to site within a rather wide range. Based on experience from other landfills one can assume that around 80-90 can be collected by the gas extraction system and thus, for this project it is estimated that 20% may be emitted to the atmosphere. By implementation of this project the reduction of landfill gas to the atmosphere can be estimated at about 550 Mm3. A proposed layout of gaswells in Chakvi landfill when waste is established at 30% of total landfill area is shown in Figure 6.14.


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Covering of Waste Cells Covering of the waste will be made at three different levels with somewhat different methods:

Daily cover Intermediate cover Final cover

The daily cover shall be applied at the end of each day and consist of minimum 5 cm of sand or other suitable material. The concept is to reduce the open exposure of the organic matter causing bad odour and risk for littering of light waste, such as plastics or papers. Another important aspect is to minimise flies, birds, rats etc. feeding from the waste. The intermediate cover will consist of 50 cm of low permeable soil to divert the non-polluted surface water runoff outside the waste cell. This type of cover shall be applied for surface not used for disposal for some six months. It shall specifically be applied in areas before the gas wells are installed. By application of this impermeable layer it will be possible to introduce a sub-pressure system for extraction of the landfill gas without intrusion of oxygen into the waste body. The final cover will be applied after the landfill volume has been completely filled up. The cover shall follow the existing regulations at the prevailing time, but should as a minimum be planned according the EU directives.

8.3.2 Other Substances

A significant emission source from non-compliant landfills is smoke caused by occasional fires. Aerosols may also be emitted and wind-blown.

8.3.3 Odour

There are two main sources of odour at the site: odour from the degradation of the organic waste (landfill gas) and odour from the leachate ponds.

Odour may also be caused by smoke from fires at the landfill.

8.4 Effect on Waste Transports Localization of the proposed landfill between Batumi and Kobuleti, the main waste generating areas, and close to the existing main road makes effective and safe collection and transportation of waste possible.


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The effects of transportation are normally not a dominating environmental parameter in a waste management system, but from the side of cost effectiveness short transportation distances are vital.

At present (2007) around 25 rounds of transports dispose their waste at the Batumi and Kobuleti non-compliant landfills (9,200 transports on a yearly basis). The major part of the waste, some 80 percent, is transported by compacting vehicles, but also smaller vehicles are in operation, even some motorcycles.

The reach the site the waste transport trucks will use the main road Batumi-Kobuleti. In the future the amount of transports is estimated to increase due to increased waste amounts. However, even after an increase the relative effect of waste transports is insignificant compared to the normal traffic load on the main road.

Figure 30. The road to settlement MikroRayon 7 near the new landfill is in very poor condition.

An access road will be constructed from the main road to the landfill site. The planned access road is at present the existing public road leading to the settlement Mikrorayon 7. This road is in poor condition (Figere #30) and in order to separate the traffic streams a new alignment with improved standard will be constructed as part of the project.


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8.5 Occupational Health Risks Health risks at landfills are normally associated with exposure to sharp, infected or toxic material at the site, contact with leachate and emissions of hazardous smoke from fires.

Other risks are the hazards for explosions and fires caused by improper management of the landfill gas.

Risk for suffocation in manholes or deep excavations in the waste body is evident whenever there is a risk for landfill gas to enter.

Besides the workers of the Landfill company, the illegal scavengers (if the issue is not managed) may be exposed to the mentioned risks.

8.6 Impact on Valuable Natural Reserves The proposed location of the landfill is not affecting any protected, natural reserves directly. Indirect remote impact on Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and Kolcheti National Park (marine zone) should be taken into account, so far as pollution of the river Chakvistskali and its estuary theoretically may have its negative impact on the sea water quality near the reserves. However, the landfill is quite far from the r. Chakvistskali and in case of proper management of leachates no impacts are anticipated.

8.7 Impact on Cultural Heritage The proposed location of the landfill has no aboveground monuments (historical assets or buildings), according to information from the Archaeological Authorities.

8.8 Noise and Littering During construction noise from excavators, wheel loaders and all other vehicles will occur.

During the operation the noise from the site is mainly coming from the vehicles operating at the site and the vehicles transporting waste to the site.

Littering from wind-blown light wastes like papers and plastics may occur, especially after strong winds.

8.9 View of the Site During the first years of operation the landfill will only be visible from the main road. Gradually the height of the waste pile will increase and the intermediate


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cover will be applied as the volume has been filled up, minimising the view from the road.

There will be several building in the area between the landfill and the road and the impression by passing vehicles will be like any other type of industrial activity.

After a number of years the waste pile will reach a height where the visibility will increase also from other directions.

8.10 Construction Impacts The typical impacts, which are usually associated with the large scale earthwaorks and construction activities, should be considered:

• Landscape degradation. The site is visible from the central highway and from settlements and has considerable scenic value. Change of landscape should be considered as adverse impact and should be mitigated.

• Impact of flora and fauna. Local flora and fauna is not valuable from the biodiversity standpoint (see 5.6 and 5.7) and the site is typical for hilly landscapes of Lowland Adjara. Loss of this habitat will not have significant impact. However, the small animals inhabiting the site could be affected during construction activities. Appropriate mitigation measures are required.

• Loss of topsoil. In case of not proper topsoil stripping, storage and reinstatement operations part of top soil may be lost.

• Erosion of slopes and sedimentation of water streams. The slope at the site is prone to erosion. Invasion during construction activities may cause severe erosion if the reinstatement and antierosian measures are not implemented. Erossion runoff may cause sedimentation of the stream located downstream and result if further contamination of the r.Chakvistskali.

• Pollution of soil and water due to improper fuelling and maintenance operations

• Vehicle emissions and dust • Noise associated with the construction operations • Damage of archaeological monuments • Damage of infrastructure. Possibility of damaging the local rural roads or

gas pipeline located in the eastern part of the landfill site should be considered.

• Impacts on quarries and borrow pit sites. The inert construction and filling material (gravel etc.) may be explored by the constructing company or may be supplied by separate contractor. In both cases the impact on the sites should be considered.


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9. Mitigation Measures

9.1 Control and Separation of Hazardous Waste One of the major environmental concerns is the risk for contamination of waters and soil caused by the leachate leaking from the site. In order to reduce the hazards from such leaking leachate the content of hazardous substances shall be minimised. The basic approach to achieve this is to ascertain that only the eligible types of waste are disposed. For example no hazardous waste shall be disposed.

An initial screening of waste types will be carried out at the entrance as part of the registration procedure. In addition, the personnel, the bulldozer driver and others, at the working face will also make an visual inspection of the waste when it is un-loaded as a second control.

Enforcement mechanisms shall be established for trucks violating the rules.

9.2 Landfill Lining The bottom of the landfill will be constructed in accordance with the EU directive for landfills. An impermeable lining underneath a drainage layer will be established to minimise contamination of waters and soil.

In order to eliminate potential inflow of groundwater from the surroundings all existing creeks in the landfill area will be filled with gravel to allow diversion of such non-polluted water outside the site.

9.3 Leachate Collection and Treatment

9.3.1 Leachate Volume and Quality

Leachate is generated through the percolation of rainwater through the waste pile; during the percolation the water gets polluted by contact with the solid waste layers. Generation of leachate is commonly reduced by covering the waste surface with suitable low-permeable material.

Surface run-off water is rainwater that does not percolate into the waste, but just flows over the surface. The main part of this water does not get polluted, but a certain amount of surface water, which flows over uncovered waste, for instances waste temporarily stored at the sorting platform, can get polluted and shall be handled together with the leachate.


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The proposed leachate treatment will include the following flows:

• Leachate from the landfill

• Surface run-off water, including polluted and non-polluted waters, from the sorting platform

All other non-polluted surface run-off is assumed to be collected and discharged separately, thus not reaching the leachate system.

The estimated amounts of leachate to treatment, as Average and Design values, are given in Table .

The leachate flow is gradually increasing during the operation period of the landfill. The data in the table are valid for the final year of operation.

Table 9. Estimated leachate water volumes

Average Design

m3 month-1 m3 day-1 m3 month-1 m3 day-1

Leachate 3 730 186 8 757 438

Run-off water 208 10 650 32

Total ≈ 4 000 ≈ 200 ≈ 9 400 ≈ 470

9.3.2 Leachate Quality

The quality of the leachate will vary over the years and the description below is based on experience from other landfills with similar conditions.

The leachate from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills contains dissolved organics (partly oxygen consuming, usually measured as BOD and COD), often high concentrations of nitrogen (mainly in the form of ammonium), rather high concentrations of chloride and of iron and manganese, but usually low concentrations of phosphorus and of heavy metals. The leachate may be toxic, due to the presence of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) and of heavy metals. The latter is usually not a big problem in leachate, while the ammonium content can be significant. See further Error! Reference source not found.5 and 6.

The composition of the leachate depends on the age of the landfill, particularly pH and the content of organic substances, with lower concentrations of organics and higher pH at higher age. Table 6 shows typical compositions of leachate from a new and an old landfill.


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The difference in leachate quality between a new and an old landfill, depends on the different degradation phases of the organic waste. In the new landfill, the anaerobic degradation results in organic acids to a large extent – the acidogenic phase – giving low pH-values and high concentration of organics, which are highly biodegradable. The latter means also a low COD/BOD ratio (a ratio around 2 is common). In the older landfill, the degradation results more and more in the formation of methane – the methanogenic phase – which leads to lower concentration of organics, and also a higher COD/BOD ratio (a ratio up to 10 is common).

Table 6.Typical composition of leachate from municipal solid waste.

Parameter Unit New landfill Old landfill

pH 5 – 6 8 – 9

BOD5l mg/l 1 000 – 7 000 25 – 800

COD mg/l 1 000 – 30 000 500 – 4 000

TOC (tot organic carbon)

mg/l 400 – 10 000

Conductivity mS/m 50 – 1 400

Chloride mg/l 5 – 1 300

Total Nitrogen mg N/l – 800 300 – 400

Ammonia Nitrogen mg N/l 150 – 600

Phosphorus mg tot P/l 0.1 – 4

Iron mg/l 1000 – 1500 0.1 – 40

Manganese mg/l 25 – 230 0.004 – 1.3

Copper mg/l

Cadmium mg/l 0.01 0.0002 – 0.02

Chromium mg/l 1,5 0.02 – 0.3

Lead mg/l 0.17 – 0.44 0.004 – 1

Mercury mg/l <0.0001 – 0.003 The described difference means further that a biological treatment of the leachate is more efficient, as regards the degradation of organics, for a “new” landfill leachate than for an “old” landfill leachate.

The landfill will be built up during a period of about 35 years. During the first few years the filling can be considered as “new”; during the following years, the filling will gradually turn into an “old” landfill. This means that the leachate, during the main part of the operation period, will have properties corresponding to a mixture of a “new” and an “old” landfill. It is also expected that the leachate properties will change slowly during the whole operation period of the landfill.


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Expected results of the leachate treatment are commented in Section 9.3.5 Treatment Efficiency.

9.3.3. Leachate Collection

The leachate from the landfill will be collected in the drainage layer, 0.50 m thick, laid in the bottom of the landfill above the sealing layer. The bottom will have a slope following the natural slope of the terrain, thus flowing in a westerly direction. From the lowest point in the landfill bottom the leachate will be further transported in pipes to the equalisation pond, which is the first part of the leachate treatment unit described below.

9.3.4. Proposed Leachate Treatment

The proposed leachate treatment is basically an aerobic biological treatment, with the main purpose of reducing the content of organic material and ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N).

The basic treatment process is proposed to include an equalization pond (low aerated), a SBR process (SBR = sequencing biological reactor, which is a batch-wise operating activated sludge process), and a polishing pond.

The basic treatment scheme is proposed as follows:

Sludge to drying beds

The SBR process operates batch-wise, i.e. the reactor is filled up with a certain volume of leachate, then treatment is run for a certain time, finally the reactor is emptied down to a pre-determined level. Thus there will be a continuous flow to the equalization pond, while the flow to the SBR and to the polishing pond will be intermittent. The flow from the polishing pond will be intermittent, or continuous but variable.

In addition, the following units will be installed:

- Holding tank/Pumping station between the equalization pond and the SBR, for feeding the SBR

- Sludge drying beds for the dewatering of excess biological sludge from the process. The dried sludge will be landfilled, or composted for production of a soil product.

Equalization/ Aeration pond

SBR process Polishing pond


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- Effluent discharge chamber, to be used primarily for flow measurement and sampling of the finally treated leachate.

The biological process in the SBR plant will require the presence of certain amounts of nutrients, i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. Landfill leachate normally contains an excess of nitrogen, in the form of ammonium nitrogen, while the content of phosphorus is low. Thus, addition of phosphorus may be necessary for an efficient operation of the SBR process.

The following option will be considered for the future:

- There should be arrangements made for a later installation of a pH control stage, after the equalization pond, if required, to be utilized in case anaerobic activity in the pond would generate acidic compounds (mainly acetic acid). The Holding tank will be used for this purpose, and additional equipment will be dosage equipment for alkali, mixing equipment and pH control equipment. However the risk of this shall be eliminated as far as possible, as the pond will be low-aerated in order to avoid anaerobic conditions.

The SBR process, as mentioned, is a batch process, which means that a number of consecutive process stages, or phases, are performed within the reactor during a cycle, after which a new cycle is run etc. The cycle can be changed very easily, which gives a great flexibility to the process.

A tentative cycle is as follows:

Filling of leachate 1 hour

Aeration/Mixing with bioculture 5 hours

Mixing 2 hours

Settling of bioculture/sludge 2 hours

Sludge removal 1 hour

Decantation of clear water 1 hour

Total 12 hours

The SBR process has been applied for leachate treatment with good results in several cases, for instance in Sweden.

9.3.5. Treatment Efficiency

The proposed treatment is a biological treatment, which has the main purpose of reducing the leachate’s content of organic matter. The treatment efficiency for BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) will be high, about 80 – 90 % or higher. The efficiency for COD (chemical oxygen demand) will be more moderate, estimated


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at about 50 – 70 %, possibly towards 80 %. The efficiency for TOC (total organic carbon) is expected to be of the same order as for COD.

A typical component of leachate is ammonium nitrogen, which may occur in high concentrations. This substance is toxic to water-living organisms, and one purpose of leachate treatment is often to oxidize this to the less toxic nitrate nitrogen (NO3 - N). An oxidation of the ammonium to nitrate of approximately 90 % or higher can be expected, and thus a significant toxicity reduction will be reached. If a reduction of the total content of nitrogen in the leachate is required, the process in the SBR reactor can be adapted for total nitrogen removal. If the polishing pond is designed as a wetland, a further nitrogen removal can be expected there. About 50 – 80 % reduction of total nitrogen can then be expected.

9.3.6. Construction

The area, required for the leachate treatment, is roughly about 8000 m2, or about 11 000 m2, if a wetland design is applied for the polishing pond.

The two ponds will be constructed as earth ponds. The SBR reactor will be a concrete tank. Additional smaller constructions, such as the holding tank/pumping station ahead of the SBR, and the sludge holding tank, will also be in concrete.

The ponds, the SBR and other parts of the plant need to be accessible, preferably by vehicles, for service. Such service will concern, for instance, maintenance of pumps and aeration equipment, drainage of accumulated sludge and maintenance of the pond constructions. Therefore, the ponds should ideally be furnished with roads alongside, drivable for suitable vehicles.

9.4. Landfill Gas Collection and Utilisation A landfill gas extraction system will be installed in the waste pile some 3-5 years after start of operation. The main components of the gas extraction system are (Figure 32):

• gas wells • gas collection pipes • gas pumping station • condensate traps • gas motors • gas torch


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Figure 32. Principles for a gas collection system.

The basic concept is that perforated gas wells are installed into the waste pile after the corresponding area has been sealed with an impermeable intermediate cover. A sub-pressure to extract the gas will be arranged by blowing machines in the gas pumping station. From an environmental point of view the final step is destruction of the landfill gas by incineration in an environmental-friendly torch allowing a high incineration temperature.

However, one additional concept commonly applied is to utilise the energy content in the gas for e.g. heating purposes or in other industrial processes. For this project it is proposed to convert the energy to electrical power by adding gas motors to the system.

The total amount of landfill gas during the full cycle is estimated at about 700 Mm3 landfill gas. The efficiency of a gas extraction system varies from site to site within a rather wide range. Based on experience from other landfills one can assume that around 80-90 can be collected by the gas extraction system and thus, for this project it is estimated that 20% may be emitted to the atmosphere.

By implementation of this project the reduction of landfill gas to the atmosphere can be estimated at about 550 Mm3.

9.5. Covering of Waste Cells Covering of the waste will be made at three different levels with somewhat different methods:

- Daily cover


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- Intermediate cover

- Final cover

The daily cover shall be applied at the end of each day and consist of minimum 5 cm of sand or other suitable material. The concept is to reduce the open exposure of the organic matter causing bad odour and risk for littering of light waste, such as plastics or papers. Another important aspect is to minimise flies, birds, rats etc. feeding from the waste.

The intermediate cover will consist of 50 cm of low permeable soil to divert the non-polluted surface water runoff outside the waste cell. This type of cover shall be applied for surface not used for disposal for some six months. It shall specifically be applied in areas before the gas wells are installed. By application of this impermeable layer it will be possible to introduce a sub-pressure system for extraction of the landfill gas without intrusion of oxygen into the waste body.

The final cover will be applied after the landfill volume has been completely filled up. The cover shall follow the existing regulations at the prevailing time, but should as a minimum be planned according the EU directives.

The cost for daily and intermediate cover will be apparent during the operation phase. However, costs for final cover will occur when no more tipping fees can be obtained and thus, in order to assure that funding is available for closure activities an amount for such investments shall be deposited on an annual basis during operation.

9.6. Odour There are two main sources of odour at the site: odour from the degradation of the organic waste (landfill gas) and odour from the leachate ponds.

The minimisation of odours spreading to the surroundings is crucial for the social acceptance of the landfill. The combined effect of the mitigating measures described above, leachate collection and treatment, gas collection and covering of the waste is the most efficient method to reduce the odour to a minimum.

Proper covering of the landfill in combination with extraction of landfill gas are proven as effective measures to prevent fires. Despite those measures a stock of soil to cover the waste surface in case of fires shall always be maintained within the site.


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9.7. Noise Abatement All vehicles operating at the site shall be equipped with silencers. The busiest operating hours will be during normal working hours when the waste trucks have collected the first round of waste. No transports or operation are planned during nighttimes.

The topography is favourable to minimise noise to the surroundings. The distance to nearby residential areas is also favourable as the nearest houses are located at a distance exceeding 500 m from the new landfill site.

9.8. Hidden from View During the first years of operation the landfill will only be visible from the main road. During the first phase of operation disposal of waste will be made behind a wall starting from the western side of the site. Gradually the height of the waste pile will increase and the intermediate cover will be applied as the volume has been filled up, minimising the view from the road.

There will be several buildings in the area between the landfill and the road and the impression by passing vehicles will be like any other type of industrial activity.

From other directions than from west the landfill will be hidden from view in first hand by the natural surrounding hills. After a number of years the waste pile will reach a height where the visibility will increase. This view shall be minimised by planting trees and bushes on the crest around the site and by replacing the trees cut during the energy crises in Georgia (Error! Reference source not found.).


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Figure 33 Trees left on the crest of the new landfill in Chakvi

9.9. Labour and Working Conditions All labour working at the site shall be properly vaccinated and informed about the safety regulations. Such regulations shall be prepared by the Site Manager and especially focus on risks associated with the gas extraction system besides more common safety aspects on clothing, sanitary aspects, traffic etc.

The personnel working at the sorting area shall be equipped with proper protection gears, such as gloves, boots, masks, protection clothing etc.

All personnel shall have access to regular health examinations.

9.10. Occupational Health and Safety Management The site will be fenced and guarded and the public will not be allowed to enter the site, due to health and security reasons. By minimizing the emissions to air and water, through waste control, lining, top covering, leachate treatment and gas collection the sources for health risks will be kept to a minimum, both inside and outside the landfill site.

Other risks are the hazards for explosions and fires caused by improper management of the landfill gas. A risk zone map shall be prepared during the design to minimise those risks. A person responsible for all management of the gas extraction system shall be specifically assigned once the system is installed. “No smoking” signs shall e.g. be placed at the entrance and specifically sensitive areas, such as classified areas of the gas extraction system.

All labourers shall be informed about the safety regulation at start of the employment procedure and such information shall also be repeated at regular intervals.

9.11. Mitigation of Construction Impacts 9.11.1 Pollution Prevention and Waste Management: Water/ Soil Pollution. Specific mitigation measures should be implemented at the construction site for prevention of water and soil pollution:

• Prevent operation of vehicles in the water • Proper handling of lubricants, fuel and solvents. Storage tanks will not be

located within 50 m of the watercourse. All tanks will be placed in a


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impermeable bund of at least 110% of the tank’s maximum capacity. • All fuel / hydrocarbon dispensing nozzles are to be of a drip control

design and securely locked when not in use. • No fuel storage or refuelling of vehicles or equipment will be allowed

within 50 m of watercourse. Strict supervision of fuelling process. • All refuelling operations on the working sites will use absorbent pads

and/or straw to minimize spills. • Immediate removal of polluted ground. Spoiled ground and absorbents

will be removed, stored and treated as hazardous waste. • All mobile plants and storage tanks will be maintained to minimize all

leaks and spills. Vehicle Maintenance Procedure will be undertaken. Erosion control measures and silt catchments will be applied during construction activities to prevent increased runoff into the watercourses (e.g.small stream at the site - directly and r.Chakvistskali - indirectly). Disposal of Excess Soil and Rock During implementation of the present project production of large amounts of spoil and rocks is not envisaged and no serious problem of spoil disposal is expected. Constructing Contractor is obliged:

• to agree with the DEPNR of Adjara AR sites and mode of spoil disposal • Costs of the spoil and rock disposal should be included into cost

breakdownof constructing contractor and should be reflected in the contract.

Waste Handling All non-hazardous waste from the construction site will be disposed of in accordance with advise of the DEPNR of Adjara AR. Disposal of hazardous wastes should be agreed with the MoE. The personnel will undergo specific training in waste handling, treatment; and storage. Noise, Dust and Emissions Emissions of heavy machinery involved in the construction should be managed by proper engine maintenance practice and usage of good quality fuel. The work of engines in a no-operation mode should be excluded. Vehicle refuelling will be undertaken so as to avoid fugitive emissions of volatile organic compounds ( use of fuel nozzles and pumps and enclosed tanks). Following dust control measures will be introduced:

• Damping down using water bowsers with spray bars • Sheeting of construction materials and storage piles; and • Use of defined haulage routes and reductions in vehicle speed where

required. Materials will be transported to site in off peak hours • . Materials transported to site will be covered/ wetted down to reduce

dust. The construction site will be watered as appropriate.


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Mitigation of limited noise impact is possible by engine maintenance practice and avoidance of engine work in non-operational mode. The only limitation that could be recommended is to minimize the night-time works in. 9.11.2 Topsoil Protection and Prevention of Erosion Topsoil Protection Measures

• The topsoil will not be handled by Contractor when the following conditions are observed:

1 The topsoil is frozen; 2 The site is experiencing persistent rainfall; 3 The topsoil is saturated;

• Segregation from subsoil stockpiles; The storage of topsoil in stockpiles,no more than 2m high with side slopes at a maximum angle of 450,:

• Dedicated storage locations that prevent the stockpiles being compactedby vehicle movements or contaminated by other materials;

• Erosion protection measures (erosion matting, berms etc.). • No storage where there is a potential for flooding. No storage at less

than25m from river/streams, subject to site specific topography. • Topsoil from the sites, which will not be reinstated to the initial conditions

will be distributed carefully on the surrounding area. Topsoil removed from the landfill cells will be used to reinstate the site after the coverage of the cell

Subsoil Storage The storage of subsoil in stockpiles, no more than 3m high with side slopes at a maximum angle of 600, will take into consideration the following:

• Segregation from topsoil stockpiles. • Anti-erosion measures

Tmporary Erosion Control Measures Temporary measures to control erosion of the landfill site:

• Straw bale barriers where required small volumes of sediment interception;

• berms and temporary surface drainage systems if required Final Reinstatement and Long-term Anti-erosion Measures All the work sites (except permanently occupied by the facilities) should be reinstated to its initial conditions (relief, topsoil, vegetation cover). It may be


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necessary to implement special antierosion measures: drainage, berms, planting of anti-erosion vegetation cover etc. Preservation of top-soil is sufficient for reinstating the natural grass vegetation cover as well. 9.11. Protection of Ecological Receptors Despite low impacts envisaged for flora and fauna, certain rules should be observed. Before starting the construction operations within the site a detailed ecological research (so called ‘Pre-entry Survey’) should be organized for registration of the trees to be cut down and to examine the presence of shelters of the small animal species and birds and population of reptiles on the territory. The site is quite typical for Lowland Adjara landscapes and does not present unique ecosystem or habitat. The birds and animals should be scared off and allowed to move to other similar habitats and leave the space for construction. 9.11.4 Protection of the Cultural Heritage Despite the fact that the landfill site is not located near any aboveground monuments, destruction of archaeological layers in the construction process is possible. To avoid even this minor impact, an archaeological supervision is necessary during the ground works. Supervisory procedures and all other necessary measures should be agreed with the Ministry of Culture and DEPNR of Adjara AR. The budget necessary for the archaeological supervision and other agreed works should be fixed under the construction works appraisal. According to the recommendations of the Batumi Niko Berzenishvili Scientific Research Institute of the Academy of Science of Georgia following procedures should be applied to prevent impacts on archaeological monuments:

• To arrange controlling excavations in several places (5-6 cuttings 0 3X6 m;

• To ensure supervision of the earthworks by licensed specialist; • In case of exposing any archaeological monument with historic value the

constructor shall be obliged to stop the works till the specialists will complete inspection of the site and provide further instructions. 9.11.5 Safety during Construction In general, in order to avoid accidents and incidents at the project sites, the occupational health and safety standards of Georgia and international HSE standards should be regarded. In particular, requirements related to handling hazardous substances, explosives, safety rules in relation with electricity, vehicle and machinery operations, loading and unloading etc., as well traffic safety. 9.11.6 Control of Suppliers Only legally registered suppliers having all required permits and licenses will be used. This is relevant to the borrow pit operators, as well as to the other suppliers.


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10. Social Impact

10.1 Living Conditions for Neighbours 5-6 households leave very close to the landfill site. Distance from these landplots to the landfill site varies from 120 to 200m. Within the 500m buffer zone as minimum 40 land plots are cultivated and buildings are situated on 11 of these plots. More dense settlement is represented by the village, which is situated east side of the landfill site at a distance about 1km (v. Chaisubani and settlement Micro-rayon 7)..

Figure 34. Village at a distance of 1 km east from the proposed landfill site

Health and Safety and Nuisance Usually, the main potential nuisances for the neighbourhood, associated with the landfills are:

• odours from waste disposal and composting sites, • smoke from the site (in case of occasional fire or open burning) • dust from unloading and disposing operations • windblown littering


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• noise both from vehicles operating at the site and waste collection vehicles • potential health risks for the local community neighbouring the landfill is

associated with the creation of breeding sites and influx of Insects, rodents, reptiles etc in case of open dumping or not proper management of landfill.

• loss of deep rooted vegetation (trees etc.) due to landfill gas The impact depends on distance from the site, topography, groundwater patterns, geology and wind rose. We can anticipate that the safety radius should be less than 500m required according to Georgian legislation3. The impacts here are smoothened by the topography. The closest dwelling houses (6 houses located within the 300m distance from the landfill site) are separated from the landfill by hills and wind breaking plants. In general, intra-ground diffusion and migration of landfill gas may impose potential risk of explosions or toxic exposure if the gas is accumulated in buildings. This is also less probable due to topography and geology of the site: the soil is not fissured and high permeable and the watershed structure will not facilitate migration of the gas to the surrounding houses. The risk of influx of rodents, insects and related health risks should be manageable through proper design and good operation practices. The issue of potential physical impacts and safety radius is analysed in details in the Addendum 1 to this EIA. Below we provide some conclusions as outcome of this analysis. Firs of all, following recommendations regarding the safety radius and Sanitary protection zones have been provided:

• The zone of sanitary protection around the landfill polygon to be fixed within a 500-meter radius.

• Residential houses and summer cottages within the mentioned zone of sanitary protection to be prohibited. The families residing within the zone of sanitary protection are subject to resettlement in line with the procedures of the EBRD ‘Involuntary resettlement’.

• ‘The area of possible spreading of pollution’ associated with the existence and functioning of the landfill within the zone of sanitary protection to be fixed as 200 m.

• Within the limits of the area of possible spreading of pollution (R<200 m), every agricultural activity to be prohibited.

• Beyond the limits of the area of possible spreading of pollution (R>200 m), including the limits of the sanitary protection zone, agricultural production and land use for fruit and vegetable gardens, pastures and hayfields to be allowed.

The living conditions beyond the “Contamination Risk Zone” and Sanitary Protection Zone should be considered as safe. In relation with the proposed new landfill, we can state that the physical impacts on the densely populated village (Chaisubani and Micro-rayon 7) will be negligible. No health and safety impacts or restrictions on agricultural or other type of economic activities are imposed by the landfill operations on the population of mentioned villages. However, all of

3 For comparison: the TACIS BSIF project defined 300m safety radius for isolated dwelling houses; IFC guidelines recommend 250m as minimum for the safety radius.


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the mentioned impacts are relevant to the owners of the isolated dwelling houses and land parcels, located in the vicinity of the landfill site.

Soci-economic Impacts and Recommendations for Mitigation Chakvi site is not the official tourist zone, although in reality the local population potentially may benefit from small private tourism business. One of the local residents has raised an issue during the public meeting that could be summarised briefly as follows: In the village (Micro-rayon 7) the local population benefit from small private tourism business which is important sources of income for them, in particular: renting their apartments, have fisheries, canteens, etc. Accordingly, construction of new landfill will be very harmful for their business, so far as value of the land for tourism development will decline in case of construction of the landfill. Theoretically the problem could be relevant. To estimate if the problem is of current importance, the EIA team has visited the villages Chaisubani and Micro-rayon 7 to interviewed local population and visual observation. The outcome conclusions of the site visit are as flows:

• The villages are located at a distance of 1km from the boarder of the planned landfill.

• The length of the rural road from the landfill (highway crossing) to the villages is about 3km. The road is in a bad condition and requires rehabilitation

• Electricity is available for the population, although the fees are burden for the population, most part of which are unemployed.

• Potable water is supplied from the local springs. The water from the small local river is used for irrigation of orchards and gardens.

• Natural gas is not supplied and local population uses wood for heating needs in addition to electro power

• Waste management services are not working efficiently and no waste collection facilities are provided. The territory of the village is contaminated by windblown waste from open waste collection sites.

• The main source of income for the local population is agriculture. Mostly maize and potato is cultivated and fruit trees are grown up. The land is not high productive due to high level of groundwater. The products are mainly used for self- consumption rather than for sale.

• All of the enquired persons told us that currently the village has no benefit from tourism: the village is quite far from the seashore (3-4km) and no infrastructure or public utilities are available for supporting tourism. In terms of further tourism development perspective the local population is not optimistic: they consider that there are much more attractive sites for tourism in Adjara – in mountainous area, where nice forested landscapes and protected areas are attractive for eco-tourism and – sites located closer to the seashore for the sea-tourism. However, we consider that in the context of overall development of tourism the area of concern may gain certain (although limited) potential for tourism related benefits. Improvement of infrastructure, utilities and rural road, as well as introducing proper waste management practices is essential prerequisite for such development.

• Only one half-abandoned fishery pond is in the village. Earlier it was functioning more or less efficiently. Currently the villagers do not consider


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that this pond will survive, so far as the water level in the small local river has significantly reduced, due to water consumption for irrigation needs (watering of gardens and orchards).

In the site selection study the Chakvi site is assessed to have favourable conditions to be well integrated in the surrounding landscape. At a longer distance the new facility might inevitably be visible from some directions, but it will probably be seen as an industrial construction, not necessarily connected to waste management. The so called “perception impact” – decline of the site value for tourism development due to presence of neighbouring landfill, seems not to be a severe impact, so far as currently the site has no value as recreation site. In terms of future development, the negative impact on the limited tourism potential could be compensated by offset measures. Following offset measures are proposed for the project proponents to be implemented during project development:

• Rehabilitation of the rural road from the highway crossing till the villages Chaisubani and Micro-rayon 7

• Establishment of proper waste management system in village: provision of modern waste collection containers; Regular collection and disposal of household wastes to the new lanfill; exemption from waste collection fees or application of reduced tariffs

• For the stage, when the landfill gas based electricity generationwill commence, the villages could be supplied by electricity from landfill. The fee exemption for the electricity or reduced tariffs could be applicable. This offset measure may be applicable only in case if the power generation, based on the landfill gas will be considered as feasible and will be implemented.

• The local population should get employment privileges for both skilled an unskilled labour from the landfill company. The privileges could be applied at the landfill construction and operation stage.

• The design of landfill, application of landscaping practices, plantation of tall trees at the boarder of the landfill and timely closure of the landfill cells with follow up complete reinstatement should ensure minimization of negative visual impacts. The EIA team proposes to plant decorative plants and provide feasible landscaping plan for the 200m restriction zone around the landfill. The cost-efficient landscaping plan should be provided at the detailed design stage. The decorative plantations may be efficient not only for mitigating visual impacts, but also for preventing odour related nuisance.

10.2 Effect on Present Land Use and Involuntary Resettlement

The proposed area for the new landfill is a former tea plantation, but is today fallow land. The entire area is registered as State land and there are today no residents (private or business) occupying parts of the area, neither legally nor illegally. The land is used by the neighbouring residents for grazing.


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Figure 35.Grazing animals at the proposed landfill site

Nevertheless, certain amount of dwelling houses and cultivated land plots are located within the 500m buffer zone. More detailed information on the affected land plots and households is provided in the Annex 5 to this EIA, entitled as “Landuse and Resettlement Issues”. The exact amount of affected households will be clarified after final agreement with MoE on acceptable safety radius and boarders of the sanitary protection zone. The proposal of the EIA team for the Sanitary protection zones and related restrictions are provided in the addendum 1 to this EIA. The scale of resettlement and required compensations will be defined after verification of the status of the land plots and entitlement. However, it is possible to make conclusions at this stage, that the project implementation will require physical relocation of several (minimum 6) households. Distance from the landplots, occupied by the mentioned households, to the landfill site varies from 120 to 200m. These land plots are occupied before 2003. Therefore, we may conclude that preparation of the Resettlement Action Plan is necessary. According to the EBRD social safeguards the affected persons should be rehabilitated even if their entitlement on land and assets is not confirmed legally. Legally owned land and assets should be compensated to full replacement costs.

10.3. Diversion of Traffic Flow

The existing road to the settlement Mikrorayon 7 is today in a poor condition. It will be given a new alignment around the new site to avoid mixing with the transports to the landfill.

The new road will be constructed as part of this project and provided with modern Georgian standards.


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10.4. Infrastructur

The minimum distance to the central highway (west to the landfill site) is about 250 – 300m. Construction and operation of the landfill should not cause damage of the highway section. However, permanent monitoring wii be required to prevent damage and ensure full reinstatement if such occurs.

Along the southern crest there is a track road of rather poor condition leading to settlements further east. We would recommend to improve this road as an expression good neighbourhood attitude of the project.

There is a gas pipeline crossing the watershed and sanitary protection zone of the proposed landfill in the south-eastern part of the site. This will not be affected by the operations of the landfill, but there is potential risk of damaging it during construction activities.

From the north side, at a distance of 50m high voltage transmission lines are crossing neighbouring territory. It is unlikely that the construction activities will have impact on this infrastructure. However, this issue should be considered during the construction monitoring.

10.5. Sanitary Risks

Sanitary risks are mainly caused by direct contact with harmful substances in the waste. The site will be fenced and guarded to keep unauthorised persons out of the site. Thus, sanitary risks for local residents are minimised.

The households situated at the lands out of the sanitary protection zone will not be exposed to health risks. The potential influx of rodents and insects should be managed through good performance practices.

10.6. Scavengers

Although unofficially there are a number of people scavenging from the waste at the existing landfills in Batumi and Kobuleti. In order to provide them with an alternative livelihood they will be offered an employment at the site at the planned sorting facility.


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11. Closure of Noncompliant Landfills

11.1 Batumi Noncompliant Landfill

11.1.1 Description of the site

The landfill covers an area of 19 ha and is situated in the alluvial river bed about 10 km south of the Batumi city centre, between the airport, the Chorokhi River and the Black Sea shoreline ( Figure ).

Figure 7.2 Base map of Batumi landfill.

Geomorphology, Geology, Hydrogeology of the Site 4 The study region is located in the zone of the accumulative-type flattened relief and is the delta of the river Chorokhi known as Kakhaberi accumulative valley in the literary sources and is mainly characterized by flattened relief and local bogged areas. Resume:

4 Detailed geomorphological, geological and hydrogeological description is provided in annex 2.


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1. The study region is located on the right bank of the river Chorokhi, within the groove-and-terrace zone. 2. According to the tectonic zoning of Georgia (Gamkrelidze E. 2000), the study region is located in the central sub-zone of Ajara-Trialeti folded zone of the Lesser Caucasioni folded system. 3. The geology of the study region is participated by the alluvial-marine deposits of the Quaternary Period with their bed thicknesses of over 200 meters. 4. According to the complexity of engineering-geological conditions, the study area is of the II (average) category of complexity (Construction Regulation Standards Building Code 1.02.07-87). 5. The levels of the ground waters discharge in fact coincide with the water surface of the river-bed and according to the chemical composition the waters are mainly hydrocarbonate-calcium or hydrocarbonate-calcium-magnesium. No information about the bacteriological pollution of the waters is available. 6. Following the physical-mechanical properties of the constituent rocks in the study area, there is one engineering-geological element identified – shingle with the content of boulder (25%) and sand-and-gravel (15%). 7. Of hazardous geological processes, an intense washout of Seashore and river banks on the study area and its adjacent territory, as well as bogging take place. 8. The environmental state of the study territory, following the deficient management of the landfill is extremely complex and unless the management measures are improved as soon as possible, this unique recreation zone will face an environmental crisis. At present, the following seems urgent measures to us:

- The deformed concrete wall constructed between the river Chorokhi and landfill is to be restored and lengthened towards the Sea.

- The section from the bank of the river Chorokhi towards Adlia is to be protected against the Sea attack

9. According to the corrected scheme of temporary general seismic zoning under Decree No. 42 of June 7 of 1991 by the Ministry of Architecture and Building of the Republic of Georgia, the building site belongs to the grade 82 earthquake intensity zone (with the index 2 indicating the probability of two-fold recurrence in every 1000 years). Therefore, the seismity of the region should be fixed at 8 points.

Geodynamic hazard of the study region In respect of geodynamic hazard, the stability of the study region is at a certain degree negatively influenced by the changes in the modern tectonic movements of the earth crust and differentiated movements (elevation, subsidence) of ‘live’ tectonic blocks. In addition, the activity of ‘live’ faults is directly evidenced by the intensity of point 8 earthquakes. On the second hand, the territory of the landfill is located in the area of the subsidence block, with intense sea coast washout along this region. Besides, as a result of locking the river Chorokhi with hydraulic dams, its solid alluvium fully feeding the Black Sea beach zone of Ajara does not drift now what will certainly increase the washout intensity of the given region, which is furthermore located in the area of intense washout of Adlia metal-dynamic zone. The sea coast washouts in Adlia metal-dynamic zone have particularly catastrophic nature between Batumi airport and the river Chorokhi, where a part of the landfill is located. According to the data of the regime


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observations of the Center for Monitoring and Forecasting of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the average annual rate of coast washout along this section is 5-7 m resulting in the width of the shore land reduced by 400 meters during 50 years’ period. If considering that the distance between the existing landfill and the Sea has been reduced to 250 meters, the hazard of the Sea attacking the landfill cofferdam soon is real what will undoubtedly result in a great ecological catastrophe. Moreover, the metal-dynamic zone of the given coast is structured with the geological formations, which are extremely sensitive to washouts. In our opinion, one of the optimal measures to protect this area against the possible sea attack is making a rocky cofferdam in the seashore zone. The cofferdam should be of the size to withstand the waves and diminish high energy waves. The distribution area of the landfill in fact starts at the bank of the right principal branch of the river Chorokhi, west of the old bridge over the Chorokhi. Along this section, the river Chorokhi actively washes out the terrace step (See Fig. 35 and 36).

Figure 2

Figure 35. There is a 5-6-meter-high concrete wall constructed from the side of the river Chorokhi aiming at protecting the landfill. Most part of the wall (along about 150 meters) is deformed due to the river erosive action and load of the domestic waste and is out of order at some places (See Fig. 2). On its turn, the deformation of the bearing wall has naturally resulted in the deformed anthropogenic relief formed with the domestic waste and as a result, the precipitations accumulated in it discharge on the seashore and bed of the river Chorokhi posing ecological problems. In addition to the above-mentioned, the individual areas of the territory between the river Chorokhi and the airport suffer bogging.


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Figure 36.

Background Radiation Assessment of background radiation at the existing noncompliant landfill sites is important to ensure safe closure and conservation of the sites. The issue is of particular interest, so far as wastes from the Russian military base have been disposed there before its decommissioning. Preliminary studies of the background radiation have been carried out at the existing noncompliant landfills in Batumi. The measurements have been carried out on September 10 using the standard certified Russian device – “СРП 6801”. The sampling points for Batumi landfill are provided below on the map.


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Batumi, Existing Landfill Site Sampling Point No Background radiation,

microrentgen/hours 1 6 2 7 3 7 4 7 5 8 6 7 7 6 8 7 9 7 10 7 11 7 12 6 13 7

The level of the background radiation, which has been measured during these preliminary studies, is acceptable for landfill sites. However, more comprehensive studies are planned to cover the area of concern in more details.

Flora and Fauna

Delta of the r.Chorokhi is sensitive wetland ecosystem of high conservative value. During recent years a military base was located at the site and this caused anthropogenization and degradation of the landscape. Construction of the Demirel’s Dam in Turkey significantly changed the hydrological regime of r. Chorokhi and reduced biodiversity of aquatic fauna (mainly ichtyo fauna). The conservative value of the ecosystem has significantly reduced. However, the Colchic forest elements and many rare species are partially preserved here and the river itself and its estuary and adjacent marine environs are still considered as sensitive ecosystems. Landscape of the r.Chorokhi delta is represented by the lowland wetlands, where the traditional wetland vegetation (rush and sedge) is partially replaced by cereals, weed and grass vegetation due to anthropogenization of area. The area includes the wide Chorokhi Delta, estuary, hilly lowland on the both banks of the river, which seasonally floods with salty and fresh water, small lakes and pools, fresh streams, grassy and bushy marches, artificial fish pools (35 ha), channels. The width of the wetland area varies between 0,5 and 2 km. The Chorokhi Delta is characterized by a concentration of ancient relict species of Kolkheti flora spread in different habitats. Red Data Book species, like Hippophae rhamnoides are wide spread her. The coastline sandy vegetation grows along the coastline. The following species grow here: calystegia soldanela, Convolvulus cantabrica, Physalis ixocarpa, Physalis periviana, Solanum


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decipiens, Solanum luteum, Glaucium flavum included in the ‘Red Book’, Glycyrhiza glabra. The following species of mammals ibhabite the area: badger (meles meles), weasal (Mustela nivalis), jackal (Canis aureus), and the following species of small mammals are met here: Shelkovnikov brown-toothed water shrew (Neomys shelkownikowi), white-toothed shrew (Crocidura spp.), Radde’s shrew (Sorex raddei), Caucasian mole (Talpa caucasica). The following species of amphibians and repriles are represented here: hyla (Hyla arborea), marsh frog, (Rana ridibunda), common newt (triturus vulgaris), slow worm (Anguis fragilis), Georgian lizard (Darevskia rudis), sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), grass and dice snakes (Natrix natrix and N. tesselata), Aesculapian Snake (Elaphe longissima). Besides, a banded newt (Triturus vittatus), Turkish lizard (Darevskia clarcorum; IUCN Red List, EN Category) are also expected; Smooth snake (Coronella austruaca) of Charnali gorge is also common. The most diversified are the bird species. There are 39 species of nesting, 30 species of wintering, 50 species of migrant and up to 30 species of irregularly migratory birds dwell here. There are following species among them: black-throated diver (Gavia arctica), red-throated diver (Gavia stellata), Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena), black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), little grebe (Tachybaptus Rufficollis), mute swan (Cygnus olor), whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), gray (lag) goose (Anser anser), white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos), shoveler (Anas clypeata), European teal (Anas crecca), garganey (Anas querquedula), tufted duck (Aythya fuligula), common pochard (Aythya ferina), common heron (Ardea cinerea) purple heron (Ardea purpurea), little heron (Edretta garzetta), small and big bitterns (Ixobrichus minutus; Botaurus stellaris), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), black-winged Pratincole (Glareola nordmanni), black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus), great snipe (Gallinago media), curlew (Numenius arquata), marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). Ichthyofauna of the rivers Chorokhi, Chakvistskali and Sea coast in Adjara There are different fish species inhabiting the rivers of Chorokhi and

Chakvistskali: khramulya, mursa, barbel, sheatfish, trout, salmon, asp, chub, sneep, bullhead, sturgeon (in the Chorokhi), royal fish, etc.

The following fish species dwell in the Black Sea: horse mackerel, sturgeon, bullhead, red mullet, bluefish, whiting, pickerel, perch, Black Sea anchovy, sprat, harder, devilfish, Steller's sea cow, flatfish, glossa, flatfish, turbot, chuco, sea fox, dolphin - bottle-nosed dolphin, white-sided, sea pig, etc.


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The landfill is not furnished with any environmental protection system and therefore the leachate is directly drained into the Chorokhi River. The landfill is located in Chorokhi delta , which is valuable ecosystem.

A part of the landfill is eroding by Chorokhi River during floods and wastes have been washed directly into the Black Sea. The river bank erosion process is ongoing and the existence of landfill imposes permanent risk of Black Sea contamination.

Occasional fires and waste burning is associated with increased emission impacts and nuisance imposed by smoke.

Smoke adversely affects the safety regime of airplane flights, so far as the landfill is located not far from the Batumi airport. The birds using the landfill site as a feeding site also impose safety risks on airport operations.

The landfill is not fenced and domestic animals are breeding at the site. This is violation of sanitary rules and is associated with the health risks and proliferation of the infectious diseases.

Not regulated activities of scavengers observed at the site is associated with the health risks for them (infectious diseases, venomous reptiles, etc.).


The priority measures are 3) Preventing landfill erosion on the river bank (there is a national project in

process for solving this problem) 4) Terminating the landfilling (it will be possible when the new landfill is put

in operation) Covering the non-compliant landfill (the surface for sub-areas no longer in use can be covered immediately and an intermediate cover should be implemented even on the active surfaces). Preventing the Riverbank Erosion

Hydro-technical structures and a concrete wall were erected earlier for preventing the embankment erosion along the landfill site but they were not effective. These structures have partly been destroyed by the river flow. Thus the new countermeasures should be planned with more care involving a design organisation having enough competence and experience. Since, the earlier well functioning Coastal Engineering Institute in Batumi has lost major part of competent specialists, an international tendering or at least international supervising is strongly recommended for designing the works.


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The Consultant see that measures confined only to the erode embankment cannot give any sustainable solution for protecting the landfill from destruction but river training measures should be implemented. On the other hand, the Consultant is suggesting reprofiling the dump site. In connection with these works, the waste pile can be moved further away from the embankment and preventing the wash-away of wastes until the river training works have been completed. The landfill should be terminated and further disposal of wastes at the site should be prohibited. Rehabilitation of the river bank protection is a separate project, but a necessary element for the final closure of the landfill. It is proposed that the waste is relocated into two waste piles to reduce the area for covering and as well reduce the volume by applying proper compaction layer by layer. Those waste piles shall be re-profiled to obtain suitable slopes to facilitate the surface runoff and thus, minimise the leachate generation, see Figure 37.

Figure 37 Relocation of waste at Batumi landfill. Summary of proposed measures

Re-location of waste into one higher waste pile Cleaning the surfaces formerly filled by waste Compaction of the new waste pile layer by layer Re-profiling the waste pile to obtain efficient surface water runoff Covering with 0,5 m low permeable soil Spreading of seeds to allow a quick vegetation cover Diversion of surface water by construction of ditches around the waste pile Construction of a methane oxidising filter in the upper part of the


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waste pile By those measures there is only a minor need for supervision of the site after termination. To our understanding the available funding for this project does not allow a complete compliance with EC directives, but the proposed measures is still a valuable contribution to an improved environment and will facilitate for a possible future complete closure of the landfill as funds become available. This comment regarding the lack of funding is relevant also for the two non-compliant landfills in Kobuleti. It is worthwhile mentioning that the proposed measures were common procedure, than corresponding measures applied in many European countries prior to the introduction of the EC directive.

Covering the Landfill Surface

When the new landfill is in operation the non-compliant landfill can be finally covered. The objectives for covering are:

• To prevent the wind-blown wastes in the area • To reduce generation of leachate • To reduce landfill gas emission to the atmosphere • To reduce spreading of odour • To prevent the risk for fires • To improve the view of the landscape • To prevent unhealthy scavenging

It is proposed that procedures for covering are made at a robust and affordable level that is the same procedures that was commonly applied in Europe prior to implementation of the landfill directive. Thus, the following measures are proposed:

• Excavation and placing the waste in two piles with slopes allowing an efficient surface water run-off, but still not be sensitive for erosion. The waste pile should be compacted with a compactor to reduce the volume and future settlings.




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A proposed layout of the terminated Batumi landfill is shown in Figure 38

Figure 38 Proposed layout of Batumi landfill when terminated.

As the non-compliant landfill is rather shallow and there have been frequent fires it is difficult to predict the potential for gas extraction. However, it is possible to make a gas pumping test after covering the waste to assess the feasibility to install a gas extraction system instead of the proposed passive methane oxidising filter.

The biodegradation process will continue to produce leachate and it can not easily be collected as the landfill is located on gravel of the former beds of the Chorokhi Estuary. This soil is very permeable and it is not deemed economically sound to create a waterproof layer under the waste.


The territory should be guarded after the closure to prevent unsanctioned dumping in the area.

For monitoring two piezometer pipes should be installed. One will be installed about 10 m from the dumping site to the south west and another one on the same distance, but north-east of the waste piles. Water quality samples should be taken and analysed at least once per year.


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11.3. Kobuleti Noncompliant Landfill The part of Kobuleti territory used as a landfill and presenting two sites, belongs to the seaside valley-lowland in a geomorphological respect. One of the sites is located on the right side of the river Choloki, in the vicinity of the bank while another site being an almost flat surface is located 1 km east of Kobuleti centre (see Figure 38, Figure 39 and Figure 40). Solid household waste, construction debris and other wastes have been dumped along the road from the city of Kobuleti to the former aerodrome. The area is covered with peat with a shallow groundwater table. Total landfill site occupies 4.2 ha while the waste surface isaround 3.8 ha. The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous Tacis report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m.

Figure38 Kobuleti dump site (Situation in early 2006). The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous TACIS report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m.


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Figure 39 Kobuleti dump site (current situation),

11.2.1 Description of the Kobuleti Landfill

Solid household waste, construction debris and other wastes have been dumped along the road from the city of Kobuleti to the former aerodrome. The area is covered with peat with a shallow groundwater table. Total landfill site occupies 4.2 ha while the waste surface is around 3.8 ha.

The waste has gradually sunken into the peat and exceeds only 1-2 m above the surrounding ground level. In the previous Tacis report drillings were made and waste thickness was estimated to a maximum of 12 m while the average was estimated to 8 m

Geomorphology, Geology, Hydrogeology of the Site

The part of Kobuleti territory used as a landfill and presenting two sites, belongs to the seaside valley-lowland in a geomorphological respect. One of the sites is located on the right side of the river Choloki, in the vicinity of the bank while another site being an almost flat surface is located 1 km east of Kobuleti center (See Fig. 22 - 25), with a low-mountainous hilly-hillock relief of foothills from south, east and north. The gradient of their slopes on average varies between 20-30°, exceeding 40-65° at some sites. They have a quite dissectioned relief and flattened areas of watersheds, most of which are marine-terrace surfaces. This relief of a tectonic-erosive origination is structured with the volcanogenic rocks of the Middle Eocene, with the zone adjacent to their surfaces strongly transformed as a result chemical weathering and lateralized at the depth of


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several tens of meters. This is why the landslide creeps and taluses of minor volumes and depths are very common on their slopes.

Figure 40.

Resume: (1) In geomorphologic respect, the study regions are located within the limits of Kobuleti sea coastal lowland. (2) According to the tectonic zoning of Georgia (Gamkrelidze E., 2000), the study regions are located within the northern and central sub-zones of the zone of Ajara-Trialeti folded system. (3) The geology of the study region is mainly presented as modern (Holocene) boggy, alluvial-lacustrine and alluvial deposits. (4) According to the complexity of engineering-geological conditions, the study regions belong to the II (medium) category (Construction Regulation Standards Building Code 1.02.07-87). (5) Out of hazardous geological processes, the washout and bogging of the sea shores and river banks take place on the sites and adjacent territories. (6) The ecology of the landfill sites, as a result of the defective management system, is problematic, and proper management measures should be taken even though the landfill should be closed or exploited further. (7) According to the corrected scheme of temporary general seismic zoning under Decree No. 42 of June 7 of 1991 by the Ministry of Architecture and Building of the Republic of Georgia, the building site belongs to the grade 82 earthquake intensity zone (with the index 2 indicating the probability of two-fold recurrence in every 1000 years). Therefore, the seismicity of the region should be fixed at 8 points.

Geological hazard


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Within the lowland zone of Kolkheti Valley with the landfill sites of Kobuleti located in it, the modern tectonic movements and bogging and washout of the river Choloki and sea shores are of importance in respect of geological hazard. The modern tectonic movements are obvious by their difference with the sinking surface of the relief in the lowland zone and elevation taking place in the zone of Ajara-Guria foothill. Besides, there are live faults running between them having a direct influence on the earthquake intensity and sea bogging. This is why Kobuleti and its adjacent territory in a seismological respect belong to the point 8 earthquake intensity zone with the recurrence of twice in 1000 years. The river Choloki, with one of the landfill sites near its right bank is characterized by erosive washout of the banks whose signs are obvious if the morphology and dynamics of the bank is considered, moreover, when the erosive washout of the banks is promoted by the hydrodynamic regime expressed as frequent river flooding and extremely poor properties of the bank constituent rocks to the erosive processes. Intense bogging takes place on the landfill site of Kobuleti what is caused by the topography of the relief, fall of abundant atmospheric precipitations, water permeability of the constituent rocks and their weak drainage. The latter is also limited by the coastal bunds almost all along the coastland zone. One of the most important problems associated with the geological hazards in Kobuleti coastal lowland is the washout of the sea shores, with the infrastructure in Kobuleti and its adjacent territories facing the high risk of the mentioned geological hazards not once in the near past. The risk remains high for the future. This was why since the second half of the XX century aiming at protecting the coast of Kobuleti not one engineering management measure to protect the coast was tested. By considering the peculiarities of the washout of Kobuleti coast, the Georgian specialists have identified 9 litho-dynamic sites on Kobuleti coast. Our study region is located in the morphological-dynamic zone of the concaved site in Kobuleti, where the width of the beach varies between 35 and 60 m and where the beach is structured with shingle-gravely-stony sediments, with the percentage ratios of the materials of 18, 19 and 63%, respectively. An average indicator of the granulometric properties of the beach-forming material is 7,3 mm. This morphological-dynamic site is located in the northern-western and southern-western zones of the sea roughness. The coast of the given zone is mostly characterized by sea abrasive action where 0,3-0,6-meter-high washout steps have been developed.

Flora and Fauna The site is used as a landfill for many years. However the territory could be classified as sensitive wetland habitat – internationally protected as Ramsar site and at the same time belongs to Kubulety State Nature Reserve5. The area

5 The Government of Adjara AR fully acknowledeges that the it is unacceptable use this sensitive environmental area for waste dumping. According to Protocol N2 issued 10.03.2005 by the Governmental Commission founded with the Decree N7 of February 22, 2005, organization of the landfill at the State Reserve site violates Georgian legislation.


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belongs to sensitive zones described in p. 3.2.1 as “4FL” and “4 Fa” - ."Ispani" wetlands. The area is almost purely dominated by the communities of tall Imeretian Moor-Grass. The above community is quite diverse topologically and is frequently associated with peat mosses. Negligible areas are occupied by the groupings of Carex lasiocarpa that is topologycally consistent. The above plant community is characterized by high abundance of Rhynchospora caucasica, Rhyncospora alba, several species of peat moss, etc. On the peatbog of Kobuleti, peats moss communities are composed mainly of Sphagnum imbricatum and Sphagnum palustre. Rarely, some other species also occur here but their coenotic value is relatively low. Synusia of herbaceous plant specis is developed almost through the entire peatbog area consisting of Molinia litoralis, Rhynchospora caucasica, Carex lasiocarpa etc. Of rare components of above synusia a mention should be made of Drosera rotundifolia, Osmunda regalis, Menyanthes trifoliata, Rhynchospora alba, etc. Limited areas are populated with shrubs such as Rhododendron luteum, Rhododendron ponticum, Frangula alnus, Alnus barbata, etc. Scrub with peat mosses are developed on limited areas and on convex surfaces.

The above territories were covered with swamp forests in the past periods. Nowadays only remnants of those forest are still found here dominated by alder. Frequent associates of alder are Pterocarya pterocarpa, Carpinus caucasica (on dry places), Quercus imeretina. Common plants of understorey are Buckthorn Frangula alnus, Hawthorn Crataegus microphylla, Cranberry bush Viburnum opulus, etc. In some areas where the forest is thinned it is overgrown with natural lianas such as Smilax excelsa, Periploca graeca, Vitis sylvestris, Hedera colchica, etc. Alder forests are usually developed in areas where the ground humidification takes place, although alder is poorly growing in extremely waterlogged habitats. Synusia of harbaceous plants in such alder woods is composed of such typical components of wetlands as Molinia litoralis, Iris pseudacorus, Carex lasiocarpa, Carex riparia, Carex acutiformis, Juncus effusus etc. Limited area are occupied by alder communities with ferns, various herbaceous plants and mosses. Alder forest with Rhododendron ponticum are rarely found populating mostly drier places. Area of 7 km long and 3 km wide between Kobuleti and the railway. "Ispani" wetlands between rivers Choloki and Chakva are included into Kobuleti state and managed reserves (approximately 700 ha). Complex of animals of peat moss lowland wetlands extremely vulnerable to oil spill effects. Area of aggregation of migratory birds. Unique biotope of peat-bog.

Aggregation of birds during migration

Haliaeetus albicilla – EN Aquila chrysaetos - VU


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Accipiter brevipes - VU Buteo rufinus rufinus - VU Aquila heliaca - VU Aquila clanga - VU

Falco cherrug – CR Falco vespertinus – EN Falco biarmicus - VU Falco naumanni – CR Grus grus – EN

Background Radiation At present the sensitive ecosystem is significantly affected by the waste dumping operations.

Measurements at the Kobuleti site have been conducted at the entrance area and at the two heaps of the dumped waste that were not covered by the bog. The background radiation at the Kobuleti noncompliant landfills is within the range of 6 – 15 microrentgen per hour. The level of the background radiation, which has been measured during these preliminary studies, is acceptable for landfill sites. However, more comprehensive studies are planned to cover the area of concern in more details.


The landfill is situated at the wetland area within the Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and belongs to Ramsar site. The valuable wetland ecosystem is affected by the contamination imposed by the waste disposal.

Degradation of visual scenic aspects of the landscape should be considered as environmental impact in addition to the degradation of sensitive ecosystem and natural habitat for the waterfowls and migratory birds.


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Figure 41 Base map of Kobuleti landfill.


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The landfill site is not in use anymore because of the military airport in the neighbourhood. Initially after the termination, the wastes were transported to Batumi landfill, but because of the high petrol expenses a temporary landfill was recently opened by Municipality of Kobuleti. The landfill is situated within the Kobuleti State Nature Reserve and belongs to Ramsar site. According to Georgian regulations the landfill should not be located within the protected area. According to sanitary norms for the solid waste landfills, the landfill should not have been constructed in a wetland area. The geological and hydrogeological requirements for landfills are not met. Permeability of soils and groundwater conditions do not provide required level of groundwater protection. The landfill is not designed in accordance with the European design standards: no special protection lining, no leachate collection and treatment and no gas collection and treatment facilities are installed. The landfill is not fenced. The area is unfenced and grazing animals can be found here, but there is no scavenging as the landfill has been closed and no waste is being disposed here any more. Currently the municipal solid waste of Kobuleti region is temporarily disposed on a new dumping site (Figure 42). This dumping site is also noncompliant: no special protective design and management arrangements are introduced. The dumping site is not as sensitive as the closed landfill site. However, the landscape degradation should be considered as impact. The site does not provide enough capacity for construction of large landfill and its location is not feasible from the transportation standpoint.

The following closure measures for Kobuleti are proposed:




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Figure42 New Dumping Site in Kobuleti.

Termination of Kobuleti Non-compliant Landfills The old landfill, as well as the temporary dumping site should be terminated and further disposal of wastes at the site should beprohibited after the new landfill is in operation. The same measures as proposed for Batumi are also relevant for the two landfills in Kobuleti. However, it is proposed that the smaller waste areas along the road shall be excavated and transported to the old landfill in order to reduce the risk for continued pollution and as well provide a visual improvement of the ground, see Figure43. Existing groundwater pollution at each of those smaller sites is not deemed possible to rehabilitate at a reasonable cost. It is proposed to apply a robust procedure by excavating the waste down to a depth of 2 m and afterwards back-fill with soil. Any additional excavation below the groundwater table in the peat layer will be very costly and the environmental benefit rather uncertain. A proposed layout of Kobuleti landfill when terminated is presented inFigure 7.12.


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Figure 43 Relocation of waste at Kobuleti landfill.


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Figure 44 Proposed layout of Kobuleti landfill when terminated.


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The territory should be overseen to prevent from unsanctioned dumping.

For monitoring two piezometer pipes should be installed. One will be installed ca 10 m from dumping site to the west and another one at the same distance towards east. Water quality samples should be taken and analysed at least once per year.


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12. Compliance with the EC Directive on Landfills

In the table below the main EC demands on landfills (1999/31/EC) are listed, together with comments concerning their compliance at the planned landfill at Chakvi. The Directive addresses the member states and they shall bring into force laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive. In the national legislation and regulations some of the Directive regulations may/shall be specified in a more detailed manner.

Demands, according to the EC Landfill Directive (Article)

Planned conditions at Chakvi landfill

Comments regarding compliance

Classes of Landfill ♦ Hazardous waste ♦ Non hazardous waste ♦ Inert waste (article 4)

Non Hazardous waste Class 2 (non hazardous waste) demands apply to the landfills

Reduction of the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfills (75%, 50% and 35% of 1995 amounts within 5, 8 and 15 years after incorporating the directive into national legislation) (Article 5)

Biodegradable waste can in the future be source separated and treated by composting at the site.

Introduction of source separation and composting would be a major contribution for fulfilling the targets

Waste that may not be landfilled: Liquid waste, Explosive, corrosive, oxidising,

flammable waste, Infectious hospital waste, Whole, used tyres, Any other type of waste which

does not fulfil the acceptance criteria in annex II

(Article 5)

None of these waste categories are to be accepted at the landfill

Through adjusting the waste acceptance procedures the landfill can comply with the demand.

Only waste that has been subject to treatment may be landfilled

(Article 6)

Sorting and treatment facilities can be located at the site for incoming, míxed waste.

Establishing of a new facility is necessary for compliance


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A landfill for non-hazardous waste may be used for:

♦ Municipal waste

♦ Non-hazardous waste of other origin, which fulfil the acceptance criteria,

♦ Stable, non reactive hazardous waste with leaching behaviour equivalent to non-hazardous waste

(Article 6)

In accordance with planned performance of the new plant

The landfill will comply with the regulation

The landfill must have a permit issued by the competent authority, assuring that: ♦ Management is in the hand of a

natural person who is technically competent,

♦ Necessary measures are taken to prevent accidents,

♦ Financial security is kept for maintenance and aftercare measures

♦ The project is in line with the relevant waste management plan

(Article 8)

The competent authorities have approved the plans for the landfill.

Permit according to Georgian law can be granted after completion of the EIA process.

A permit for the new landfill will take into account the conditions mentioned in Article 8.

Cost of the landfill of waste should cover costs of closure and aftercare for a period of at least 30 years

(Article 10)

Calculations of new tipping fees will include provisions for aftercare measures

The new landfill will comply with this demand.

The following reception procedures must be respected: ♦ Waste documentation must be

provided, ♦ Visual inspection of the waste at

the entrance to verify conformity with documentation,

♦ Registration of quantities and characteristics of the waste deposited, indicating origin, date of delivery, producer or collector (municipal waste),

♦ A written acknowledgement of receipt of each delivery accepted on the site,

(Article 11)

Waste reception procedures will be established in the operational manuals for the landfill, in due time before opening the landfill

The demands will be complied with.


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A control and monitoring programme shall be carried out,

Any significant, adverse environmental effect revealed shall be notified to the competent authority, together with a proposal for corrective measures,

Monitoring results shall be reported to the competent authority at least once a year,

Analysis shall be carried out by competent laboratories

(Article 12 and annex 3)

A monitoring programme will be set up as a part of the Operational Manual of the landfill

Monitoring demands according to the Directive is foreseen in the project proposal.

For existing landfills a conditioning plan shall be presented to the competent authority within one year after the Directive has come into force through national legislation

(Article 14)

Not applicable (new landfill) -

Location of a landfill must take into consideration requirements relating to;

♦ Distance to residential or recreation areas, waterways, agricultural or urban sites.

♦ Groundwater, coastal water and nature protection zones,

♦ Geological and hydrogeological conditions,

♦ Risk of flooding, landslides etc,

♦ Protection of nature or cultural patrimony in the area,

(Annex 1, p1)

The localisation factors have been considered during the site selection process. Nearest residential area is located at 500 m distance.

Extensive investigations have been carried out concerning geology, groundwater, stability, and risk of landslides and impact on the nature.

.

No conflict with natural reserves or cultural heritage.

At the new landfill the requirements have been considered and proved possible to comply with.

Water control and leachate management:

♦ Prevent surface and groundwater from entering the landfilled waste,

♦ Collect contaminated water and leachate and treat it to appropriate standard required for their discharge.

(Annex 1, p2)

Surface water will be diverted from the landfill area.

Groundwater and leachate will be separated through a bottom sealing combined with drainage layers below and above the liner.

Local treatment of leachate is planned.

Planned leachate treatment will be appropriate according to national standards.


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Protection of soil and water:

♦ The landfill base and sides shall consist of a mineral layer which satisfies the following permeability and thickness requirements for landfills for non hazardous waste:

♦ k<1.0 x 10-9 m/s and thickness > 1 meter

(or equivalent protection through an artificially established geological barrier, not less than 0.5 meter).

(Annex 1, p3)

The “natural” base consists of clayey soils, with a low permeability that however, do not comply with the requirements

An artificial barrier consisting of a synthetic liner is proposed as bottom sealing of the landfill.

The proposed bottom sealing at Chakvi is designed to meet the requirements.

Leachate collection at the landfill bottom, including an artificial liner anda drainage layer > 0.5 m thick.

(Annex 1, p3)

Above the barrier polyethylene liner, 0.1 m sand and 0.5 m drainage layer is proposed.

Proposed design at Chakvi complies with the requirement.

Surface sealing as prescribed by the competent authority.

(Article 13)

A surface sealing consisting of a gas drainage layer, an “impermeable” mineral layer (< 50 l/m2, year), a drainage layer and a top soil cover is proposed.

The proposed sealing complies with the EC recommendations

Landfill gas shall be collected (and used or flared) from all landfills receiving biodegradable waste.

(Annex 1, p4)

Collection of landfill gas is included in the detailed plan for the landfill.

Chakvi will comply with the regulations.

Measures to minimise nuisances and hazards from:

♦ emissions of odours and dust,

♦ wind-blown materials,

♦ noise and traffic

♦ birds, vermin and insects,

♦ formation of aerosols,

♦ fires

(Annex 1, p5)

Will be considered in the Operational Manual for the new site. Localisation and layout of the site aims at a minimisation of nuisances.

Can be complied with at Chakvi.


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Stability of deposited waste must be secured.

(Annex 1, p6)

Incoming waste will be controlled and compactors will be used to stabilise deposited waste. According to depositing plan inclination will be max 1:3.

The requirement can be complied with.

The landfill shall be secured to prevent free access to the site.

(Annex 1, p7)

The whole area is planned to be surrounded by a protective fence and guarded 24 hours.

Proposed fencing can prevent “free access”, in compliance with requirements. However access is almost impossible to prevent completely

Monitoring and control:

♦ leachate control (monthly),

♦ surface water (quarterly)

♦ groundwater (every six month)

Topography of the landfill (including settling behaviour) shall be measured yearly.

(Annex III)

Routines for water monitoring and topographical measuring of the landfill will be included in the operational manual.

Can be complied with after proposal of proper routines in the operational manuals.

Planning and design of the new landfill have been taking the demands in the EC Directive on landfilling into account both during the preparation of the feasibility study and for the detailed design in the next phase to come. It is therefore considered that the activities at the landfill can comply with the Directive regulations. Details in acceptance procedures of incoming waste, monitoring of leachate, ground- and surface water, landfill gas etc will be considered in the operation manual.


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13. Environmental Monitoring

13.1. Environmental Monitoring Programme An environmental monitoring programme shall be established during the design phase and necessary infrastructure, e.g. monitoring wells for groundwater, shall be part of the construction works. The programme shall follow the stipulated criteria in the EC directive. Some general descriptions of minimum requirements are made below.

A programme shall include information on what type of monitoring shall take place, the frequency for sampling and the locations of sampling points.

The procedures for taking samples (random samples or integrated samples) and routines to follow to obtain representative samples (e.g. sampling order, washing of samplers, transports to laboratory etc.)

13.1.2. Incoming Waste Control

All incoming waste and other materials as well as outgoing recycled material shall be registered.

13.1.3. Leachate

The quantity of leachate shall be recorded as well as the quality of the leachate before and after treatment.

13.1.4. Surface and Groundwater Monitoring

The programme shall include monitoring of both surface and groundwater. Minimum two wells for groundwater shall be installed, one to serve as a reference for non-polluted groundwater and one downstream of the landfill.

As there is no surface water flowing into the site it is deemed that one surface water collection point downstream the site is sufficient.

13.1.5. Landfill Gas Control

Relevant data for the operation of the gas extraction system shall be recorded on a daily basis. Such information is e.g. amount of gas generated and the composition of the gas, especially the methane content. In case any irregularities occur the reason shall be identified and corrected. It is e.g. important to assure


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that the sub-pressure in the landfill is maintained to minimise the risks for gas leaking to the atmosphere.

13.1.6. Environmental Reporting

The results of the monitoring activities shall be reported annually. It is proposed the report is submitted by March each year to allow some time for compilation of all information.

The report shall be submitted to the relevant Adjara authority.

13.2. Construction Supervision The construction works shall be supervised according to local regulations. However, it is necessary to add international experience for some special features of the project, mainly the construction of the bottom lining, leachate collection and treatment system and at a later stage also the installation and trimming of the gas extraction system.


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14. Public Consultation

14.1. European and Georgian Regulations on Public Consultation

14.1.1 Georgian Regulations on Public Consultation

The article 6 of the law of Georgia on Environmental Impact Permit (2008) describes the procedure of public consultation/review in the process of EIA and defines a timeline for public review and consulting, see below:

1. The project executor has to conduct public review on the impact on environment before submittal of the project to the governmental agency responsible for granting permission (in case if activities to be performed require constructional permission, public review must be conducted before starting the second step of the permission obtaining procedures).

2. The project executor has to publish the information on the planned activity after the conducting of public review. The information will be published by the administrative territorial office (if any) of the region, where the activity is planned.

3. The announcement must contain the following information:

a) goal, title and location of the planned activity;

b) location of the agency where the interested parties will be able to familiarize themselves with the documents associated with the activity (including reports on environmental impact);

c) the deadline for submittal of considerations;

d) place and time for public review.

4. The executor will:

a) provide EIA hard copy and electronic version to the administrative agency, that issues permission in a week after publication;

b) accept and consider written notes and considerations provided by citizens in 45 days after the date of evaluation publication;

c) conduct public review of the planned activity no later than in 60 days after the publication of the announcement;

d) invite corresponding local administration and governmental agencies representatives; the Ministry of the Environmental Protection and the


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Ministry of Economical Development and other responsible administrative agencies to the public review;

5. Reviews will be conducted publicly and any citizen will be able to attend it.

6. Public review will be conducted at the region administrative centre, where the activity is planned.

According to the article 7 of the law, during 5 days after conducting the public disclosure meeting, the minutes of the meeting should be prepared to reflect all the questions and comments raised and explanations, provided by the project proponents in response.

Appropriate corrections should be incorporated into the main text of the EIA, if required. If the comments and proposals of stakeholders are not accepted a letter of explanation should be sent to the authors. The minutes of the meeting, as well as response letters, explanations and corrections should be submitted to the MoE or the administrative body responsible for issuing the Permit as supplementary materials to the EIA. The mentioned documents should be considered as an essential part of the EIA.

14.1.2. European Regulations on Public Consultation

European regulations regarding public consultation includes:

Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information,

The Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control,

The Aarhus convention, adopted on 25 June 1998 at Aarhus, Denmark, "Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters". Adopted by Georgia in April 2000.

14.1.3. EBRD’s Public Information Requirements

On all projects, EBRD is committed to provide information, within the requirements of the Public Information Policy and the Environmental and Social Policy. In particular, for significant “green field” projects and projects involving a major expansion or transformation-conversion, the Bank is committed to meaningful consultation.

The current project includes “green-field” investments (construction of a new sanitary landfill), which means that according to Georgian law and EBRD Policies an environmental impact assessment has to be carried out and discussed and


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amended on public consultations. According to EBRD rules a 120 days public consultation period is required.

The procedure for how the notification is undertaken depends on local political, legal and cultural practices. The project owner needs to provide the potentially affected public and interested non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with information about the nature of the project for which financing is sought from the EBRD.

14.2. Public Consultations and Disclosure Plan for the Project

For the moment following activities have been implemented related with the public consultation process:

• On 22/23. 09.2008 - The first round of public hearings related with the scoping document in Batumi and Kobuleti were organized. The aim of the public hearings was the presentation of the project ‘Adjara Waste Management Project. Scoping Document’ and ‘Public Consultation and Disclosure Plan (PCDP)’ at the early stage of the project development and receiving comments. The meetings were attended by the local population, NGOs and representatives of the local authority (in all 50 people);

• On 14.09.2008 – Door to door meetings were organized with the local population living in the vicinity of the Chakvi new landfill. They have received brief information about the project and upcoming public hearings;

• On 22/23.01.2009 –public hearings of the first draft of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Batumi, Kobuleti and Chakvi were organized. The aim of the public hearings was the presentation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and ‘Public Consultation and Disclosure Plan (PCDP)’ at the early stage of the project development and receiving comments. The meetings were attended by the local population, NGOs and representatives of the local authority (in all 85 people);

• On 23-24.11.2008 - Before the Public Consultations of the first draft of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) PR and Communications expert (SWECO International) and environmental experts of the Project team


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conducted door-to-door meetings with Chakvi local population. In particular, they have met with 5-6 households living in 100-150 m. radius of Chakvi new landfill site and with the representatives of the villages – “Chais Ubani” and “Micro-rayon 7”. During the meetings they have received hard copies of Executive Summaries of EIA and get information about the time and place of upcoming EIA Public Hearings;

• Consultations with local population have been continued after the PH Meetings of the first draft of EIA. On 13th of March, 2009 door-to-door meetings have been conducted with Chakvi local populations. They have received informational buklets consisting of information about the project goals and objectives as well as their rights and interests. Mentioned social requirements first of all refers to the issues of “Involentary Ressetlement” and also to other negative social impact related with the project implementation.


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15. Conclusions

The new site will be provided with environmental mitigation measures compliant to the EC directive for landfills to minimise potential negative impact on the environment.

In order to put the impact from the new site into its proper context, a description of the no-project alternative is provided below. The no-project scenario means that the project will not be implemented and the negative impact from the existing non-compliant landfills will continue.

Below a description of the environmental improvements foreseen for the Batumi and Kobuleti non-compliant landfills at local, regional and global levels are provided as well as certain social aspects.

Locally the closing down of Batumi and Kobuleti non-compliant landfills will contribute to a substantial improvement of the neighbourhood. Covering the landfills will reduce leachate production, littering, odour and other emissions to the air. Stop of incoming vehicles for delivery of waste will diminish the risks of traffic accidents.

Regionally especially closing of Batumi landfill will have a positive impact on lowering the discharge of leachate to the Chorokhi River and stop the ongoing erosion of the landfill along the river.

Globally closing of the landfills and diverting the waste to a sanitary landfill, equipped with efficient means for collecting and use of the landfill gas produced during anaerobic degradation of the organic waste, will reduce the emissions of methane. Thus closing of the landfills is one measure to reduce the adverse climate impact from waste management.

Social effects of closing the landfills include a better neighbourhood environment. Today the open non-compliant landfills represent a constant risk to children and others that may enter the sites. Covering the waste will reduce both safety risks and health hazards.

By terminating the activities at the non-compliant landfills the risk for accidents at unloading due to the occurrence of people scavenging from the waste will be avoided.

Nevertheless waste dumps also are a place for informal recovery of material and recycling activities. A number of informal recyclers are today dependent on


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sorting out recyclables from the waste being dumped at the sites. By closing and covering the sites these recyclers will not be able to continue. The Project will include measures aiming at formalising the waste recycling activities in a way that can include also people depending on the landfills as a source of their livelihood.

Thus, by implementation of the project, including termination of the existing non-compliant landfills and replacing those with a landfill compliant with the EC directive there will be a significant improvement of the environmental impact at all levels.