Understanding how sewage is managed in Khabarovsk is an important component of the Clean Water Initiative. A series of large
pump stations along the Amur River bank collect sewage and transfer it along the river's edge to a point north of the city then
inland (at higher elevation). Khabarovsk's one sewage treatment plant has only about half the capacity needed to treat the city's
wastewater so the remainder is diverted to an old creek bed just prior to the STP. Treated and untreated sewage is discharged
to the Amur River at a point upstream of the city's northern drinking water intake (supplying about 20% of the system drinking
water.) Treated wastewater is disenfected with high concentrations of chlorine in a mile-long discharge pipe affording adequate
disinfection but potentially exacerbating organo-chlorine contamination in the lower river. Leakage from sewer pipes within
the city contaminates groundwater and creates potential health risks. To the right, the Portland engineering delegation inspects
the Khabarovsk STP.
Massive pump stations move sewage away from the City of Khabarovsk. The pumps pictured here are about 10 feet in diameter and
situated at the base of a large underground collection reservoir. Because of the topography of the city (three high hills radiate
out from the Amur River) several of these massive pump stations are in operation. If pumps fail, sewage may be discharged directly
into the river near large population centers.
The Vodokanal engineering and finance delegation toured the Portland sewage treatment plant. The basic sewage treatment technology
(solids separation and biological treatment followed by chlorine disinfection in a long discharge pipe) is the same in Khabarovsk
and Portland, but the level of control and automatization is higher in the Portland system. Natalya Kiselova (pictured standing
left), who supervises the operational and monitoring laboratory for the Khabarovsk sewage treatment plant, and Elena Arkhipova (pictured
next to Kiselova), who is the chief technological officer for Khabarovsk Vodokanal, were primarily interested in the control technology
in use at the Portland STP.
Here Natalya Kiselova and Elena Arkhipova confer with operators in the Portland STP control room. Arkhipova referred in
part to this control room when she was subsequently interviewed in Khabarovsk for an article about the Oregon - Khabarovsk partnership,
stating "The methods of water treatment are similar to ours. The only difference is that Khabarovsk Vodokanal doesn't have yet
a full system of automatization like in Oregon. But we intend to develop our facilities and introduce the full automatization."
