Oil shale waste

The history of oil shale and the energy industry in Estonia is a long one, and therefore there are several oil shale waste (both ash and semi-coke) landfills. Oil shale waste-related projects are financed from two measures of the Cohesion Fund and in both cases the beneficiaries are pre-determined in the investment plan approved by the Government.

In the course of the accession negotiations between the Estonian state and the European Commission, Estonia promised to stop depositing industrial waste in landfills in Ida-Viru County by 2009 and redevelop the landfills by 2013 at the latest. The landfills to be closed do not conform to the European Union requirements and pose a threat to the environment. A large part of the environmental damage has beside the substances released from "fresh" semi-coke been also caused by the landfill of other waste (including tar) and the pollution of water with oil and phenols.

The depositing of oil shale industry waste in industrial waste landfills started in 1938 at Kohtla-Järve and later at Kiviõli in mid-1970s. The majority of the waste deposited in the landfills popularly called "ash hills" is made up of semi-coke, with smaller amounts of other oil shale processing waste. The amount of waste at Kiviõli is about 15 million tonnes, of which semi-coke forms 13 million tonnes. According to data from 2001, the Kohtla-Järve landfill contained 73 million tonnes of semi-coke, 10 million tonnes of oil shale ash and 100,000 tonnes of tar waste.

Under a financing decision made in 2009, the total of 850 million Kroons is allocated from the Cohesion Fund for the closure of the Kohtla-Järve and Kiviõli semi-coke landfills and the Ministry of the Environment is the beneficiary determined in the investment plan.

Closure of oil shale energy industry waste depositories (ash fields) and renewal of ash removal system.
Here the support is aimed at the closure and redevelopment of oil shale energy industry landfills that do not conform to the requirements and renewal of the ash removal system. AS Eesti Energia's subsidiaries Narva Elektrijaamad AS and Kohtla-Järve Soojus AS are the beneficiaries under the investment plan. The planned works include the renewal of the ash removal system of the Narva Power Plants and the redevelopment of the non-conforming Ahtme ash field. The financing decision has not been made yet, but preparatory work for awarding the grant is ongoing.