The project EMPEREST is working towards a toxic-free Baltic Sea as it focuses on the reduction of PFAS and other organic micropollutants from the water cycle. The approach is holistic: the project covers monitoring, prevention and removal of these hazardous substances, as well as awareness raising.
Description
The EMPEREST project, funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021–2027, supports local authorities, public service providers and policy-making community by strengthening the sustainable water management cycle. The project focuses on PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) discharge management, which is one of the most pressing environmental challenges in the Baltic Sea Region. Extensive research has established that PFAS pose significant risks to both human health and the environment. Moreover, their persistence makes cleanup efforts both technically challenging and financially burdensome. In addition, the update of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) pushes for higher standards in waste water treatment.
The consortium consists of 14 partner organisations and 8 associated organisations in the Baltic Sea Region. The project has organised many events, including four international workshops, and will organise a final conference in Berlin in November 2025. If you are interested in EMPEREST results or upcoming events, please visit the project website. You can also subscribe to the newsletter and follow our LinkedIn account to receive all latest updates about the project!
Welcome to the final event of the EMPEREST project – the high-level international conference "The Future of Water in the Changing World" on 19-20 November 2025 in Berlin, Germany.
Activities
The EMPEREST project has four activity strands to fulfill its aims. First, with the regional-level activities led by the project partner HELCOM, the project developed methodological recommendations to monitor PFAS group in the aquatic environment.
The Methodological recommendations for the monitoring and assessment of PFAS in the aquatic environment have been published! Discover the PFAS situation in the Baltic Sea Region in this publication.
On the local level, the project develops a PFAS risk assessment framework to identify and assess PFAS-related risks and propose relevant risk mitigation strategies. The PFAS risk-assessment tool is currently tested with various municipalities and will be published mid-2025.
A large part of the project looks into the wastewater treatment as a point source of organic micropollutants to the environment. EMPEREST aims to support water utilities to make informed decisions about effective treatment strategies and investment roadmaps for removing PFAS from wastewater streams. The project pilots advanced treatment technologies with mobile pilot containers to collect a comprehensive picture from the region and evaluate its effectiveness and economic viability to remove micropollutants. The thorough piloting at 7 wastewater treatment plants will demonstrate the efficient trains of technologies to other water utilities in the region. You can follow 2 mobile pilot containers on the project pages: 1) Gdańsk – Szczecin – Kaunas – Riga 2) Tartu – Tallinn – Turku.
To support all these activities, capacity development for local authorities and public service providers is arranged in EMPEREST to inform about the recent developments in the field and train with tailored materials and tools. The training programme will improve professional skills of wastewater management experts to be better prepared to the upcoming regulatory changes regarding micropollutants in effluents, thus strengthening the overall water sector resilience to emerging risks.
UBC Sustainable Cities Commission is leading the EMPEREST project, cooperating with expert partners on all project activities.
Results
- Methodological recommendations for the monitoring and assessment of PFAS in the aquatic environment, published in March 2025
- PFAS risk-assessment tool, published in June 2025
- EMPEREST open access training package on the Water Hub, published in June 2025
Key messages
During the course of the project, we have identified three main areas of key messages. The first is related to the status of PFAS pollution in water: PFAS are everywhere. Our publication Methodological recommendations for the monitoring and assessment of PFAS in the aquatic environment shows that PFAS contamination is widespread in the Baltic Sea and its catchment area, with especially high levels found in biota. More specifically, the data shows that concentrations of already banned PFAS compounds are decreasing in water, suggesting that PFAS restrictions work for reducing pollution. We recommend that EMPEREST monitoring and assessment guidelines should be considered when updating PFAS monitoring systems, for better and harmonised results in the region.
The EMPEREST project offers a solution also for the identification of pollution hotspots and mitigation of the risks. Our PFAS risk-assessment tool offers local authorities and water utilities a starting point for assessing PFAS risks at municipal level and for reducing emissions. It has been shown during the EMPEREST project that establishing dialogue between authorities, industries and water utilities at local level is important in this work.
The second key message of the EMPEREST project is related to capacity building. During the project, we have seen that awareness about PFAS varies across the Baltic Sea Region. Understanding the PFAS problem is challenging due to the large number of substances, how widespread and persistent they are, consequences on health being non-immediate, etc. To fill in knowledge gaps regarding PFAS, EMPEREST open access training package provides material about properties, occurrence, health issues, monitoring, risk assessment and technologies for their elimination from wastewater. Water utilities, cities, national and regional authorities as well as national water associations will use the materials in their trainings.
Our third message is related to wastewater treatment. On the basis of our extensive pilot study, we can say that wastewater treatment plants can successfully remove organic micropollutants from the water cycle. EMPEREST report, to be published in autumn 2025, will offer operators and authorities information concerning cost-effective removal technologies needed in the implementation of the updated Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. The factors that affect the choice of micropollutant removal technology vary between different plants. We have seen that the mobile pilot plant concept can help gather treatment-plant specific information for the investment decision. The quaternary treatment technologies piloted in the EMPEREST project are all feasible for removing the micropollutants currently listed in the revised UWWTD.
Funding
The project EMPEREST co-financed by Interreg Baltic Sea Region helps to drive the transition to a green and resilient Baltic Sea region.
Partnership
- Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission c/o City of Turku (FI)
- Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission – Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) (FI)
- University of Tartu (EE)
- Berlin University of Technology (DE)
- Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) (FI)
- Gdańsk Water Utilities (PL)
- Water and Sewage Company Ltd of Szczecin (PL)
- Tartu Waterworks Ltd (EE)
- Tallinn Water Ltd (EE)
- “Kaunas water” Ltd (LT)
- Turku Region Wastewater Treatment Plant (FI)
- DWA German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste DWA Regional group North-East (DE)
- Environmental Centre for Administration and Technology (LT)
- City of Riga (LV)
Associated organisations:
- City of Malmö
- "Riga Water" Ltd.
- Panevėžys Water Ltd.
- Jonava district municipality
- Taurage district municipality
- Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
- Finnish Water Utilities Association
Project information
The EMPEREST project supports local authorities, service providers and policy-making community by strengthening the sustainable water management cycle. The holistic approach to the elimination of PFAS and other persistent organic pollutants incorporates regional strategies for monitoring and assessment, technological advances in wastewater treatment, risk management assessment for cities, and training materials for water experts.