In general, hot spots are sites or areas of high pollution emission or discharges, which have a serious impact on environment, health or economy. A map of all hot spots can be looked at on the internet at . Estonia scores ten environmental hot spots today. But in fact, seven are expected to be wiped off the list in the near future, five of them maybe even this year. The figures express the positive impact of major investments in wastewater treatment plants and mirror the great effort Estonia has put into protecting the Baltic Sea environment.
International concern centres on three remaining hot spots in the North Eastern part of Estonia.
The troublesome three are the pulp and paper industry in Kehra, the wastewater treatment plant of Kohtla J rve and the Narva power plant. The Narva power plant, for example, is one of the largest oil shale fired thermal power stations in the world. Today, the plant needs to be modernised completely. About 30 million EURO would be needed from international donors to put the three hot spots on even keel. Most of it would have to go into wastewater treatment, according to figures presented in Tallinn today.