Die neue EG‐Wasserrahmenrichtlinie: Bewertung der chemischen und ökologischen Qualität von Oberflächengewässern

The New EC Framework Water Directive: Assessment of the Chemical and Ecological Status of Surface Waters The main objective of the draft EC Framework Water Directive is the good quality of all surface waters. The directive provides for an assessment of the chemical status of surface waters (EU‐wide valid environmental quality standards for approximately 30 priority substances) and a five‐stage ecological classification of waters, comprising the stages high, good, moderate, poor, and bad. The starting point for the assessment are the reference conditions, which are defined as corresponding to high water quality and characterising a water status with no significant anthropogenic impact. The reference sites in the various water body types are to be selected using hydromorphological and physico‐chemical parameters and subsequently characterised by means of biological parameters. For surface waters, three groups of characteristics are provided for, namely: 1. with priority the biology – in the case of surface waters – with the four elements phytoplankton, macrophytes/phytobenthos, benthic invertebrate fauna, and fish fauna; 2. supporting the hydromorphology, e.g. flowing waters with the three elements hydrological regime, river continuity, and morphological conditions and 3. supporting the physico‐chemical conditions with the three elements general conditions, specific synthetic pollutants, and specific non synthetic pollutants (other than the priority substances of the chemical status).     

Pestizide in Oberflächenwässern — Befunde in Talsperren und in Uferfiltraten Pesticides in Surface Water — Analytical Results for Drinking Water Reservoirs and Bank Filtrate Waters

The results of a series of investigations are presented, performed by the governmental chemical laboratory Karlsruhe (CLUA) in order to determine pesticides in drinking water for purposes of food monitoring. 231 samples of 8 municipal water supplies (groundwater wells/no bank filtrate) and 34 private water supplies close to the bank of the river Rhine (groundwater wells/partly bank filtrate) were analysed. The sampling sites were located between Mannheim and Greffern, Germany. In 1986 high amounts of atrazine and simazine were determined in the drinking water wells of several private water supplies, especially at the sampling sites in the south. The likewise high chloride content of the samples was taken as a proof of bank filtrate contributing to the water. The decrease of atrazine load in the river water of the Rhine since 1987 has its parallel in the analytical results for the concerned drinking water wells. Obviously the pesticide contamination of water from bank filtrate pumping wells is mainly depending on the pesticide load of the river water. The application of fertilizers and pesticides in the fields seems not to be a significant source of the pesticide contamination of dringing waters derived from bank filtrate water. For reasons of public health a monitoring of pesticide content in bank filtrate pumping wells of private water supplies is recommended.