D10: Impact of Contaminants - Hydromod

Integrated Water Resource Management for Important Deep European Lakes and their Catchment Areas
EUROLAKES
D10: Impact of Contaminants
FP5_Contract No.: EVK1-CT1999-00004
Version: 4.0
Date: 25/07/01
File: D10-vers.4.0.doc
Page 90 of 136
11 ELIMINATION OF CONTAMINANTS
The new water policy re-organises Community water legislation to prevent further deterioration
and to protect and enhance water quality and quantity of aquatic ecosystems
and groundwater. This proposal establishes a Community Framework with a common
approach, objectives, basic measures and common definitions. This water policy focuses
on water as it flows naturally through river basins and lakes towards the sea,
taking into account natural interaction of surface water and groundwater in quantity and
quality covering the whole of a river basin district including estuaries, other transitional
waters and coastal waters. A combined approach to pollution control is required with
control at source combined with the setting of environmental quality standards to ensure
good status of waters by 2010. Programmes of measures must take into account
all sources of impact on the aquatic ecosystems including impact from agriculture, energy
production, transport, and spatial planning. Systematic monitoring of achievements
is required. Moreover, the proposal introduces a requirement for water pricing policies
that act as an incentive for the rational use of water as a step towards the full recovery
of costs for water services, including financial, environmental and resource costs. The
proposed Directive furthermore implements international obligations under the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Transboundary Water
Courses and International Lakes of 1992 and the UN Convention on the nonnavigational
use of waters of 1996.
The occurrence of natural and anthropogenic endocrine disrupters in the environment
can cause disturbances in the hormonal system of aquatic organisms. Sewage treatment
plant runoffs are a major source of EDC's released into the environment since
they are only incompletely eliminated in sewage treatment plants. Natural estrogens in
the effluent can still reach levels which exert estrogenic effects on wildlife. Therefore
the survey into the elimination of endocrine disrupters in sewage treatment plants is
necessary [SCHWIER et al. 2001].
The research results of several investigations have shown that small amounts of natural
and synthetic steroids (in the ng/l range) are found in the runoffs of sewage treatment
plants. However these concentrations are seldom detected in portable water supplies or
in river water. Xenoestrogens have been detected at higher concentrations (in the µg/ml
range) not only in sewage treatment plant runoff, but also in surface water receiving
wastewater runoff [HELMREICH 2001].
The estrogenic nonylphenol is a degradation product of frequently occurring tensides
and accumulates in large quantities in the sewage sludge due to its hydrophobic behaviour.
Therefore, for an input/output balance of hormonally active substances in sewage
treatment plants the process of sludge treatment has to be included [SCHWIER et
al. 2001].