Branislav Vrana. Monitoring of persistent organic compounds in European surface waters: current situation and perspectives

Transcription

1 Branislav Vrana Monitoring of persistent organic compounds in European surface waters: current situation and perspectives

2 EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) - Directive 2000/60/EC management structure for future European water policy, with the following main objectives: expanding the scope of water protection to all waters, surface waters and groundwater; achieving "good status" for all waters by a certain deadline; water management based on river basins; "combined approach" of emission limit values and quality standards; getting the prices right: charges for water and waste water reflecting the true costs; getting the citizen involved more closely; streamlining legislation.

3 EU Water Framework Directive Status of water is the overall expression of status of a surface water body, which is given by ist ecological status and chemical status, depending which of them is worse. Good status is the status of a water body, when both chemical and ecological status is good Chemical status refers to priority substances or priority hazardous substances for which environmental quality standards (EQS) are proposed

4 Strategy for dealing with pollution of water from chemicals Article 16 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) List of 33 priority substances, revision every 4 years: organic substances pesticides polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) benzene halogenated solvents brominated flame retardants plasticisers surfactants antifouling agents heavy metals (Cd, Hg, Ni, Pb) 8 other pollutants that pose a particular risk to animal and plant life in the aquatic environment and to human health chlorinated pesticides river basin specific pollutants substances that can have a harmful effect on biological quality, and which may be identified by Member States as being discharged to surface waters in significant quantities assessment of ecological status priority pollutants - progressive reduction priority hazardous substances (persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic) - cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses

5 Identification of substances of priority concern a simplified risk-based assessment procedure evidence regarding the intrinsic hazard of the substance concerned, and in particular its aquatic ecotoxicity and human toxicity via aquatic exposure routes evidence from monitoring of widespread environmental contamination, other proven factors, which may indicate the possibility of widespread environmental contamination, such as production or use volume and use patterns.

6 POPs in the WFD priority pollutant list Cyclodiene pesticides Aldrin Dieldrin Endrin Isodrin Hexachlorobenzene DDT and its isomers Endosulfan Hexachlorocyclohexane (all isomers) Pentachlorobenzene Pentabromodiphenylether (6 congeners) Priority substance list will be updated in 2011, proposed list includes POPs: PCBs, PCDD/PCDF, Heptachlor/Heptachlor epoxide, PFOS, PBDE (including octa)

7 Limits on concentrations in surface waters Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards (EQS) on Community level Compliance checking provisions have been established for inland surface waters (rivers and lakes) other surface waters (transitional, coastal and territorial waters)

8 Limits on concentrations in surface waters -EQS Two types of EQS Annual average concentrations (AA-EQS) for protection against long-term and chronic effects Maximum allowable concentrations (MAC EQS) to avoid serious irreversible consequences for eco-systems due to acute exposure in the shortterm EQS values have been so far limited for the majority of substances to surface water only (for organic compounds based on total concentration) EQS based on concentration in biota only for Hg, HCB and hexachlorobutadiene Member states may derive country specific EQS for sediment and biota and use them instead of the EQS for water

9 Monitoring of long term trends Monitoring in sediments and biota: Compounds with bioaccumulation potential Assessment of long-term impacts of anthropogenic activity and temporal trends Member States should ensure that existing levels of contamination in biota and sediments will not increase POPs are relevant compounds

10 EQS values for compliance checking in water (μg/l) Compound AA-EQS Inland surface waters AA-EQS Other surface waters MAC-EQS Inland surface waters MAC-EQS Other surface waters Cyclodiene pesticides Σ = 0.01 Σ = not applicable not applicable Hexachlorobenzene DDT total not applicable not applicable Endosulfan Hexachlorocyclohexane Pentachlorobenzene not applicable not applicable PBDE (sum of 6 congeners) not applicable not applicable

11 Good chemical status: Annual average concentration < AA EQS Maximum concentration < MAC EQS Minimal performance criteria of analytical methods: Commission Directive 2009/90/EC Limit of quantification < 30% of EQS value Expanded measurement uncertainty< 50% at EQS level

12 Difficulties only 75% of the 41 hazardous substances for which Europe-wide EQSs have been proposed can be eliably monitored in water with acceptable uncertainty when applying existing standardised methods Difficulties especially for some POPs: PBDE, organochlorine pesticides lack of validated, sufficiently sensitive methods that are applicable in routine laboratory conditions validated methods for measurement of total concentration of highly hydrophobic compounds, especially in water with high suspended particulate matter contents

13 Solutions Viable and standardisable methods for new priority substances Lowering analytical costs Use of effect-based screening Introduction of new sampling matrices and alternative sampling concepts e.g. passive samplers for measuring time-weighted average concentrations of dissolved contaminants data for contaminant environmental fate modelling reliable trend monitoring biomimetic samples to provide concentrations correlated to those in biota

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