Inland waters are among the most threatened ecosystems in Europe. Their decline is associated with multiple stresses, chemical pollution plays a major role. A lot of anthropogenic substances are not even removed in wastewater treatment plants. | Photo: Phatranist Kerddaeng / Shutterstock
The scientists highlighted that intact aquatic ecosystems provide us with the vital resource water and host a unique diversity of life. However, rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands and groundwater are among the most threatened ecosystems in Europe. Their decline is associated with multiple stresses, including over-exploitation and pollution by manifold human activities. Framing the legislation for the protection of our inland waters to safeguard ecosystem services such as clean drinking water, natural flood protection, fisheries resources, recreational spaces, and pollutant retention, will be vital for human livelihood in Europe in the coming decades.
For re-evaluating regulatory standards in the EQS, GWD and WFD, the IGB scientists identified the following critical aspects:
- Strengthening of EU legislation
Successful pollution reduction and elimination requires assertive national environmental laws and regulation. These need to be stimulated, supported, and enforced by strong and unambiguous legislation on the EU level, also to harmonize environmental standards and threshold values among the member states.
- Precaution and the polluter-pays principle
Key to avoiding new and mitigating existent pollution is minimizing or even eliminating the emission of pollutants already at the source. There is no ecological and/or societal justification to accept the potential destruction of aquatic ecosystems only to relocate efforts and costs of contaminant removal downstream. Industrial emitters have to take responsibility for their emissions. Thus, the polluter-pays principle should be implemented consequently in all relevant fields.
- Persistent, mobile, and toxic substances in surface water and groundwater bodies
Recent advances in analytical techniques reveal the presence of so-far overlooked highly mobile organic compounds in the aquatic environment, many of which are persistent and potentially toxic, or can be transformed into metabolites and / or by-products with potentially hazardous properties. These substances may not be removed completely during drinking water production and should, therefore, not even enter drinking water resources such as surface waters and groundwater.
- Flexible and timely adjustment of the priority substance list and watch lists
Given the fast analytical advances as well as the quickly growing scientific knowledge on the occurrence of hundreds of organic contaminants and their transformation products, strategies are required for a more timely and flexible adjustment of both the surface water and groundwater watch lists as well as the list of priority substances. As the EU-wide monitoring data are likely insufficient for various potentially relevant substances, the watch list should not be restricted to a maximum of 14 substances or groups of substances.
- Open data strategy for evidence-based decision making
To support evidence-based and efficient decision making, pollutant and water quality data from groundwater and surface water bodies collected in publicly funded monitoring programs in the EU member states should ideally be retrievable from open and accessible repositories. These data sets should include not only aggregates (e.g., annual averages) but the available temporal resolution, and be supported by adequate meta information (such as a documentation of sampling and analytical methods).
In their conclusion, the IGB scientists underline that improved EU policies such as a revision of the list of pollutants affecting ground and surface water are urgently required to increase the sustainability of water management and improve current practices, especially with regard to the zero pollution ambitions in the EU Green Deal.
