European river basins

Consequently, Europe has historically been a hotspot of environmental pressures because of the contamination caused by agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities and high population densities [5, 6], Such contamination has led to poor water quality in many European river basins [7-12], In addition, this pollution can cause the accumulation in river sediments of toxic compounds such as pesticides [13], surfactants [14], and alkyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) [15], These can in turn act as a source to biota [16] and as a potential risk for entire ecosystems [17] if the compounds bioaccumulate, and thereby enter the food chain [18],... 

Experiences and Lessons Learned on the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Selected European River Basins... 

Keywords Ecosystem services, European river basins, Risk assessment, Risk management, River basin management plans, Water framework directive... 

The official list of priority pollutants threatening the aquatic environment is presently based on that reported on Directive 2008/105/EC [27]. It was the output resulting from a previously done risk assessment study carried out by the Fraunhoffer Institute (COMMPS procedure) [28, 29], using monitoring data gathered throughout many European river basins. 

Ginebreda A (2008) Ter and Llobregat river basins. The water supply of the Barcelona Area. In 2nd Riskbase WP lb Thematic Workshop, Bridging Science, Water Management and Practical Experiences in European River Basins Oral presentation, Budapest, May 15-17... 

The selection of the sampling points followed several criteria relevance in terms of European river basins definition existence of an extended monitoring database built by the responsible organization suitable concentration levels of the target pollutants logistic assistance by host organization easy access to the sampling site. 

In Europe, pollution from agriculture and hydraulic engineering (e.g. for navigation, water supply, hydroelectricity and flood control) are seen as the two main factors inhibiting the achievement of good ecological status of European river basins (Menedez et al., 2006). In addition, water is both an input to many industrial production processes and a sink for their pollutants and wastewater, while households also consume water and cause pollution with hazardous substances. Furthermore, other economic sectors... 

Salomons, W. and Brils, J.M. (eds) (2004) Contaminated sediments in European river basins, SedNet booklet as final report for the EC FP5 Thematic Network Project SedNet (EVKl-CT-2001-20002). 

Foxwell, D., 2004. In Contaminated Sediments in European River Basins. European Sediment Research Network Report. 

Until recently, most studies performed within the Ebro River have been site-specific or focused on a single chemical family [20-24]. However, little is known about the concentration and patterns of a wide spectrum of priority contaminants in the whole Ebro aquatic ecosystem. The inclusion of the Ebro river basin into the European Union (EU) project AquaTerra (contract no. 505428) led to a more complete study concerning the entire river basin, various environmental matrices (sediments and two fish species) and five different chemical families... 

Figure 4 shows the concentration range determined for each investigated drug and metabolite in the surface and wastewaters collected in the Ebro River basin, and its comparison with the drug levels found in similar studies carried out in other locations of Spain [6, 7,12,13,19, 31-33] and in various countries of the American [5, 10, 15, 22, 23] and the European continents [8, 9, 11, 14, 16-18, 21, 24-30]. Drug residue levels found in influent and effluent wastewaters from the Ebro River basin were mostly between the minimum and maximum concentrations described for these compounds in the peer-reviewed literature. Only, few compounds, e.g.,... 

The present work reports on the presence of illicit drugs and metabolites in waste and surface waters of the Ebro River basin. In agreement to previous works done in this line in other locations of Spain and in diverse European countries, the most abundant and ubiquitous compounds in waters were cocaine and its major metabolite benzoy-lecgonine, and the amphetamine-like compounds ephedrine and ecstasy. Removal of these compounds during wastewater treatment processes was considered satisfactory for most compounds, but not enough to avoid the presence of these... 

This chapter will review the levels and distribution of pharmaceuticals detected in both waste and river waters from the Ebro river Basin and gives an example about the use of established hazard indexes to estimate the possible risks posed by the pharmaceutical levels detected towards different aquatic organisms (algae, daphnia, and fish). Results presented in this chapter were integrated in the FP6 European Union project AQUATERRA (contract no. 505428). 

First, a brief explanation of the current knowledge regarding the sources and cycling of Hg and its transformation into MeHg is presented. Later, in this chapter, THg and limited data on organomercury levels in aquatic organisms of the Ebro River basin are detailed. The aquatic organisms most commonly studied in the Ebro River basin are zebra mussel, red swamp crayfish, and different fish species, namely European catfish, northern pike, common carp, rudd, roach, barbell, and bleak. 

Subirats J, Font N, Costeja M (2002) Case study 1 Matarrana River Basin. Report for the European Water Regimes and the Notation of a Sustainable Status (EUWARENESS) project Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, 68 pp... 

European eco-labeling of paper products, and in the existing European eco-labeling for cleaners under Regulation 1980/2000/EC. In addition, the EU Commission made further recommendations on risk reduction measures for EDTA. First, it asked EU Member States to establish Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for EDTA, and the national pollution reduction measures to achieve those EQS in 2015 should be included in the river basin management plans in line with the provisions of Directive 2000/60/EC. Second, EU Member States should specify in IPPC permits measures on EDTA to operate to BAT by October 2007, taking into account local circumstances. Further, as BAT is developed, this should be incorporated into the permits. 

---