BACKGROUND CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF GROUNDWATER THRESHOLDS
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BRIDGEProject policy context
Article 17 of the WFD stipulatesthat criteria for establishing thegroundwater chemical statusshould be developed in a propo-sal made by the European Com-mission, i.e. a “GroundwaterDaughter Directive” at EP andCouncil. The Commission pro-posal of Groundwater DirectiveCOM (2003) 550 specifies thatthe “good chemical status” ofGroundwater shall be based oncompliance to existing Commu-nity quality standards (nitrates,plant protection products andbiocides) and on thresholdvalues (i.e. environmental qualitystandards) to be established byMember States at the mostappropriate level (local, regionalor national). These thresholdvalues will have to be set up forall pollutants which have charac-terised groundwater bodies asbeing at risk, pursuant to theanalysis of pressures andimpacts carried out under theWFD (Article 5). The agenda ofthe Groundwater DaughterDirective proposal, as modifiedin the Council Common Position,implies that threshold values forrelevant groundwater pollutantsshould be established on thebasis of a common methodologybefore December 2008.
In this context, the BRIDGE pro-ject intends to develop a com-mon methodology that could beused by Member States to esta-blish such environmental thres-holds in accordance with therequirements of the newGroundwater Directive. The pro-ject is carried out at Europeanlevel, involving a range of stake-holders and efficiently linking thescientific and policy-makingcommunities. The project ente-red into force on the 1st January2005 and its duration is 24months.
The BRIDGE project intends to develop a common methodology,intended for possible use by Member States, on “how to derivegroundwater thresholds”. The project is carried out at Europeanlevel, involving a range of stakeholders and efficiently linking thescientific and policy-making communities. The different objectives ofBRIDGE are:
u to evaluate andassemble scien-tific outputs toset out criteriafor the assess-ment of the che-mical status ofg roundwa te r.These criteriaare data for cha-racterisation ofnatural andanthropogenicpollutants, para-meters indicati-ve for pollution,data for characterisation of groundwater bodies as hydrologic andhydro-geological parameters,
u to derive a plausible general approach, how to structure relevantcriteria appropriately with the aim to set representative groundwa-ter threshold values scientifically sound and defined at nationalriver basin district or groundwater body level,
u to check the applicability and validity of this approach by meansof case studies at the European scale,
u to carry out an environmental impact assessment taking intoaccount the economic and social impacts.
The final methodology for the derivation of environmental thresholdsfor pollutants at a national or regional level of groundwater bodies orriver basins will have to be consistent with the other approachesunder the WFD and other community legislation.
BRIDGE. BACKGROUND CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF GROUNDWATER THRESHOLDS April-May 2006 - N. 01
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Working Group Packages. First year results (January 2005-January 2006)
WP1. Survey of representative groundwater pollutantsand WP2. Study of groundwater characteristics
The main results of the BRIDGE project concerning the scien-tific knowledge to set up criteria for the establishment of thegroundwater chemical status are:
u A Reference Database relevant to background concentra-tions in European Groundwater, European data sets for aGroundwater quality Database, and a preliminary draft refe-rence report which presents a review on geochemical con-trols of substances (especially WFD pollutants and the 33EU priority substances) and address monitoring and sam-pling practice, effects on eco-toxicological aspects andanalytical aspects.
u A report describing an inventory of all key hydro-geologicalparameters to be potentially taken into account within thedevelopment of the European approach to establish envi-ronmental groundwater thresholds. It includes surveys ofhydro-geological properties, pollutant transfer and chemicalprocesses, natural background level, interactions ofgroundwater with associated surface waters and depen-dant ecosystems, quantitative aspects and links to qualita-tive aspects
These Databases and reports contributed to the set up of thepreliminary methodology and will serve as a basis and referen-ce source for establishing threshold values.
WP3. Criteria for environmental thresholds and methodology to define a good status
A concept note was included in the Description of Work at thestart of the project and this has been the basis of discussionswithin this activity. As a main result of the first discussions itwas agreed that an extended methodology should be develo-ped using a tiered approach. This begins with a rapid and con-servative practical procedure at the early Tiers progressing to
more sophisticated but still robust procedures in the higherTiers. Furthermore, during the course of the project it becameclear that not only ‘associated surface waters’ and ‘dependentterrestrial ecosystems’ are of importance ‘groundwater-itself’may often have to be addressed as a receptor. A draft reporton a “Preliminary methodology to derive environmental thres-hold values” has been delivered. This report is based on theoutcomes and draft reports of the ‘upstream’ work packages(characterisation of pollutants and characterisation of hydro-geological parameters) and on 6 reference papers on specificdiscussion topics that are:
u a report on national methodologies for groundwater thres-hold values and a report on “network designs for groundwa-ter bodies”
u two discussion papers ‘associated surface waters’ and‘groundwater-itself’ and two approach papers on ‘Naturalbackground Levels’ and ‘Threshold values for the receptorgroundwater itself’ (papers to be partly or totally integratedin the final report on the methodology).
With regard to the overall objective is can be stated that thedevelopment of recommendations on a methodology and cri-teria for an European approach on how to establish environ-mental thresholds for groundwater bodies has been achieved.Further elaboration and refinement will be undertaken follo-wing outputs from the case studies and is planned to be fina-lised until November 2006.
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WP4. Representative sites / water body studies andcompliance testing
In order to carry out an application of the proposed methodo-logy, a selection of sites has been made. The criteria of selec-tion, the final selection of 14 study sites and a basic characte-risation of these are reported in a report “Selection of repre-sentative studies”. The 14 sites (see table below) cover awide range of geological and climatological settings in Euro-pe. Most sites have some interaction with dependent ecosys-tems, but a few sites are deep regional systems where thereceptor could be groundwater itself or other human use. Allsites show occurrences of one or several of the WFD pollu-tants or priority substances. The selected sites contain e.g. 4European Pilot River Basins, 4 groundwater bodies studied inBaseline and 3 trans-boundary sites. The selected groundwa-ter bodies are located in 12 of the 25 eco-regions for riversand lakes, and the rivers in these discharges to 5 of 7 eco-regions for transitional and coastal waters, which both are defi-ned in the Water Framework Directive.
The characterisation of all sites is well under way and willfollow a common template in order to make the studies easyto compare. The details of the procedure on the evaluation ofthe threshold methodology are not yet defined.
WP5. Economic and social costs linked to the establishment of groundwater threshold values
A report describing the “general methodology framework forsocio-economic decision-support for groundwater threshold
setting” is to be finished. The assessment of the costs andbenefits of feasible measures to achieve groundwater thres-hold values and their distribution across different interestgroups in society will be achieved through the mean of fivepractical case studies:
u Upper Rhine, Franceu Aveiro aquifer, Portugalu Riga, Latvia (shallow groundwater)u Scheldt river basin, Netherlands but crossing national
boundariesu Lahti aquifer, Finland
The preliminary description of the 5 case studies is completedand the socio-economic studies are going on. A review andanalysis of existing groundwater valuation studies has beenprepared which gives a systematic and structured overview ofthe economic values found associated with groundwater pro-tection across Europe and North America.
WP6. Information and dissemination
The website of the project www.wfd-bridge.net is implemen-ted on CIRCA.
The public reports delivered so far are available on the websi-te or are going to be available as the website is continuouslyup-graded. Furthermore, the progress of the work withinBRIDGE is systematically presented at the meetings of theWG C “Groundwater” (WFD Common Implementation Stra-tegy).
The coming events are:
u A BRIDGE workshop on 21 June 2006; the aim of theworkshop is to present the progress of the project to allpartners and to stakeholders in order to facilitate discus-sions / interactions between science and policy worlds.This workshop is held the day before the International Con-ference on Groundwater in order to facilitate the attendan-ce of stakeholders.
u The International Conference on Groundwater on 22-23June 2006, Vienna, Austria. Contributions of BRIDGE arealso scheduled to the International Conference.
Dissemination at National level:
u Information about BRIDGE Project and discussions withinthe Flemish Government with OVAM (= Flemish WasteAgency) and AMINAL (Flemish Administration for Environ-ment, Nature Land and Water Management) (VITO)
u Preparation of information and presentation of informationabout BRIDGE project to Ministry of Environment and toGovernment of Republic of Lithuania in relation to the pro-ject “Impact assessment for the implementation of thedirective of the EP and of the EC on the protection ofgroundwater against pollution (COM 550) (LGT)
u Information about BRIDGE project, Innovalis Aquitaine -Agence Régionale de Soutien à l'Innovation. Bureau Euro-pe Rémi VIGNES Centre Condorcet (AETS)
Location of sites / groundwater bodies selectedfor BRIDGE WP4 case studies
BRIDGE. BACKGROUND CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF GROUNDWATER THRESHOLDS April-May 2006 - N. 01
Provisional Calendar of BRIDGE Meetings for 2006Dates Type of event Venue/Room
7 April SC meeting Brussels
21 June BRIDGE Stakeholder’s meeting Vienna
26-27 June WP5 meeting Paris
29-30 September SC + WP3/WP4 Lisbon
2 October WG C + BRIDGE Contribution Lisbon
15 December Final Meeting Paris
Communication with scientific world:
u Common Forum on Contaminated Land – Vienna (Austria),May, 12-13, 2005 (UBA-A). BRIDGE project presentation
u Second European Conference on Natural Attenuation, Soiland Groundwater Risk Management - Frankfurt am Main(Germany), May, 18-20, 2005: Science-policy integrationneeds preparing common approaches to manage ground-water resources in Europe (poster) (UBA-A)
u VI Simposio del Agua en Andalucía - Sevilla (Spain), June,1-3, 2005: Criterios para la identificación de valores límitede contaminantes en agua subterránea. Proyecto BRIDGE(IGME)
u EWRA 2005 (European Water Resources Association) –Menton (France), September, 7-10, 2005: Presentation ofthe BRIDGE Project - Background Criteria for the Identifi-cation of Groundwater Thresholds (BRGM and WP chairs)
u International Conference “Vulnerable Aquifer Preservation:Comparing European Experience” – Perugia (Italy), 8thSeptember 2005 “BRIDGE – Background Criteria for theIdentification of Groundwater Thresholds” (UBA- A)
u The Central European and European Union Standards onthe Assessment of the Industrial and Mining EnvironmentalPollution – Warsaw (Poland), September, 21-24, 2005:Criteria for environmental pollution of industrial and mining
areas assessment in Spain. The European BRIDGE Project(IGME)
u European Conference on Water Framework Directive…thebaseline. The Geological Society - London (United King-dom), September, 22nd, 2005. Implementing the WaterFramework Directive and characterising baseline ground-water conditions. Work progress in Spain and BRIDGEProject (IGME)
u CONSOIL 2005 – Bordeaux (France), October, 3-7, 2005(Lecture Session A.1: Policy on Contaminated Land Mana-gement): Background Criteria for the Identification ofGroundwater Thresholds (UBA-A and BRGM)
u IAH-Conference (International Association of Hydrogeolo-gists - Alicante (Spain), October, 4-8, 2005: BackgroundCriteria for the Identification of Groundwater Thresholds.Presentation of the BRIDGE Project (IGME).
u Workshop on Groundwater Bodies in Europe and AdjacentCountries – Berlin (Germany) , October, 25-26, 2005;Natural background values and threshold values – the Euro-pean BRIDGE Project (HLUG)
u Meeting of the Slovene section of the International associa-tion of Hydrogeologists (IAH) – Laibach (Slovenia), Novem-ber, 22nd, 2005: Implementation of the EU Water Frame-work Directive (WFD) in Austria, Groundwater qualityaspects – procedures applied and current state” (UBA-A)
