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5.3. Conclusions on assessing ecological impacts from chemical pollution
The chemical status of surface waters, reported under the WFD, provides an assessment of a very limited number of harmful chemicals in water bodies comparable across Europe. Much more detailed information on chemical contamination can be available at a more local scale. Through scientific efforts like the application of novel methods of sampling and chemical enrichment (Schulze et al. 2017), the detection of several hundred organic chemicals in a single freshwater sample is becoming more common.
Currently, there is no established link between the assessment of chemical status and ecological status of surface water bodies. This is in contrast to the real situation where organisms may be living in polluted water, possibly impacted by multiple pressures. Improvements in our understanding as to how chemical mixtures can adversely impact organisms may be used to improve our understanding of the interlinkage between ecological status and chemical status. Application of the precautionary principle means this should include consideration of chemical mixtures, which can act along similar pathways in the organism. However, potential consequences of the presence of multiple chemicals is not reflected in current lists of priority substances and RBSPs.
More generic solutions are needed to protect water from contamination by chemicals. Approaches which regulate concentrations in water on a substance-by-substance approach will not cope with large numbers of substances present at apparently low concentrations but which might, in combination, have ecological effects. Effects-based approaches offer a way to combine existing information on the presence and abundance of species in ecological monitoring, while improving our understanding of the links between chemical and ecological information. The flexible approach of the WFD would allow Member States to use effects-based methods in a complementary way, alongside routine monitoring in water management. The major obstacles to the use of such tools seem to be the mis-alignment with chemicals source control approach, aimed at single substances, and the lack of legal obligation. In the absence of legal requirement, one way to demonstrate the value would be to collect case studies where effect-based information has been used in a regulatory context for surface waters. Another option is for effects-based methods to be used as part of ecological status assessment.
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Previous comments
DE-BY:
'becoming more common.'
This is only true for scientific purposes and single projects. In regular monitoring these approaches are not common. There is a lack of experience, scientists and accredited laboratories.
DE-BB:
We want to stress the importance of deriving EQS without binding guidelines, for ecotoxically harzadours compounds to be able to manage know emission pathways into water bodies. We would like to see an european database collecting an uptdating present results and supplying them to derive such EQS.
Furthermore we are of the opinion that a reference to the database ETOX, which supplies ecotoxicological aquatic and terrestric effect data as well as national and internations quality standards and limits. ETOX provides the data which is needed for regional, practical case-by-case management, where EQS alone may not help to derive the best measures.
DE-BY:
'The flexible approach of the WFD would allow Member States to use effects-based methods in a complementary way, alongside routine monitoring in water management. [...] One option could be for effects-based methods to be used as part of ecological status assessment.'
· “way”: please add: in investigativ monitoring
· “routine”: please replace "routine" by "surveillance and operational"
· “One option could be for effects-based methods to be used as part of ecological status assessment.”: …see comment above. Ecological status definition and assessment ist well defined in WFD and intercalibrated on EU level. New methods of effect based monitoring could be an interlink between chemical and ecological status assessment e.g. in the frame of investigative monitoring but there ist no reason and no need to change ecological status assessment.
Page 65 to 72 : Improving protection against chemical risks in water
Comment Belgium (Wallonia): EBM have been promoted in chapter 2 notably for a better understanding of mixtures effects, the limits of a single substance approach with a limited number of substances analyzed have been underlined. The necessity of complementary approach (EBM) should be more developed in this part of the document (there is only a small paragraph in 5.3 page 69 last §).