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4.1 Introduction
Groundwater provides a major source of drinking water for many EU citizens and provides the steady, base flow of rivers and wetlands. Maintaining this flow and keeping it free from pollution is vital for both humans and surface water ecosystems.
Pressures on groundwater chemical quality may arise mainly from diffuse pollution of nitrates and pesticides. Diffuse pollution, caused by nitrates applied to land in fertiliser or in manure and by pesticides, presents a significant and widespread challenge. Nitrogen pollution can also occur in areas where there is no sewerage system. Contaminated industrial sites, waste sites and old mines can lead to contamination by organic pollutants and metals such as arsenic, lead and copper. Pollutants may also be of natural origin, for example, when the bedrock contains high concentrations of metals and salts such as sulphates and fluorides. In coastal areas, saltwater may intrude into the groundwater aquifer where freshwater is abstracted e.g. for drinking water supply.
Once pollutants are in the groundwater, recovery can take years or even many decades, owing to residence times and slow degradation of pollutants. The time of recovery will depend on many factors such as the nature of the hydrogeological setting, the rate of groundwater recharge and the properties of the pollutant.
The Water Framework Directive requires Member States to designate separate groundwater bodies and ensure that each one achieves “good chemical status”. The volume of the water bodies is addressed by groundwater quantitative status (chapter 5).
Good groundwater chemical status is achieved when the concentrations of pollutants:
- show no signs of saline intrusion in the groundwater body,
- do not exceed the applicable quality standards,
- do not result in failure of ecological or chemical status of associated surface waters nor any significant damage to terrestrial ecosystems which depend directly on the groundwater body, andTo be good quality groundwater, hazardous substances should be prevented from entry into groundwater and the entry into groundwater of all other pollutants – such as nitrate - should be limited. Additionally, Member States must prevent deterioration of status, reverse any significant and sustained upward trends in pollutant concentrations in groundwater, and, as with priority substances in surface water, progressively reduce pollution.
Chemical status in groundwater is assessed as good or failing to achieve good chemical status, according to compliance with EU standards of nitrates (50 mg/l[1]) and pesticides (0.1 µg/l individual; max 0.5 µg/l total), and with “threshold values” for other groundwater pollutants established by Member States. These threshold values can be set at groundwater body, national, river basin or international river basin level, with criteria[2] broadly requiring that:
- Concentrations do not present significant environmental risk
- Provisions do not apply to high concentrations of naturally-occurring substances
- Should consider impact on, and interrelationship with, associated surface waters and directly dependent terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands;
- Shall take into account human toxicology and ecotoxicology knowledge.
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Previous comments
"The volume of the water bodies is addressed by groundwater quantitative status (chapter 5)." please delete this sentence.
In reference to the sentence starting with "Contaminated industrial sites, waste sites and old mines": In the European Union, a vast majority of aggregates extraction sites are dealing with inert materials such as sand, gravel and crushed rock, and produce inert wastes according to EU definitions and criteria included in EU Directives. The industry’s production process and treatment plants do not include the use of chemicals, as in most of the cases the processes are based on mechanical crushing, milling, grinding, and size grading. The Aggregates Industry does not represent a threat for water quality. It is necessary to make a clear distinction between the concept of mining and quarrying, as the nature of their activities and the properties of the materials they extract are very different. It is very important to avoid that a mention to very rare and specific problem is extended to most of the sites that are managing inert materials. It is therefore essential to define clearly in the report what is meant by mining. As mining sites counting for less than 5% in comparison with quarries, sand and gravel extraction sites representing 95%, it would be recommended to clearly define which measures apply to mining and which ones to the Aggregates Industry rather than addressing the entire extractive industry.
BE-FLA (RV): p.53 §6 do not result in failure of ecological or chemical status of associated surface waters nor any significant damage to terrestrial ecosystems which depend directly on the groundwater body, and
do not result in failure of ecological or chemical status of associated surface waters nor any significant damage to terrestrial ecosystems which depend directly on the groundwater body., and
(AT) 2nd paragraph, ....'Pollutants may also be of natural origin, for example, when...'
In case elevated concentrations occur natural, it is not a pollutant according to definitions in Art. 2 WFD 31 and 33. Please use the term ’substances’.
(AT) Enumeration starting with 'Groundwater chemical status is achieved when...'
The obligation that the requirements of WFD Article 7(3) for Drinking Water Protected Areas be met is missing (= the DWPA test). Note that this requirement is included in Figure 4.7, but is missing here.
(AT): Paragraph: To be good quality groundwater, hazardous substances should be prevented from ...., progressively reduce pollution
To be of good status, appropriate measures have to be implemented. The 1st sentence is not a good status provision. It is a general provision to prevent or limit inputs - not only focused at the GW-body but at all groundwater.
Please use for chemical status the definition and criteria from GWD and do not mix with prevent or limit.
(AT): Last para starting with: 'Chemical status in groundwater is assessed as good or failing ...“threshold values” for other groundwater pollutants established...'
More stringent TVs can be set for Nitrate and Pesticides as well.
SK: Page 43, Chapter 4.1, 4th paragraph: The last sentence “The volume of the water bodies is ...“ is not exactly in line with the definition of quantitative status in WFD Art. 2(26). Although simplification may be needed to appeal to general public, it needs to stay true.
SK: Comments to online WISE SoW Tables:
Table: Groundwater bodies: delineation of the management units in the 1st and 2nd RBMP - Table is correct, but misleading. We suggest increasing number of decimal points in % area cells. In the case of Slovakia, one additional geothermal body has been delineated as correctly stated. But overall the area of delineated GWB changed by nearly 0,1%. Currently it shows 0.
SK: Comments to online WISE SoW Figures:
Figures "Groundwater bodies: Evolution type, by country" and "Groundwater bodies: Evolution type, by geological formation and country" show similar data to "Evolution type, by geological formation", however with different results for 1st RMBP for Slovakia.
Four figures for "Groundwater bodies: Pollutants": Not clear what the figure is supposed to display, please provide a more detailed legend. As for upward trend figure, in SK case, there is no 70% upward trend detection for Cl and so on.
If possible, insert a graph or map displaying the number of "treshold values for other groundwater pollutants established by Memer States" at national level by country