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 Phosphate in rivers

The average phosphate concentration in European rivers more than halved over the period 1992-2012. The marked decline is also evident for the shorter time series, but the average concentration is somewhat higher when using this larger set of sites. Concentrations tend to level off and even increase at the end of the period. The decrease in river phosphate can be related to measures introduced by national and European legislations, e.g. the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Also, the change to phosphate-free detergents has contributed to lower phosphate concentrations.