Short description

In the year 2013 Germany has to create an inventory of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances. For many substances the municipal sewage system is a very important emission pathway. This contains discharges of treated sewage, stormwater and combined sewer overflows.

The MoRE System (Modeling of Regionalized Emissions) is an approved tool for a regionalized path analysis which covers the municipal sewage system. In order to work with MoRE one has to provide appropriate input data of the emissions and immisions (substance concentrations in rivers).

However a survey on the nationwide data concerning the concentration of priority substances shows that a significant part of the data is not suited for a realistic estimation of the emissions of municipal sewage systems.

The reason is that on the one hand suitable analysis methods aren't developed or standardised yet. On the other hand it should be noted that the monitoring programs in general put their focus on other questions. Sensitive analysis methods are not necessarily used. Finally it has to be considered that wastewater monitoring generally refers to (qualified) samples and therefore the temporarily changing runoff behaviour cannot be documented completely.

Striking misconceptions are the result of the calculations of emissions if inappropriate data is used. Such inappropriate distribution of the emission parts of different origins leads to a wrong prioritization when it comes to planning and implementing measures.

The project will focus on the implementation of a measuring campaign. The result of this campaign will be the start point to develop quantification methods which allow reliable statements concerning the wastewater concentrations and loads of priority substancesin the effluents of municipal waste water treatment plants.

As a result a recommendation concerning the sampling strategies, sample preparation and analysis methods will be available. With the help of the substance concentrations both of the inlet and outlet of wastewater treatment plants and sewage sludge, the environmental performance of the substances will be described in order to derive realistic emission factors from the urban emissions pathways (combined sewer overflows and stormwater  inflows). By evaluating and analysing the national and international available data sets and by using the resulting data, valid emission factors for priority substances mentioned above will be derived.

All in all the planned investigations should significantly improve the results of Modeling of Regionalized Emissions at a river basin level with means a contribution to reach the aims of the EU Water Framework Directive among its daughter directives.

The project is realised in close collaboration with the partnership BIOPLAN-Landeskulturgesellschaft (Sinsheim-Steinsfurt).