Short description

In 2008, the Directive 2008/105/EC has been updated with the Directive 2013/39/EU.
This directive on Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) has the aim to reduce the emissions of priority substances into surface water bodies. Member states member must draw up an inventory of discharges, emissions and losses of specific priority substances and pollutants. In Germany the “Surface Water Regulation” from the 20th July 2011 (updated 2016) implements the directive of EQS, which requires emission inventories and reliable emission data of all entries.

To carry out the inventory, the Federal Government/Federal States - research group inventory from 2011 developed a methodological framework to obtain robust data for priority substances to monitor municipal waste water treatment plants and valid emission factors for the emission path "municipal sewage treatment plant" could be derived from the project results with the inclusion of further available data sets for 19 substances.

In a second step, the monitoring project should include an expansion and differentiation of the data base, which shall be completed in 2019. On the basis of the monitoring results (38 substances and accompanying parameters), substance-specific plausible and differentiated emission factors or rather with runoff concentrations should be derived as a basis for a valid assessment of the substance emissions. The gain of such an approach is that the substance emissions can be depicted spatially differentiated on the basis of a comparable date base via the emission path “Urban systems”. Further needs for actions include taking account of the Environmental Quality Standards for individual substances and integrating new ones by the Directive 2013/39/EU.

The project aims to investigate 49 wastewater treatment plants, reprehensively across Germany, of different sizes, drainage systems and technical standards. In addition, the monitoring will include five storm water runoff basins and rainwater clarifications.