“All substances are poisons; there is none which is not. The right dose makes the difference between poison and a remedy “
(Paracelso 1493 – 1541)
How can we assess the quality of water?
1. EU Contest
In the last decade, the European water policy, has set quality objectives by empowering member countries under the River Basin Management Planning (RBMP – River Basin Management Plans). In the first phase (2009-2015) ) it has been guaranteed a better quality and a better quantitative management of water resources: a better quality and surface water bodies which should be in good condition, from 2009 till today, are increased from 43% to 53%. Despite this steady progress, the targets set for 2015 to aquatic ecosystems, have not been achieved. Advances have not gone far enough or are not completed quickly enough and, despite the economic climate, efforts must accelerate to reach the initial ambitions since water is essential for people, nature and the economy.
The time out of 2015 offered an opportunity to take stock, to share the progress of the past 15 years, in order to ensure effective management solutions and incorporate them in the current preparations of the 2nd RBMP.
Is it enough?
2. What about impact of climate change?
Modeling still indicate that climate change will increase the frequency of floods and droughts. This is supported by the major flooding experienced throughout Europe in recent years. The change in rainfall, together with increased evapotranspiration due to the increase in temperature will affect the natural recharge rate of groundwater. After the water stored in glaciers, groundwater is the largest freshwater resources on Earth. It’s a relatively clean resource, reliable and economical, especially in areas with limited surface water, such as parts of Africa, which are almost completely dependent on groundwater. Is this the reason why groundwater is important as drinking water and for irrigation in agriculture, with about 40% of the power produced by agricultural land irrigated. Groundwater also plays a significant role in the maintenance of surface water systems, by feeding lakes and the rivers. These “environmental flows” are often crucial to the maintenance of biodiversity, habitat and sensitive ecosystems. However, all of these functions, depending also by climate change, become increasingly vulnerable. In wet areas, high rainfall variability could have a negative impact on the natural recharge as the relationship between runoff and precipitation could increase with the intensity of the rains. In the arid and semi-arid regions, however, the increased variability of precipitation could increase the charging, because intense rainfall are able to infiltrate ground faster then evaporation taking place. Aquifers suffer the consequences of droughts and climate fluctuations much more slowly than surface reservoirs. Consequently, compared to surface basins, aquifers act as more effective container during periods of drought. The times for the storage and transfer of solutes in groundwater are much more for groundwater than for surface water systems. If the underground resources are not adequately protected, the changes in the budget through the streets of surface runoff and groundwater, can compromise the chemical status favoring the leaching of organic substances from the soil into groundwater, polluting it.
So bad news …..
3. We need a foolproof method!
The technological advances achieved are not sufficient on their own to manage the “common good” which is ground water. It’s therefore essential that Member States adopt a holistic approach to the management of our water systems. We need to address safety measures for the protection of water resources, offering multiple benefits together with traditional engineering solutions.
The water will be the focus of new proposals by the Commission on the economy through tools that promote efficient water reuse. The Rural and Regional Development Funds, the Cohesion Fund, Horizon 2020, LIFE and European Innovative Partnerships Provide, provide mechanisms for innovation, research and new ideas and approaches to be developed to effectively manage our water resources.
Since 2000, a transformation process has already been initiated in both the control provisions in the classification of water bodies. The application of control measures has had an impact mainly on the activities of identification of water bodies and hydromorphological, chemical and physical, through appropriate monitoring networks.
The criteria have been set for the identification and characterization of groundwater bodies, establishment of standards and criteria for assessing the chemical status of groundwater and for identifying and reversing any significant and sustained upward trend in pollution. The definition of the Chemical State (SC), provides for the monitoring of chemical pollutants subject to quality standards identified at Community level and those subject to thresholds established at national level. As part of this process the determination of Natural Background Values for the main contaminants plays an important role. In fact, for a correct interpretation of anomalies, it is necessary to first define “the threshold concentration of a substance, corresponding to no anthropogenic changes, or the presence of alterations extremely limited, compared to undisturbed conditions”. Legislation provides that if it is scientifically proven the presence of metals, or other parameters of natural origin, in the natural background concentrations exceeding a fixed limit, are the threshold values for defining the Good Chemical. The determination of natural background values for different substances therefore assumes great importance in order to classify the waters of insufficient quality to natural causes with a status judgment “unfavorable”; or, unlikely to identify reversal points of the trends resulting in restoration measures activation impossible to be realized in practice at reasonable cost. Recent studies arise precisely aimed to identify systemic approach, the natural background values of groundwater, starting from the standard procedures defined on the basis of existing legislation and deepening the analysis of the observations, until you find the relationships between the variables, groped to draw a line between altered conditions (pollution) and natural.
4. Which is the right value?
The pollution is an alteration in the environmental media (water, air, soil) due to the release of any substance, compound or agent in concentrations such that the matrix is not suitable for use, or potential use. Beyond certain levels, the presence of contaminants in different environmental matrices, involves a series of harmful consequences for human health, the ecosystem and natural resources ( “All substances are poisons; there is not any that do not both. the right dose makes the difference between poison and a remedy – Paracelsus 1493- 1541”). The local pollution is directly attributable to a particular source, it may depend on industrial activities, from accidents, from the presence of mismanaged landfills, and can be generated both during and after the close of business. Diffuse pollution is defined as contamination or alteration of the environmental matrices determined from diffuse sources and are not attributable to a single source. This form of pollution is generally associated with phenomena that have a material impact distribution area, such as atmospheric deposition, certain farming practices and inadequate processing operations of waste or waste water.
The real problem is to define the geochemical fund, or determine the threshold between “pollution” natural and anthropogenic. The geological context, however, can determine the basic values that exceed the values allowed by the regulations. In this case the problem of the “natural background” becomes critical because certain areas are polluted “naturally”, with heavy consequences on decision-making, about choosing possible remediation to provide contaminant removal. So it’s not always easy to draw the line between the natural and the anthropogenic pollution.
The rocks, soils, sediments and waters of the Earth’s surface play, in fact, a fundamental role as sources, receptors and reactive means, for trace elements. Inhomogeneity, which is derived from the biogeochemical cycles that involve all elements of the earth’s crust, produces areas with varying levels of concentration that can cause biological effects caused both by toxicity from the lack of an element. Potentially harmful elements such as arsenic, cadmium and lead may have harmful physiological effects even at low concentrations while other elements such as selenium, iodine, fluorine may be essential or dangerous depending on their concentration, form and bioavailability. Hence, the diversity of substrates and processes that modify them, the natural levels of concentration of potentially harmful elements can be so variable as to be higher than those caused by anthropogenic inputs, giving rise to a potential risk.
I Believe We need an holistic and systemic eye…..
The interpretation of the analysis, plays a fundamental role in the definition of natural / anthropogenic boundaries. The interpretative models should lead to complex and theoretically structured choices, through the connection of the variables related to the individual disciplines (soil-water matrix, climate and rainfall, recharge aquifers, geochemical activity, type of activity present in the site, etc).
In scientific approach, we tend to refer only to the most recent works. We should perhaps investigate the historical changes of geochemical, hydrological, geological and climate, which characterized the country over time. As happened in the past, is not unlike what is happening now. Anthropogenic effects have always accompanied changes in our system, and they were always integrated in the natural matrix. A comparison between yesterday and today, through the timely analysis of the changes and the causes related to them, in order to reconstruct the evolutionary path and ensure hereinafter through a steady analysis.
A kind of screening of our territory, through the historical reconstruction of representative values, for the realization of a dynamic reference values database. A process that already partly in place, but with methods not always in line with those standards that often make it difficult an objective comparison of the results. On results, you should always base a later surveys, to refine first analysis and ensure objectivity.
An intricate process, that has in itself the objectives of its engineering and related discipline. As taught by Descartes: “…… divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as much as was necessary to conduct an adequate solution …… thoughts in an order such that, beginning objects with simple and easy to learn you can go little by little, and as if by steps, to the knowledge of more complex objects, assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their nature are not in a relation of antecedence and consequence ” .
Ensure the safety of a system like ours, it can be complex and very expensive. It is necessary and essential, therefore, to design solutions that require more than the economic effort, legal and organizational, a new way of working and thinking. This requires an intensive engineering effort, deepening the base of interdisciplinary knowledge, which should pave the way to demonstrate and support the effectiveness and the benefits that may result from the investments in current and future training programs and control measures.
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