Micropollutants in the Danube river basin

Abstract

Monitoring programmes in river basins usually include monitoring heavy metals and selected organic micropollutants in water and sediment. Several survey results revealed contamination of the water resources in the Danube river basin. Besides those chemicals, for which regulations already exist, there are other compound classes, e.g., aromatic sulfonates, complexing agents and breakdown products that have not been considered in the past due to the lack of data on their occurrence. Such chemicals may well be relevant to water pollution, to drinking water supplies, particularly those using surface water intakes, or bankside filtered water, because of their large production volumes, persistence and polarity, although information is limited on their effects. Harmonisation of micropollutant monitoring tools is a major goal of the international co-operation in the Danube river basin. Heavy metals, petroleum and selected chlorinated hydrocarbons are on the list of determinands. Development of analytical methods for screening and quantifying organic micropollutants resulted in: (a) information on naphthalene-sulfonates in the river water in the Hungarian Danube reach, and (b) application of fluorescence spectroscopy for screening polar and non-polar aromatic compounds. It has been concluded that the fluorescence technique and the AOX determination provide appropriate screening for both polar and non-polar aromatic compounds, and chlorinated hydrocarbons, respectively.