Abstract
The Integrated Water Resources Management regulations aim to ensure a good status of surface water quality and its sustainable use. Water quality monitoring of various water users supports the identification of pollution sources and their environmental impacts. The priority pollutants generated by wastewater discharges from municipal, industrial wastewater treatment plants or agricultural areas are of great interest due to their eco-toxicological effects and bio-accumulative properties. The aim of this study was to monitor the priority organic and inorganic pollutants from the Siret River basin, in Romania, with the purpose of assessing the surface water quality status and evaluating it by the Water Quality Index (WAWQI) method. The monitoring of inorganic priority pollutants (e.g., As, Cd, Hg, Ni, Pb) and organic priority pollutants (e.g., Naphthalene, Anthracene, Phenanthrene, Fluoranthene, Benzo(a)anthracene, Benzo(b)fluoranthene, Benzo(k)fluoranthene, Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(ghi)perylene, Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, α, β, and γ-Hexachlorocyclohexane, and Di-2-ethyl-hexyl-phthalate) was conducted within the Siret River basin, during the period 2015–2020. With this purpose, 21 sampling points (18 river sections and 3 lakes) were considered to assess the water quality. The results of this study proved that the water quality within the Siret River basin is generally classified in the 2nd or 3rd class. The spatial distribution of the water quality index values, using ARCGIS, also highlighted the fact that the water quality is mostly unsuitable for drinking water supplies, being influenced by the quality of its main tributaries, as well as by the effluent of wastewater treatment plants.
Highlights
As a response to the concerns related to the anthropogenic water pollution, water scarcity and for ensuring the safety of drinking water supplies in an integrated way, at the level of river basins, the Water Framework Directive (WFD), 2000/60/EC was developed and enforced at the European Union (EU) level, stating that by 2015, all waters should achieve good status [1–3]
Other studies developed for Romanian river basins considered only the general physical-chemical parameters currently monitored, e.g., Romanescu et al [65] evaluated the water quality index (WQI), in the case of Ozana River located in the North-East area of Romania, and the results revealed that the nitrites and phosphorus are the main pollutants in this area
This study successfully showed that the monitoring of priority pollutants is a very important stage in assessing the water quality suitable for drinking-water production in the Siret River basin, and contributing to the improvement of the River Basin Management Plan and implementation of WFD
Summary
As a response to the concerns related to the anthropogenic water pollution, water scarcity and for ensuring the safety of drinking water supplies in an integrated way, at the level of river basins, the Water Framework Directive (WFD), 2000/60/EC was developed and enforced at the European Union (EU) level, stating that by 2015, all waters (surface and ground waters) should achieve good status [1–3]. Industrial activities are responsible for the discharge of effluents with a wide range of inorganic and organic compounds that belong to the priority (PPs) and emerging pollutants (EPs) classes, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides, heavy metals, detergents, and flame-retardants being only a few examples of such pollutants. Through their presence, eco-toxicological and human health effects, bio-accumulative, and degradation characteristics may influence aquatic biota and the performance and costs of water and wastewater treatment plants [4]. As in the case of other pollutants, they are released into the aquatic ecosystem by both natural and anthropogenic processes [12]
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