Monitoring of priority substances in biota for classifying the environmental quality status of surface water bodies.
(1) ARPA FVG (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection Friuli Venezia-Giulia), Via Cairoli 14, 33057 Palmanova (UD), Italy
The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/CE, implemented by D.Lgs 152/2006 and subsequent amendments, which establishes a shared framework at European level for the implementation of a long-term sustainable policy of use and protection for all waters and establishes environmental quality objectives, provides that monitoring of priority substances is also carried out in water bodies on biota (the list of substances to be searched for was then updated with the subsequent Directive 2013/39 / EU). Starting from 2018, ARPA FVG implemented the chemical monitoring of the water bodies until then performed in the waters, extending them also to this matrix. In compliance with the indications of the Basin Authority of the Eastern Alps District to which the FVG Region belongs, only with the launch of the III river basin management plan the results of these monitoring were used to contribute to the definition of the quality status. The present work therefore illustrates the results of the first three year monitoring period that have highlighted, in all water bodies monitored, the presence of priority substances in concentrations higher than the Environmental Quality Standards. The criteria for choosing the traits to be monitored, the target species, the sampling strategy and the considerations arising from the evaluation are presented. Finally, the critical issues still present in the current sampling and analysis protocols (in terms of lack of both standardization and detail), which affect the results and on the final phase of their evaluation, are currently being discussed in the ISPRA working tables.
Keywords: Priority substances, biota, fishes, water bodies, quality status
