Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Austria

1. Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Austria Groundwater quality aspects – procedures applied and current state Sebastian Holub Federal Environment Agency - Austria

2. Outline of the presentation • Introduction • Delineation and characterisation of GW-bodies • Risk assessment (According Art. 5) • GW-quality monitoring and next steps • Background information • Responsible Authority: Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management • www.lebensministerium.at

3. Introduction General information - Austria: • Water resources: • average annual precipitation is 1170 mm • the overall resource is about 84 billion m³ per year • one third of this amount is groundwater • => Austria is a water rich country • Groundwater (GW) is the major resource for drinking water in Austria (99 %) - abstracted from • about 50% groundwater inporous media – which is mainly in the flat areas along the rivers in Austria and • about 50% groundwater inkarstic and fractured rock – mainly in the alpine region of Austria – hence • Groundwater protection and GW quality monitoring plays an important role (legal basis: Federal Water Act and respective Ordinances)

4. Existing GW-Quality Monitoring Network Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network in Austria

5. Delineation of GW-bodies for WFD Delineation Criteria • Size, Homogeneity (geological / hydrogeological) • Utilisation, economic importance, risk potential • Single porous GW-bodies (>50 km², economic importance) • Groups of GW-bodies • Taking into account • Existing national monitoring network • Complete coverage of Austria by shallow GW-bodies • due to importance of GW (~99 % of drinking water from GW) • Assignment to 3 Aquifer Types • Porous, Fractured, Karst

6. Number of GW-bodies Size: GW-bodies (6 – 1,200 km²), Groups (8 - 11,000 km²)

7. Groundwater bodies in Austria

8. Characterisation of GW-bodies Parts of characterisation • Verbal description • 3-4 pages description • Including geological sketches, profiles • Standardised Data Sheet • Online web formular • Prefilled with national available information • Completed and validated by Provincial Authorities

10. Diffuse sources, point sources, overlying strata Sources of information • Characterisation • National Hydrological Atlas (Precipitation, Hydrogeology …), • Geological Surveys, • Expert judgement • Diffuse sources • Austrian statistics (Live stock units, land use, settlements…) • CORINE Landcover • Point sources • Register on contaminated sites, IPPC,… • Overlying strata • FAO soil map, • Austrian soil map • Surveys and expert judgement for confining layers

11. Risk assessment (Art. 5 WFD) – GW quality Risk assessment mainly based on existing GW-quality data Precondition • monitoring network is representativ for the GW-body – tests performed - three categories: representativ, partly representativ or not representativ • For those GW-bodies with partly sufficient or insufficient network design – statistically based approach for estimation of concentration level was applied (using monitoring data, pressure information, natural conditions etc.) • The method was developed and tested in a pilot project

12. Risk assessment (Art. 5 WFD) – GW quality Criteria for assessing the risk of failing good chemical status of groundwater • Based on existing national legislation(Ordinance on Groundwater Threshold Values) • Assessment period: 2 years, • arithmetic mean for individual sampling site • If 50% of sampling sites within a GW-body exceed the threshold (e.g. for nitrate 45 mg/l) or • Increasing trend with endpoint exceeding 75% of drinking water standard •  Risk of failing good chemical status

13. Risk assessment (Art. 5) – GW quantity Assessment of the available GW resource • Critical groundwater level (single GW-bodies) • Ecology, uses, flow direction, groundwater quality • Renewal rate (single GW-bodies with limited knowledge) • Low discharge in rivers • GW availability types - Combination of mean GW renewal from precipitation and available GW resource to mean GW renewal (groups of GW-bodies)

14. Risk assessment (Art. 5 WFD) • Results Parts of two further GW-bodies are additionally identified due to existing legal provisions.

15. Key figures of existing monitoring network • GW-in Porous media ~ 1800 sites • Karst-GW and GW in fractured rock ~ 250 sampling sites • sampling as a rule 4x a year • costs of analyses and data transfer are met by federal (2/3) and provincial (1/3) authorities • costs of selection and establishing sampling sites are met totally by federal authorities • costs per year: 2,2 to 2,9 Mio. Euro • cyclic procedure – 6 years • 1 year extended investigation programme • 5 years programme according to the results of year 1 – but minimum programme is ensured

16. Network adaptation • until End 2006 adaptation of the existing GW-Quality Monitoring Network according to the new GW-bodies and WFD as far as required. • Analysis for adaptation needs to new WFD GW-bodies mainly based on information of the Art. 5 Analyses e.g.: • GW-flow direction, • point and diffuse sources of pollution, • soil characteristics, • Overlying strata • sampling site density and spatial distribution • ....... • Network has been adapted by end of 2005 (minor changes 2006) • Tendering procedure in 2006 • Monitoring network operative by Dec 2006

17. Example: information used for network adaptationMEAN DISTANCE TO GW Network adaptation

18. Network adaptation Example: information used for network adaptationDIFFUSE POLLUTION

19. Example: information used for network adaptationCORINE LANDCOVER - SITE Network adaptation

20. Background information • Hydrochemical map of Austria • elaborated by the Umweltbundesamt, supported by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management • hydrochemical water types • contribution to the delineation of GW-bodies • GEOHINT - Austrianwide assessment of regionalized, hydrochemical background concentrations in shallow GW-bodies • performed by Geologische Bundesanstalt, which is the Geological Servey of Austria, under contract to the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

22. Hydrochemical background concentration

23. Thank you!