2.) Regional monitoring of waste water for priority substances

In municipal water treatment plants in Germany, priority substances (such as heavy metals, pesticides, and chlorinated compounds) designated by the EU in a 2008 guideline are presently being insufficiently removed from waste water. Furthermore, the effluent from water treatment plants is not being investigated for these substances with any consistent procedure. There is no standard process for sampling and analysis at the federal level. This is where a pioneering project by the Bioplan Landeskulturgesellschaft, of Sinsheim, takes up the issue with the following goals:

• Sampling, test sample preparation and analysis of priority substances in waste water are to be developed.

• The behavior of these substances in municipal waste water treatment facilities is to be investigated in order to generate realistic emission factors for the approaches selected relative to treatment plant effluent, combined sewer overflow, and rainwater drainage.

• Nationally and internationally available data records are to be analyzed and evaluated, in order to derive from them emission factors for priority substances.