Different types of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are widely distributed and applied on various scales and for various purposes in the European countries, but a systematic categorization and compilation of data has been missing up to now. The European MAR catalogue presented herein contains various key parameters collected from the available literature. The catalogue includes 224 currently active MAR sites found in 23 European countries. Large quantities of drinking water are produced by MAR sites in Hungary,

Commissioned by Germany's Working Group of the Federal States on Water Problems (LAWA) the authors developed a procedure to define natural groundwater conditions from groundwater monitoring data. The distribution pattern of a specific groundwater parameter observed by a number of groundwater monitoring stations within a petrographically comparable groundwater typology is reproduced by two statistical distribution functions, representing the "natural" and "influenced" components. The range of natural groundwater concentrations is characterized by confidence intervals of the distribution function of the natural component. The applicability of the approach was established for four hydrochemically different groundwater typologies occurring throughout Germany. Based on groundwater monitoring data from 7920 groundwater monitoring stations, 15 different hydrochemical parameters were evaluated for each groundwater typology. For all investigated parameters the range of natural groundwater concentrations has been identified. According to the requirements of the EC Water Framework Directive (article 17) (WFD) this study is a basis for the German position to propose criteria for assessing a reference state for a "good groundwater chemical status".

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Antibiotics are deployed in large quantities both in human and in veterinary medicine. Studies show that antibiotic residues occur in the environment (e.g. soil and surface waters). In some cases they were also detected in ground and drinking water. However, the degree of groundwater pollution by antibiotic residues from livestock farming is unknown. Therefore, the federal environment agency (UBA) supported a project that aimed to investigate near-surface groundwater samples in regions of high livestock density and high risk of groundwater exposure to antibiotics. By applying worst case criteria on existing sampling sites of our groundwater monitoring grid (high amounts of manure on site, high precipitation, low adsorption capacity of soils, high nitrate concentrations in ground water, etc.) adequate sampling sites were identified as well as relevant antibiotics (amount of application, water solubility, biological stability, etc.) by a literature review and contacts to local veterinary authorities. In total, groundwater at 48 sampling sites was selected for analyses of 23 antibiotic substances. Out of the 23 antibiotics, only three sulfonamides could be detected and quantified. With regard to the 48 sampling sites, at 39 locations no veterinary antibiotics were detected. At seven locations sulfadimidine and/or sulfadiazine was detected at low concentrations (<0.012 μg/L). Only sulfamethoxazole was repeatedly detected above 0.1 μg/L at two sites. Results show that translocation of veterinary antibiotics into near-surface groundwater in most parts of Germany does not occur above detection limits. Under unfavourable conditions leaching does occur but well below the limit values for pesticides (0.1 μg/L/0.5 μg/L). However, under some extreme conditions (to be identified by further research work) one antibiotic was present in groundwater above the pesticides limit values.

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