Cause and effect relationship between foam formation and treated wastewater effluents in a transboundary river

Is it sufficient to meet threshold values downstream of a discharge, even if this leaves no more space for future development? Is it simply bad luck for a downstream country, if threshold values are filled up at the border and there is no more space for additional emissions? If not: what are the criteria to distribute acceptable emissions between countries and regions? Who pays according to the "polluter pays" principle in a case, if several polluters contribute to the pollution, but the most cost-effective measures to reach the good status concern only some of the emitters/enterprises? There are little experiences with those and other related questions in Austria and many other EU-member states. This contribution intends to discuss these issues based on actual problems and would like to raise awareness for several of these unsolved questions.

Section: The Combined Approach For Several Point Sources In a Catchmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

The combined approach—a challenge for border crossing water quality issues in Austria

Zessner

2008

“…Its "revival" maybe a result of the more sensible attitude of people towards their environment, and the visibility of foam attracts more public attention than "hidden" chemical pollution. Thus, identification of foam-causing substances, their origin and elimination, as well as the handling of the legal aspects and the public concern are new challenges to be met, in order to solve foam formation problems (Ruzicka et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foam formation on an Austrian–Hungarian lowland river: reasons, methods and solutions

Ruzicka

Gabriel

Wegricht

et al. 2009

“…The monitoring system was embedded in a research project which included detailed investigations of all emitters (municipal and industrial) focusing on the properties of their effluent with respect to a potential contribution to the foam related problems (Ruzicka et al 2007). Special methods have been developed to classify the potential contribution of point source effluents to foam building, considering the dilution effect of the receiving river.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Again, the continuous measurements show a very good agreement with the reference measurements.The main goal of the investigations was to detect sources and processes related to the periodic buildup of foam at the monitored river stretch. In order to classify the magnitude of foam a so called 'foam index' was developed(Ruzicka et al 2007), which ranks the extent of foam occurrence by means of a number system (0.06.0 in steps of 0.5 with 0.0 indicating no foam).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigative monitoring in the context of detecting anthropogenic impact on an epipotamal river

Zessner

Saracevic

Ruzicka

et al. 2008

In the context of an investigative monitoring programme a monitoring system comprising of a water quality monitoring station and a camera station has been installed and operated for more than one year. The monitoring target was to investigate changes of water quality which can be related to a repeated occurrence of foam, observed at a river stretch downstream the monitoring station. The extent and frequency of foam buildup was recorded by means of the camera station. The analysis of the online data clearly showed that some of the measured parameters can be used as indicators for specific discharges, which from additional targeted investigations could be identified as contributors to the foaming problems. The continuous ammonium measurement could be used to detect nitrification problems of WWTPs discharging upstream of the monitoring station. By combining different data sources (emission data, operative and investigative monitoring data) additional information can be gained, which can be used for a comprehensive data assessment as well as a detailed system analysis.