Safely using the Elbe sediments for agricultural purposes, as laid down by the IKSE when it was founded, has been impossible so far, The sediment-bound transport of pollutants is one of the reasons why the good chemical status compliant with the EU-WFD in the Elbe catchment and the North Sea (concurrent with other river inputs) in line with the EU-Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is failed.
physical geography and environmental geoscience
The history of the river Elbe's pollutant load goes back more than 100 years.
Environment/Natural resources/Water/Rivers
Depending on the type of pollutant and the sub-catchment, the period 1950-1990 marks the maximum pollutant load of the rivers Elbe, Saale and Mulde.
Environment/Environmental pollution/Water pollution
The history of the river Elbe's pollutant load goes back more than 100 years. At least since the mid-19th century, the pollution of the Elbe has caused occasional and partial disruptions of the drinking water production. The increasing discharge of insufficiently treated industrial and municipal wastewater in the first half of the 20th century seriously impaired further relevant utilisations. The extremely high phenol load, for instance, caused the typical smell of the Elbe that is preserved in old sediments. As from the mid-19th century, fish from the Elbe was no longer edible. Depending on the type of pollutant and the sub-catchment, the period 1950-1990 marks the maximum pollutant load of the rivers Elbe, Saale and Mulde. Notably the collapse of the industry combined with a conversion of production in the remaining companies, the extensive structural transformation of agriculture, area-wide construction of new sewage plants and refitting of existing plants, resulted in a major improvement of the pollution load in the entire Elbe catchment in the 1990ies. The situation has further improved ever since the founding of the International Commission for the protection of the Elbe river (IKSE), accompanied by the establishment and implementation of action programmes aiming at the reduction of pollutants. However, further reduction has slowed down since the turn of the millennium. In the recent years, not only a stagnation of the pollution level could be observed, but even a partial deterioration. The objective of the WFD, to reach a good water quality by 2015, is failed in the entire catchment. Safely using the Elbe sediments for agricultural purposes, as laid down by the IKSE when it was founded, has been impossible so far, The sediment-bound transport of pollutants is one of the reasons why the good chemical status compliant with the EU-WFD in the Elbe catchment and the North Sea (concurrent with other river inputs) in line with the EU-Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is failed. Further measures of supraregional impact need to be taken to achieve a good material quality of suspended matter /sediments in the foreseeable future. A catchment-wide cooperation in water management aiming at pollution reduction within the scope of a supportive community is the only viable approach. This requires both temporal and spatial monitoring of all relevant uses across the entire river and its wetlands. Based on these claims on water utilization, sediment quality targets need to be derived and bindingly defined. The joint improvement of sediment quality is to be acknowledged as an essential element of the 1:1 implementation of the WED. Subject to strict accordance with and systematic implementation of the recommendations for action made by the sediment management concepts of the FGG Elbe (River Basin Commission Elbe) and IKSE (International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River), it can be expected that the majority of the currently Elbe specific inorganic and organic pollutants will (at least) fall below the upper threshold value, at the latest by the end of the third management cycle in keeping with WFD. This would mean that there would be no relevant restrictions to any significant uses. To achieve a generally good sediment quality, i.e. compliance with all lower threshold values pursuant to FGG ELBE (2013a) or IKSE (2014), would require further sanitation measures.
Development of particle-bound pollution in the Elbe river
CNR-ISMAR, and Generation Service. "Development of particle-bound pollution in the Elbe river." ROHub. Jun 20 ,2018. https://w3id.org/ro-id/b38df6e1-16d6-4d65-bc78-585d37d4ca93.
Economy, business and finance/Economic sector/Chemicals/Organic chemical