Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2016 (96. évfolyam)
2016 / 3. szám - HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT - Kerekes-Steindl Zsuzsanna: Water quality protection in Hungary - policy and status
50 Hungarian Journal of Hydrology Vol. 96. No. 3. 2016. the State and partly by the users. The basic principles of quality monitoring and details of operation are prescribed by the 30/2004 KvVM ministerial decree. The quantitative monitoring rules are laid down in the 45/2014 BM ministerial decree. The WFD compliant network is composed of two subsystems. The first one is the regional (surveillance) monitoring operated by State and local government organizations. This subprogram monitors the In accordance with WFD, the monitoring network was set up on two-level subprograms (surveillance and operative). For the assessment of groundwater status 6 surveillance subprograms are in operation in Hungary, from which 2 deals with quantitative and 4 deals with chemical status parameters. The quantitative measurements cover the water level and water load observations. The qualitative parameters measured are the general physical-chemical components prescribed by WFD, but in some chemical subprograms special pollutants, like organic solvents, hydrocarbons, other specific carcinogenic compounds (e.g. benzene, vinyl chloride), heavy metals are also analysed. The frequency of the sampling is generally 1-2 per year. The operative monitoring consists of 4 subprograms, aiming the investigation of more specific problem. Regular sampling and analysis of groundwater take place from about 1750 wells. METODOLOGY OF ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY STATUS The water quality status assessments on the basis of the monitoring results have to be based on comparable, purpose-designed evaluation systems. In the last decades not only the principles of water quality monitoring networks improved a lot, but similarly the methodologies of assessment of the water status. quantitative status of groundwater observing the longterm changes of the qualitative status, caused by natural factors and human diffuse impacts (non-point pollution sources). Other part is the environmental use monitoring, which is composed of measurements and observations implemented by the users of environment, observing the impact of point sources (e.g. waste disposals, industrial installations). Surface water In the 1960-70s the quality assessment took into account the sort of water uses (e.g. drinking water, irrigation water), and were based on national and international standards and on technical guidelines. In 1983 three-class assessment system was introduced by the MSZ-10-172 national standard method. It was replaced by the MSZ 12749 national standard assessment method in 1994. The new standard took already into consideration the ecological aspects as principle, but only on very basic level. The measured parameters were divided into 5 groups (oxygen-household, nutrients, microbiological-, micro pollutant- and „other” components). Each parameter group was assessed in 5 quality class system (excellent, good, acceptable, bad and very bad) using the yearly occurred worst concentrations for assessment. The same limit values were valid for all types of waters. Each year the assessment and a map about the quality of water were prepared and published (Fig. 4). Today the data of the WFD compatible surface water monitoring has to be assessed on the basis of uniform, comparable principles in the EU countries. The status assessment mainly focuses on ecological aspects, therefore the so called type-specific qualification system was created in Hungary in last years. 10 river and 8 lake types were determined. Ministerial degrees contain the main Figure 3. Danube Transnational Monitoring Network (TNMN) sampling sites (ICPDR TNMN Yearbook, 2014)
