Within the monitoring procedure of the river Gallego to face a possible lindane pollution, samples are analysed daily and results published in stoplindano.es
A factory was producing lindane in Aragon from 1975 to 1989. An estimate of more than 150,000 tons of solid waste with high content of HCH and other organochlorine compounds was produced, and dumped, together with liquid wastes in two landfills. This caused the most severe contamination problem in Aragon. Since 1994, the Government of Aragon implements actions for the control and containment of the contamination.
One of the main actions that is being carried out is to ensure the supply of drinking water and the quality of the irrigation water. The “Gállego river monitoring protocol to face of possible lindane pollution”, coordinates several public administrations and establishes an early alert system.
Within this protocol, samples are taken and analysed in a daily basis in different points of the river Gallego. Results of the analysis are published daily in the website that the Government of Aragon has specifically created for providing information on the lindane waste contamination www.stoplindano.es
Samples are taken by a set of automatic samplers installed in different points of the river. These samplers are integrated, being representative of 24 hours, being one sub-sample collected every 30 minutes. The integrated sample is analysed, and results are published on the website the day of the sample collection.
Stakeholders of this good practice are 2.000 inhabitants that take water for drinking purposes downstream the affected sites.
Resources needed
Resources needed are:
• Five automatic samplers (purchase and installation)
• Reactive and laboratory consumables for the analysis
• Human resources: laboratory staff to perform the analysis and workers to collect samples
• Transport: car rental and petrol
• Website creation and maintenance
Evidence of success
This practice allows citizens of all the municipalities downstream the contaminated sites to be informed in real time about the quality of their water supply. Not only it is an informative measure, but also a safety and a public Health measure.
Potential for learning or transfer
The provision of the sufficient supply of good quality surface water is one of the purposes of the Water Framework Directive, and all Member States are liable and interested in accomplishing it.
The “Gállego river monitoring protocol to face of possible lindane pollution” contribute to this purpose, then, we understand that the transfer of this practice is of interest to all Member States.
Moreover, daily publication of the results of the Gallego water analysis allows citizens to be informed, in a real time basis, about the water quality conditions.
The potential interest of this practice lies in the importance of this measure to ensure the public Health protection.
Its implementation is feasible in all Member States, nevertheless, economic resources needed are high since, in the case of Aragon, more than 1.500 samples are analyzed every year for this purpose.
Additionally, an important effort has been made in the dissemination of this data to make the information educational
Tags: Environment, Water, Monitoring, Soil, Pollution
