Danube River Basin Waters on Romanian Territory: Chemical Status Assessment Based on Priority Substances Data Analysis

Abstract

Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) sets out a series of legal measures at European level against surface waters chemical pollution. The EU-list, annex of the WFD, contains those substances that present a significant risk to human health via aquatic environment, known as priority substances. In the last ten years, the Danube water quality has improved significantly. Instead, heavy metals concentrations in the tributaries waters sometimes were found to be rather highest and the chemical status is not in-line with the WFD requirements. Therefore, the Danube River Basin (DRB) waters quality showed a significant variability in terms of priority substances due to the diverse human activities, especially mining activities. This research paper aims to assess the chemical status of the DRB waters located on Romania territory regarding six heavy metals: Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, Cu, and Zn by analysing water and sediment samples collected from different areas (south-west and north-west of Romania). Based on the obtained results by evaluating the quality elements, the water chemical status of DRB achieved a good chemical status for 74% of water samples and 55% of sediment samples. Also, the basic statistic and multivariate analysis were used to explore the relationship between the concentration values obtained for priority substances to underlying the water quality assessment.