Transitional waters - Micropollutant data - water (years 2008-2021)

The search for polluting substances belonging to the priority list is not carried out, pursuant to Legislative Decree No 172/2015, to assess the possible presence of chemical pollution in surface waters (Table 1/A and 1/B) and in biota (Table 1/A), in order to determine the chemical and ecological status of water bodies. The marine sediments, whose analyses are not used for the classification of chemical status, are monitored every three years in order to carry out the trend analysis of chemical parameters, as required by Legislative Decree No. 172/2015.

Regulatory Insight
The legislation in force (Ministerial Decree 260/2010; Legislative Decree 172/2015) provides that the surveys on certain elements of biological quality or EQB (for example macroinvertebrates for marine waters, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes for transitional waters) are carried out every three years, i.e. one year in the three-year period of operational monitoring; only EQB phytoplankton is monitored every year. Also for the sediment matrix (if not used to classify chemical status), the current legislation indicates a three-year sampling interval for the analysis of the long-term trend of concentrations of priority list substances.