danger and economic losses in such cases
depends on speed of acceptance of the management decisions directed to their prevention and
elimination.
To control quality of the natural water
incoming on water intakes of water supply in
some European countries since the beginning of
the 1970s at the drinking water supply (WS)
Early Warning Systems (EWS) were started to
use. The systems are based on continuous realtime measurements of integrated water physicalchemical characteristics. In the case of intensive
accidental pollution of water source, the intake
can be stopped for several days or weeks, that
lead to decrease in necessary amount of drinking
water supply for the population.
The fire case in stock of the Sandoz pharmaceutical plant near Basel in 1986, when many
toxic substances were dumped to Rhine together
with firefighting water, that led to death of almost
all live organisms in the river up to 100 km
downstream. The result was a forced stop of a
number of waterworks for a period of up to
9 days. This became a milestone event for
paradigm shift of the EWSs. This case most
visually has designated for all European companies managing water resources a problem of
drinking WS of the population in the case of
similar emergency pollution of water of sources
and stimulated development of biological early
warning systems—BEWSs. The main BEWS
requirements are:
– Assessment of chemical danger of surface
water, and in particular, sources of community drinking WS is to be based on reliable
and operative information.
– Careful selection of real-time water quality
control methods and technologies.
At the same time, it is not known in advance
what kind and origin of pollutants (or their
mixture) will cause threats for ecological safety
of the population. Besides, modern physical–
chemical characteristics monitoring systems do
not give the possibility to determine toxicity
level for live organisms due to cumulative
effects. Thus, nowadays, it is strongly recommended to use biological methods of monitoring,
taking into account synergism of the operating
factors, to reveal changes in environmental
quality negative for a biota (Borcherding 2006;
Depledge et al. 1995; Hagger et al. 2009;
Kholodkevich et al. 2008).
Biological methods are recommended as an
additional method (Directive 2000/60/EC) and as
a tool for integrated environmental monitoring.
Methods “work well” at the level of an organism
and indicate the biological pollution effects
(Depledge and Andersen 1990; Depledge et al.
1995; Handy and Depledge 1999; Kholodkevich
and Kuznetsova 2014; Kuznetsova and Kholodkevich 2015). In this regard, biological methods
are useful to develop science-based methods of
environmental risk assessment (Moore et al.
2004).
Main objectives of chemical and toxicological
monitoring systems for surface water bodies for
centralized drinking water supply by means of
EWSs are the following:
– ensuring work of water supply station in the
presence in surface natural water of high
toxicity.
Thus, the aim of EWSs is to support of the
management decisions directed to minimization
of environmental risks in the case of dangerous
water quality changes at WS.
In EWSs, living organisms are universal
sensors, able to respond to wide range of toxicants negative action. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved
the list of biosensor organisms and test reactions
in which benthic invertebrates, in particular
bivalves, take the important place (ISO standards). The list of relevant species of organisms
and their response reactions are presented in a
number of papers (Baldwin and Kramer 1994;
Gerhardt 2000; Kholodkevich and Kuznetsova
2014). Bacteria, algae, fishes, plankton invertebrates, freshwater mollusks and other species of
the invertebrates are used as test-organisms in the
EWSs.
128
S. V. Kholodkevich et al.
depends on speed of acceptance of the management decisions directed to their prevention and
elimination.
To control quality of the natural water
incoming on water intakes of water supply in
some European countries since the beginning of
the 1970s at the drinking water supply (WS)
Early Warning Systems (EWS) were started to
use. The systems are based on continuous realtime measurements of integrated water physicalchemical characteristics. In the case of intensive
accidental pollution of water source, the intake
can be stopped for several days or weeks, that
lead to decrease in necessary amount of drinking
water supply for the population.
The fire case in stock of the Sandoz pharmaceutical plant near Basel in 1986, when many
toxic substances were dumped to Rhine together
with firefighting water, that led to death of almost
all live organisms in the river up to 100 km
downstream. The result was a forced stop of a
number of waterworks for a period of up to
9 days. This became a milestone event for
paradigm shift of the EWSs. This case most
visually has designated for all European companies managing water resources a problem of
drinking WS of the population in the case of
similar emergency pollution of water of sources
and stimulated development of biological early
warning systems—BEWSs. The main BEWS
requirements are:
– Assessment of chemical danger of surface
water, and in particular, sources of community drinking WS is to be based on reliable
and operative information.
– Careful selection of real-time water quality
control methods and technologies.
At the same time, it is not known in advance
what kind and origin of pollutants (or their
mixture) will cause threats for ecological safety
of the population. Besides, modern physical–
chemical characteristics monitoring systems do
not give the possibility to determine toxicity
level for live organisms due to cumulative
effects. Thus, nowadays, it is strongly recommended to use biological methods of monitoring,
taking into account synergism of the operating
factors, to reveal changes in environmental
quality negative for a biota (Borcherding 2006;
Depledge et al. 1995; Hagger et al. 2009;
Kholodkevich et al. 2008).
Biological methods are recommended as an
additional method (Directive 2000/60/EC) and as
a tool for integrated environmental monitoring.
Methods “work well” at the level of an organism
and indicate the biological pollution effects
(Depledge and Andersen 1990; Depledge et al.
1995; Handy and Depledge 1999; Kholodkevich
and Kuznetsova 2014; Kuznetsova and Kholodkevich 2015). In this regard, biological methods
are useful to develop science-based methods of
environmental risk assessment (Moore et al.
2004).
Main objectives of chemical and toxicological
monitoring systems for surface water bodies for
centralized drinking water supply by means of
EWSs are the following:
– ensuring work of water supply station in the
presence in surface natural water of high
toxicity.
Thus, the aim of EWSs is to support of the
management decisions directed to minimization
of environmental risks in the case of dangerous
water quality changes at WS.
In EWSs, living organisms are universal
sensors, able to respond to wide range of toxicants negative action. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved
the list of biosensor organisms and test reactions
in which benthic invertebrates, in particular
bivalves, take the important place (ISO standards). The list of relevant species of organisms
and their response reactions are presented in a
number of papers (Baldwin and Kramer 1994;
Gerhardt 2000; Kholodkevich and Kuznetsova
2014). Bacteria, algae, fishes, plankton invertebrates, freshwater mollusks and other species of
the invertebrates are used as test-organisms in the
EWSs.
128
S. V. Kholodkevich et al.