Newsletter 6: WPT2 Report

Have expectations been met?

Many countries in Central Europe are dealing with the impacts of groundwater pollution that has occurred since the late 19th century and in the 20th century as a result of improper handling of contaminants. Groundwater contamination is a problem that goes beyond any administrative boundaries and the originally limited areas of polluted groundwater have left industrial boundaries and become a risk to further development of Functional Urban Areas (FUAs).

12 project partners had prepared in Application Form for Project AMIIGA sets of pilot activities for 7 pilot FUAs, these should help to clarify specific uncertainties, thus enabling the development of a management strategy and a long-term management plan to address pollution on specific FUAs.

• Have expectations of partners been met within the Project AMIIGA?
• How do partners assess the benefits of the project for their pilot sites?

Mr. Goran Gjetvaj, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Croatia (Partner No. 11) – Pilot Action – FUA Bokanjac-Zadar

“Within AMIIGA project, Integral Pumping Tests (innovative tool developed within the project FOKS) was conducted for the first time in karst aquifer. The results confirmed that the main source of microbiological pollution is released from inadequate septic tanks and it threatens and damages groundwater resources. The project AMIIGA helped us to understand the groundwater flow and transport of polluters in Bokanjac-Policnik aquifer by developing a numerical flow model. Besides, we increased with the AMIIGA our laboratory’s analytical capabilities by purchasing a new Discrete Analyzer-Gallery and Gas chromatograph what enable us to the detection of new potential GW pollution.”

Mr. Joerg Preston, Geological Survey of Slovenia, Slovenia (Partner No.9) – Pilot Action – FUA Ljubljana - IG

“Thanks to the AMIIGA project co-financing and international cooperation, we were able to use and demonstrate beneficial use of FOKS and AMIIGA tools, such as GIS – protocol to establish common database of monitoring data, numerical modelling and backtracking the pollution origins, biomolecular tool (BMT) and compound stable isotope analysis (CSIA) as well as the rich experiences of pollution management in cities of Jaworzno, Milano, Novy Bydzov, Parma, Stuttgart and Zadar. We could execute a great spectrum of activities which enabled us to elaborate as the first in Slovenia the Management Plan that defines development targets and target values that must be achieved for safe water supply and high-level functionality of urban area in next decades.”

Mrs. Valentina Caimi, Lombardy Region, Italy (Partner No.6) – Pilot Action - FUA Milan

“AMIIGA project enabled the implementation of instruments aimed at distinguishing point sources of groundwater pollution from diffuse contamination and a set of measures, the Management Plan, to monitor and manage the present pollution and prevent further groundwater contamination. We could perform within the AMIIGA many activities as the collection of all available hydrogeological and groundwater monitoring data on GIS platform, the optimization of existing groundwater network with 6 new monitoring wells added by 3 sampling campaigns, development of hydrogeological numerical and inverse transport model for FUA. Multivariate analysis of available monitoring data allowed us to determine the concentrations representative for the diffuse contamination and distinguish the diffuse contamination from the point sources. This approach can be considered very innovative.”

Mr. Marco Ghirardi, Parma Municipality, Italy (Partner No.8) – Pilot Action - FUA Parma

“The application of the AMIIGA project has led us to identify a new situation of contamination of the shallow aquifer with chlorinated hydrocarbons around the Arlecchino kindergarten: the adopted consequence is the start of a technical-bureaucratic process that will lead to manage the pollution phenomenon: a Risk Analysis will be elaborated.

A second action was the development of the groundwater monitoring network within the urbanized area of Parma: 7 new monitoring wells - piezometers were drilled, that allowed us to control the quality of the groundwater environment in the area of the Oltretorrente.”

Mrs. Milena Zakova, The City of Novy Bydzov, Czech Republic (Partner No.8) – Pilot Action - FUA Novy Bydzov

“In the project AMIIGA, the innovative remedial technology Biological Enhanced Reductive Dehalogenation (BRD) has been applied for decreasing the contents of chlorinated hydrocarbons in groundwater in the working area in FUA Novy Bydzov. The Pilot Action Novy Bydzov demonstrates the exemplary case study of processing the biologically enhanced remediation of groundwater polluted with chlorinated hydrocarbons. Pilot Action in FUA Novy Bydzov performs the key steps assuring the effective and sustainable remediation- testing remedial procedures in laboratory scale, then verifying in the field in pilot scale before the full scale application.

The project AMIIGA was a springboard for the City of Nový Bydžov for the implementation of complete removal of groundwater pollution in the functional urban area of Novy Bydzov.”

Mrs. Justyna Moycho, City of Jaworzno, Poland – Pilot Action (Partner No.2) – FUA Jaworzno

“In the AMIIGA pilot action, the novel technology of passive bioreactive barrier (PRB) has been applied for decreasing the contents of HCH in groundwater in the area of groundwater contamination with pesticides downstream the Chemical Plant Organika-Azot S.A. PRB technology is a novel groundwater remediation method which allows to combine of physical, chemical and biological in situ treatment of contaminated groundwater using different reactive materials, such as: iron chips, sand, peat, biochar and bacteria inoculum. Performed Pilot Action has met planned expectations and brought the following achievements: Reduction of HCH groundwater pollution at the testing site, confirmation the potential of the passive bioreactive barrier technology for groundwater treatment application, especially in the term of HCH pollution removal in FUA Jaworzno.”

Mrs. Sandra Vasin, State Capital of Stuttgart, Germany (Partner No.3) – Pilot Action – FUA Stuttgart - Feuerbach

“AMIIGA project enabled the City of Stuttgart to address the issue of the existing mixed CHC-plumes in public areas and their potential threat to deep aquifers. Performed integral investigations in pilot action and investments enabled to update and improve the knowledge about groundwater flow and transport of CHCs in complex hydrogeological conditions. By identifying one major groundwater aquifer (Bochinger Horizont – BH) out of seven, it was possible to design an integral monitoring network (IMN), which was tested and proved to be effective for description of the integral contaminant situation in Stuttgart-Feuerbach. The obtained findings helped establishing a groundwater management plan for the working area Stuttgart-Feuerbach as well, aiming at a reduction of groundwater contamination and ensuring the good groundwater status.”