Sub-group on Prioritisation of Emerging Contaminants in Groundwater 1 st meeting - Introduction Dr. Benjamin Lopez (Fr. Geo. Survey) UBA - Bismarckplatz, Berlin-Charlottenburg – Thursday 21 st of April 2015 –

REMINDERS Why to prioritise emerging contaminants (ECs)? > To conform the regulation (WFD and GWD) WFD 2013/39/EU “Review the list of substances designated as Priority Substances and Priority Hazardous Substances” Recital (4) of the GWD 2014/80/EU states the need “to obtain and respond to new information on other substances posing a potential risk […] to groundwater”. > Huge amount of existing chemicals substances 100,204 chemical substances identified in the EU in 2005 (EINECS*) ECHA Database contains 13,052 unique substances and contains information from 50,405 Dossiers (last updated 25 February 2015) … So it is impossible to assess and monitor all substances > Choices have to be made to focus on certain substances among all existing chemicals to come to consensus about key/priority substances regarding envrionemental and/or health protection objectives * European INventory of Existing Commercial Substances

> 3 > The global aims of the prioritization in NORMAN Classify candidates substances into action categories Rank substances in categories with regard to their environmental and human risks Identify knowledge gaps and actions to be taken by the research community and public authorities to fill them. How is it currently done in NORMAN? A NORMAN prioritization decision tree is mainly elaborated within the scope of surface waters environmental risk assessment…

How did the idea of a GW sub-group come to be? dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 4 Since 2010, CEP has been mandated by the Ministry of the Environment to: Identify emerging substances of interest to be monitored in the aquatic environment during a 2012 national screening Select the priority substances of the ecological status Provide list of emerging substances for the “roadmap of the ecological transition” Select the relevant substances to be regular monitored in surface waters Create the list of substances to be regular monitored in groundwater during the new WFD cycle (Eq. Cat. 1) At the French national scale, the NORMAN prioritization decision tree and the scoring are transposed, used and discussed by the Prioritization Expert Comity (CEP)

This exercice revealed that the prioritisation scheme can be use to prioritise ECs in GW … f … under the condition of being adapted to the GW specific data, objectives and uses dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 5

Why set up a GW prioritisation specific group? > There are many different uses of GW resulting in different objectives of resource protection dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 6 This collage only represents a few uses of groundwater -Water supply -Irrigation -Industry -GW Dependent or Associated Ecosystems -…

> For many ECs there may be multiple pathways to groundwater and associated receptors dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 7 Schematic diagram, using the source-pathway-receptor approach, highlighting potential sources and pathways for groundwater pollution by EOCs (Lapworth et al., 2012) Processes that should affect the nature of groundwater pollutants: Leaching, retention, attenuation, partial degradation, transformation…

> Different pathways to GW compare to SW result in different substances expected in GW and SW Ex Screening of ECs in surface water (n=29,280) dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 8

dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > Screening of ECs in groundwater (n=393,191) B. Lopez et al. STOTEN 518–519 (2015) 562–573

Ex. French overseas 2012 SW and GW ECs screening campaigns same labo., same LOQ, same sampling period - 51 common ECs > For groundwater, difficulties in understanding these processes are compounded by paucity of information compared to surface water dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 10

> Within a same family (same uses), there are not the same compound occurrences in surface and groundwater > Ex. of poly and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Overseas France (Munoz G., et al.; to be published) > Long-chain PFOS and PFOA prevailed in surface water Vs. short-chain PFBS, PFHxS and PFHxA in groundwater dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 11 Overseas surface waters (n=75)Overseas groundwater (n=80)

> In line with its missions, NORMAN (this WG) could work at the development of such a GW Prioritisation methodology and provide recommendations / input to the Watch(ed) List Members States’ initiative > Do we agree that there is a need for a specific NORMAN Sub-group on Prioritisation of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Groundwater? dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 12

“Groundwater Watch(ed) List” sub-group activities in the EU WG-C. > Recital (4) of the GWD 2014/80/EU requirement In order to identify substances those pose a “potential risk to bodies of groundwater”, an initiative at the level of the European Working Group C “Groundwater” has recently been launched to establish a watch(ed) list for pollutants of groundwater, including emerging pollutants. > Last meeting of GW WG-C April 2015 > Presentation of these activities by Rüdiger Wolter (UBA) leader of the GW Watch(ed) list of the EU Commission dimanche 20 décembre 2015 > 13