Industry

The chemical, energy production, pulp and paper and metal industries are amongst the main industrial polluters in the Danube River Basin. Discharges from such plants significantly raise the levels of heavy metals and organic micro-pollutants in surface waters. Immediate environmental impacts include water and sediment pollution and reduced availability of clean water.

The industrial sector in the DRB shows a wide range of activities. The character of the industrial palette has changed over the course of the last three decades, particularly in the Eastern and Southern countries where the industrial sector has been privatized, restructured, adjusted to the market needs, or closed down due to economic constraints. According to the current industrial inventory of the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) of the European Environment Agency, which disseminates information on the major industrial facilities in Europe, more than 3,000 large facilities operate in the DRB. Energy sector, mineral and chemical industries, metal processing and waste management have the highest number of facilities in the DRB. More than 100 industrial facilities have direct wastewater discharges into surface waters releasing organic materials, nutrients and hazardous substances.

The industrial facilities under the scope of the EU Industrial Emission Directive must have a permit in line with the provisions of the respective Best Available Techniques (BAT) reference documents, including emission limits. Moreover, pollution via industrial and mining accidents is also regulated by the EU Seveso and Mining Waste Directives, minimizing the risk of these accidents through safety measures, accident emergency plans, and early warning systems.

What the ICPDR does

Regular update of a basin-wide catalogue of hazardous industrial, abandoned and mining sites is an important task to be accomplished. Besides identifying the most important potential accident hot-spots the ICPDR ensures that a proper platform for information exchange and know-how transfer is provided for the countries to facilitate risk management in the identified priority industrial fields and recommend particular preventive measures to be implemented.

Recently, the ICPDR implemented the Danube TMF Project (funded by the Advisory Assistance Programme of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, facilitated by the German Environment Agency). The project aimed at contributing to narrow the knowledge gaps and to raise awareness on TMFs and their hazards in the DRB, ensuring to respect a common set of minimum standards and safety requirements in the DRB and strengthening the technical and management capacity at the concerned facilities and responsible authorities. The project organised a demonstration regional training event in Romania to deepen the knowledge of invited TMF operators, environmental inspectors and competent authority experts on TMF management. In addition, practical tools were developed and adapted to the DRB conditions to consistently assess the risk of TMFs located in the DRB (TRI method) and to evaluate their safety and recommend measures to improve safety conditions (checklist methodology).

Downloads

• Reporting Format on Monitoring Waste Water Discharges (9.88 KB)
• Recommendation on BAT in Food Industry (23.92 KB)
• Recommendation on BAT in Chemical Industry (26.71 KB)
• Recommendation on BAT in Chemical Pulping Industry (23.35 KB)
• Recommendation on BAT in Paper Making Industry (19.05 KB)

Links

• EU IPPC Directive
  EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
• European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register
  Website of the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) that replaces and improves upon the previous European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER)
• ISO 14000
  Website of the ISO 14000 Family of International Standards for Environmental Management
• EEA - Industry
  European Environment Agency - Industry