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Substance Flow Analysis of Mercury Affecting Water Quality in the European Union

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Abstract

Knowledge concerning the main flows of priority substances (PSs) and the production systems and consumption structures in the society causing these flows is a prerequisite for any attempt to predict and understand their environmental fate as well as to efficiently minimize future environmental burdens. In this paper, a simple SFA diagram on mercury, including the main European Union (EU-27) source categories, flows and environmental endpoints which in turn affect the mercury concentrations in the EU-27 waters are illustrated. From trend analysis and future projections, it becomes obvious that emissions of mercury as a trace contaminant in fuels and minerals (primary anthropogenic emission sources) are becoming increasingly important to the environmental concentrations compared to emissions from mercury used intentionally (secondary anthropogenic sources). Additional future control strategies should therefore be targeted industrial sources and safe treatment of mercury-containing wastes, wastewater effluents, as well as residues collected from various combustion processes. It was found that knowledge on flows and emission sources on a large geographical scale is limited due to a lack of information on emission factors from various industrial processes and waste systems, especially for the mercury being discharges to water and land.

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Notes

  1. The scenario is somewhat unrealistic because it is not constrained by costs associated with implementing control technologies and should be considered a qualified best case scenario.

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Acknowledgements

The substance flow estimates presented in this paper was initially prepared for the European Commission funded SOCOPSE project. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Mrs. Anna Glodek of NILU Polska in Katowice and Dr. Oleg Travnikov of MSC East in Moscow for their contribution on clarifying some of the substance flows. Additional details on the work presented in this paper can be found at http://www.socopse.eu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecology and Economics (CEE), NILU–Norwegian Institute for Air Research, PO Box 100, 2027, Kjeller, Norway

    Kyrre Sundseth, Jozef M. Pacyna & Elisabeth G. Pacyna

  2. Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland

    Jozef M. Pacyna

  3. NILU Polska, 40-514, Katowice, Poland

    Damian Panasiuk

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  1. Kyrre Sundseth
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  2. Jozef M. Pacyna
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  4. Damian Panasiuk
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Correspondence to Kyrre Sundseth.

Additional information

This paper presents a European Union (EU-27)-wide substance flow analysis on mercury obtained and improved from the EU SOCOPSE project funded from the European Commission 6th Framework Programme.

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Sundseth, K., Pacyna, J.M., Pacyna, E.G. et al. Substance Flow Analysis of Mercury Affecting Water Quality in the European Union. Water Air Soil Pollut 223, 429–442 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-011-0871-0

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