Germany: nitrate pollution from agricultural sources continues to be considerable; large-scale exceedances of limit values in groundwater
In January 2017 Germany published its most recent report on nitrates pollution of waters ("Nitratbericht 2016", for the monitoring period up to and including 2014), in line with the obligations under the EU Nitrates Directive[1]. The report underlines that agricultural fertilisers continue to negatively affect water quality in Germany, in particular groundwaters.
Almost one third of the monitoring points for groundwater quality show excessive nitrate values.
Only negligible improvements in the status of groundwater quality have been observed: Comparing the 2008-2011 monitoring results with those of 2012-2014, almost no increase in the share of non-polluted or low-level-polluted groundwaters has been observed - contrary to earlier predictions pointing indicating distinct improvements. 28% of monitoring points showed values above the limit value of 50 mg/l nitrate. By contrast, this limit value is not exceeded in rivers and lakes.
In terms of geographical distribution, a considerable number of exceedances has been monitored in the regions ('Bundesländer') of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, with lower numbers of exceedances in other regions; the regions of Saarland and Berlin showed no groundwater values above 50 mg/l.
As regards marine waters, eutrophication continues to be a major problem in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, with elevated phosphorus and nitrogen inputs leading to excessive algae growth. By contrast, inputs into rivers and lakes show a slight decrease.
Sources: German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, German Water Association (DWA), HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission)
For further reading:
Germany Nitrates Report (Jan 2017, DE only)
http://www.bmub.bund.de/fileadmin/Daten_BMU/Download_PDF/Binnengewaesser/nitratbericht_2016_bf.pdf
HELCOM " Eutrophication status
of the Baltic Sea 2007-2011", Helsinki 2014[1] Directive 91/676/EEC concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources