1. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 1 Control and Monitoring of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Plants and Data Reporting in Germany Regina Kohlmeyer, Joachim Heidemeier Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin, Germany

2. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 2 Legal implementation of UWWTD 91/271/EEC via... Federal level  Waste Water Ordinance * * see: http://www.bmu.de/files/wastewater_ordinance.pdf Framework technical requirements, minimum emission standards Legal Background Germany Federal system: Distribution of competences, responsibilities and public functions between Federation, 16 Federal States and municipalities. Population about 80 million inhabitants. Federal States  16 „Länder“ Ordinances Additional regulations monitoring frequencies, definition of additional legal terms Enforcement

3. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 3 General UWWT Situation in Germany Predominantly catchment area of sensitive area (Baltic Sea and North Sea); Danube catchment „normal“. High connection rate: - all Germany93% - „Old Federal States“96% - „New Federal States“ (former GDR)76% Urban waste water treatment plants

4. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 4 Development of public wastewater treatment in Germany (% population)

5. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 5 Monitoring Concept

6. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 6 Monitoring Concept - Motivation Why does Germany apply an alternative UWWTP monitoring method? German monitoring concept had been established, before UWWTD came into force. Waste Water Ordinance sets minimum requirements for urban and industrial waste water (more than 50 Appendices for different source categories)  Same system of requirements, monitoring and control for urban and industrial waste water. Quick decision (direct yes/no-decision of each analysis), no averaging, easy enforcement. 6 samples per annum sufficient. Government analyses are complemented by UWWTP self-checking. Study of Pöpel et al. (1996): German method is equivalent to UWWTD method.

7. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 7 Key: National requirements to the nitrogen removal according to Art. 7a Federal Water Act – Requirements of Annex 1 of the Waste Water Ordinance (as amended, in force from 1 August 2002) in conformity conformity is being checked not yet in conformity, adjustment is in process German UWWTPs > 100 000 p.e. Conformity with the national requirements of the Waste Water Ordinance (equal requirements for sensitive and normal areas) Source: Summarized situation report Germany 2003 (Art. 16 UWWTD) Monitoring Performance Catchment areas sensitive areas normal areas rivers Reference date: 31 Dec 2002 Data source: Federal States of Germany

8. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 8 Reporting – Data Management Heterogeneous IT systems established in Federal States: from legacy mainframe databases to excel sheets  Flexible import module necessary. Federal structure  Data collection and aggregation of at least 3 levels. Enforcement databases are not designed for COM reporting  Check of data availability to provide the information needed Data transfer to COM via transfer file EU level Germany Federal level Federal States Counties, Municipalities Operators...

9. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 9 Art. 15(4) Reporting 1999 - First steps Interpretation of UWWTD terminology 1) Translation of the UWWTD terminology to the terminology used in German implementation regulations. Example: Term „ Agglomeration “ German translation „Gemeinde“ means both „agglomeration“ and „municipality“ – municipalities are responsible for waste water collection and treatment  Approach 1: „Agglomeration“ = catchment of UWWTP (1 agglo. : 1 UWWTP)  Approach 2: „Agglomeration“ = contiguous housing (building law) Consequence: two different data transfer applications necessary 2) Definition of substitutes for missing data Example: „ Nominal load “ of an agglomeration „Nominal load“ not available in several Federal States  Substitute: Organic Design Capacity * utilisation ratio of UWWTP

10. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 10 IT development for internal data collection: UDIS UWWT-application, based on „UDIS“ system „UDIS“: tool to facilitate reporting – tool box and application Runs on Windows, Unix, Mac Supports several databases (ACCESS, Oracle, Informix) Flexible csv-Import (new version also XML) Powerful query tool IT solution: UDIS page name master data of agglomeration navigation switch: list / form view filter master data of UWWTP COD/ BOD data

11. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 11 UDIS system – Query tool tree structure of data fields buttons to insert data fields in query or delete them list of data fields with conditions of query start query

12. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 12 Reporting – Experience Responsibility for Art. 15(4) reporting: permanent working group on international reporting on waste water discharges (technical experts from Federal level and Federal States) Time frame of first Art. 15(4) reporting: 6 months required --- 9 months estimated --- 15 months needed Quality assurance is a multi-stage process, beginning from the data-holder level: check for completeness, plausibility, indicators for compliance, time needed for quality improvement Result: Effective compilation of reliable Art. 15(4) data. Experience used for other reporting processes (EPER).

13. Monitoring of UWWTPs and Reporting in Germany, Nicosia, 17 February 2005 13 Summary Germany Competences shared between Federal level + 16 Federal States more than 4 000 agglomerations > 2 000 p.e. Monitoring Concept equivalent to Annex ID of UWWTD Reporting Heterogeneous IT systems established in Federal States Development of IT solution for data collection: UDIS UWWT-application with flexible import (csv, XML) Important: Clear responsibilities, quality assurance