Water Quality Criteria Green Book of China

175 Pages·2015·2.778 MB·English

by  Zhengtao Liu (eds.)

Zhengtao Liu Editor
Water Quality
Criteria Green
Book of China
Water Quality Criteria Green Book of China

Zhengtao Liu
Water Quality Criteria Green
Book of China
Editor
Zhengtao Liu
Chinese Research Academy
of Environmental Sciences
Beijing , China
ISBN 978-94-017-7269-3 ISBN 978-94-017-7270-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7270-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015949995
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
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Foreword
W ater quality criteria (WQC) are fundamental for developing enforceable water
quality standards (WQS) and play an important role in the management of water
quality in aquatic environments. WQC are also scientifi c benchmarks for monitor-
ing and evaluating risks of pollutants in aquatic environments. Both WQC and WQS
form the essential benchmarks for the management of aquatic ecosystems.
Developed countries like the USA and European countries have started to investi-
gate and develop their own WQC since the early twentieth century. The United
States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has published a series of
national WQC including “The Green Book,” “The Blue Book,” “The Red Book,”
and “The Golden Book” during the last several decades. European countries have
also released their national guidelines or specifi cations on deriving WQC to protect
their aquatic environments in recent years.
Even though the WQS system has initially taken shape in China, these standards
were mainly established by drawing on experiences from developed countries’
regions and relevant international organizations (e.g., the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Health Organization (WHO)).
Therefore, current-in-effect WQSs in China have a lot of limitations in protecting its
local aquatic ecosystems and human health. In the document “The National 12th
Five-Year Science and Technology Development Program for Environmental
Protection” (released in 2011), the development of national WQC and WQS was
listed as one of the 11 major priority research fi elds. It is also emphasized in this
document that more efforts should be put into studying and establishing WQC. Since
then, many research projects related to WQC in China (e.g., the projects under
“Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution and Treatment”) have
been initiated.
Over the past decade, the “State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and
Risk Assessment” has been investigating WQC for China in cooperation with many
laboratories in universities and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and there have been
substantial progresses on the development of WQC in China. For example, a basic
methodological framework for investigating WQC has been built, and threshold
v
vi Foreword
values for some representative environmental pollutants in China have been
p roposed. All these achievements will provide important technical support for the
revision and correction of “Surface Water Environment Quality Standards”
(GB3838-2002) and the “Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of
China.”
This “green book” is a milestone in the developmental course of WQC in China.
“Well begun is half done” is a well-known Chinese proverb. All the achievements
make a good start for WQC-related researches in China. Both environmental scien-
tists and governmental departments of environmental protection should continue
the innovations to improve WQC so that they can be applied to adequately protect
the aquatic ecosystems in China.
Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian
Ministry, the People’s Republic of China
December 2014
Pref ace
Water quality criteria (WQC) are scientifi c bases for setting up water quality stan-
dards (WQS). The WQS system in China has been developed for several decades.
As there is a paucity of systematic research on WQC in China, the current-in-effect
WQS in China is established by drawing experiences from other countries without
taking into account the characteristics of native or local aquatic environments in
China. To achieve the strategic goal for environmental protection and scientifi cally
setting the WQS in China, it is urgently needed to set up a systematic research meth-
odology on WQC that can be appropriately applied locally.
I n 2006, a government document entitled “The National 11th Five-Year Science
and Technology Development Program for Environmental Protection” brought up
the target of “scientifi cally setting WQC in China.” In this offi cial document, WQC,
WQS, risk assessment, and other methodology or technology related to environ-
mental management were listed as prior research fi elds for environmental protec-
tion. Since then, the Chinese government has gradually set up a series of funding for
research projects on WQC under the national-scale programs like “Major Science
and Technology for Water Pollution Control and Treatment”, and “State
Commonweal Career on Environmental Protection”. These projects initiated sys-
tematic researches on the methodology for deriving WQC in the national scale.
Cooperating with laboratories in universities and the Chinese Research Academy of
Environmental Sciences, a series of researches were conducted by the State Key
Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, the State Key
Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, the State Environmental
Protection Key Laboratory for Ecological Effect and Risk Assessment of Chemicals,
the State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control, and
the State Education Key Laboratory for Pollution Processes and Environmental
Criteria. Because of collective and continuous efforts made by the universities and
research institutes, there has been a notable step forward in developing the method-
ological framework of WQC, technological platforms, screening domestic species,
and deriving threshold numeric values in China. All these knowledge and experience
lay down the bases for further improvement of WQC and WQS in China.
vii
viii Preface
The methodological system for WQC in China is still in an initiate stage. In this
book, our achievements in the development of aquatic life criteria, sediment criteria,
ecological criteria (biological or ecological integrity criteria), and nutrient criteria
are summarized and illustrated. Suggestions for further improvement of this book
are most welcome.
Beijing, China Zhengtao L iu
Acknowledgments for the English Version
The English version of “Water Quality Criteria Green Book of China, 2014”
(Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences and State Key Laboratory
of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, eds.) was translated by Dr.
Xianliang Yi, Prof. Kenneth M. Y. Leung (Hong Kong S.A.R., China), and Dr.
Hong Li (UK). Sincere thanks to Prof. Wei Meng, the President of the Chinese
Research Academy of Environmental Sciences. The English version can be fi nished
by the support of Prof. Meng.
A ll of the documented studies in this book were mainly supported by the China
national “Major Science and Technology for Water Pollution Control and
Treatment” program projects, namely, “Research on the Technological System for
deriving WQC or WQS of Watersheds” (2008ZX07526-003), “Investigation on
WQC of Priority Pollutants in Key Watersheds” (2012ZX07501-003), “Research on
Nutrient Criteria and Specifi cations for Controlling Eutrophication in Lakes in
China” (2009ZX07106-001) and “Preliminary Study on the Framework of WQC
and Model Cases in China” under “State Commonwealth Career on Environmental
Protection by China MEP (2009)”. The preparation and production of this green
book was strongly supported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the
People’s Republic of China.
W e are grateful to the substantial inputs from many experts. Suggestions for
further improvement of this edition will be most appreciated.
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