Monitoring of environmental burdens fulfils the programme objectives of the Government of the Slovak Republic, which are defined in the documents „State Programme of Remediation of Environmental Burdens for the years 2010 – 2015 and State Programme of Remediation of Environmental Burdens for the years 2016 – 2021″. The aim of monitoring of environmental burdens is, inter alia:

  • to reduce the risk from contaminated water, soil and the rock environment to the health of people living in the immediate vicinity of contaminated areas,
  • to contribute to the fulfillment of obligations and measures arising from the directives of the European Union and to contribute to the achievement of good water status in Slovakia,
  • to stop the spread of contamination plume in the vicinity of environmental burdens and reverse the negative trends of identified pollutants,
  • to improve the public and business awareness of the risks arising from the presence of environmental burdens.

The implementation of the monitoring itself is preceded by the compilation of monitoring programmes for individual sites, in which field measurements, sampling and laboratory work carried out in a defined monitoring network are precisely determined. The design of monitoring programmes is based on the assumed places of leakage of pollutants into groundwater/surface water and the direction of groundwater/surface water flow is taken into account. At least one observation object should be situated in the area unaffected by environmental burden (in order to determine the background properties of the environment). Monitoring programmes are reviewed and updated annually based on new results and information from the previous year.

The results of groundwater analyses are standardly evaluated in accordance with the Directive of the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic no. 1/2015 – 7 for the preparation of risk analysis of contaminated area. Indication and intervention criteria are given in the Directive no. 1/2015 – 7, where:

  • Indication criteria (ID) is the concentration limit of a pollutant determined for soil, rock environment and groundwater, the excess of which may endanger human health and the environment; this situation requires monitoring of the polluted area.
  • Intervention criteria (IT) is the critical concentration level of a pollutant determined for soil, rock environment and groundwater, the excess of which in a given land use scenario assumes a high likelihood of endangering human health and the environment. A detailed geological investigation of the environment with preparation of risk analysis is necessary to carry out in the contaminated area.

The results of surface water monitoring are standardly evaluated in accordance with Government Regulation no. 269/2010 laying down requirements for the achievement of good water status.

Map of environmental burdens monitored by ŠGÚDŠ

Informative evaluation of the results of EB monitoring carried out by SGIDŠ