RELATION OF RIVER DISCHARGE AND PRECIPITATION WITH WATER INTAKE STOPS: THE MEUSE CASE

Abstract

Surface Waters are important in the provision of drinking water, food production, the industry sector and nature. However, their quality has been deteriorating due to direct discharges from industrial and sewage water treatment plants, and the low dilution of contaminants during dry periods. Chemicals of Emerging Concern (CEC) such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides are becoming more occurrent in the Meuse. This river is an important drinking water source; therefore, it is crucial to guarantee surface water quality for the supply of high-quality drinking water. When signaling values of CEC are exceeded, drinking water companies stop their intake of water. Dry scenarios, lower discharge in the Meuse and higher concentrations of CEC are expected in the future. Thus, intake stops might increase as well. The key objective of this project was to find the relation between river discharge, water quality, precipitation and water intake stops. For that, five intake stations which are part of the drinking water production companies: Vivaqua and Water-Link from Belgium; and WML, Dunea and Evides, from the Netherlands were considered. Their respective data on water quality, river discharge, precipitation and registered water intake stops were compared and statistically analyzed with the Pearson and Spearman Rank correlation test. A significant relation between discharge and water quality was found. Relations between intake stops and discharge and precipitation were significant for the Dutch drinking water companies. In addition, it was found that decision rules of each company have big influence in the frequency and duration of the intake stops.