Background to E-PRTR
Questions to E-PRTR
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>> QUESTIONS TO THE European PRTR
Questions to the European PRTR
- What is European PRTR?
European PRTR means Pollutant Release and Transfer Register. The European PRTR aims to inform the public on environmental issues by providing data about releases of pollutants to the environment and to compile them on a publicly accessible database. In consequence it can contribute to reduce releases of substances which influence the environment and human beings. The European PRTR has been established by regulation 166/2006/EC on the first reporting is forseen for the reporting year 2007.
- Why a European PRTR inventory for diffuse sources?
As a novelty to environmental reporting the European Commission shall include information on releases from diffuse sources in the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, where such information exists and has already been reported by the Member States (Art. 8, European PRTR Regulation). The Commission will examine the existing reporting activities and inventories related to releases from diffuse sources and compile an EU-wide inventory of releases from diffuse sources. The information shall be appropriately arranged on the European PRTR website. This website contains the data of this inventory.
- What information can I find in European PRTR
Diffuse Sources?
The core element of this web-page is the data inventory, where inventory data on releases from diffuse sources can be viewed and downloaded. Based on the requirements of the European PRTR Regulation information in the data inventory is structured into the compartments air, water and land. Depending on what data you are especially interested in, you can search for and download data by sector, pollutant and Member State or look for releases into river basins. For releases into air an EU overview is available as well, which gives you an indication on the relevance of pollutants and sectors at European scale. It has however to be pointed out, that the inventory can only represent data already reported and publicly accessible. Comparisons therefore have to be made with caution. In addition to data you can find background information to the European PRTR; downloads for related documents, links to relevant Institution and Organisation and results of the data evaluation.
- Who will benefit from the inventory on Diffuse Sources?
- Citizens: They can find out about the releases from diffuse sources in their country and can compare them to releases from point sources or from other European countries. They can get information about the relative importance of a specific sector for releases of a certain pollutant into the environment. This empowers people to ask questions, and engage in discussions about reduction measures.
- The Commission, national authorities and other institutions:
They get validated data and background information of the topic
that can help them in their daily work and provides a sound basis
for information on relative importance of sources and pollutants
as well as knowledge gaps which helps to draw conclusions on policies
and measures to implement in the light of further release reduction.
- Which source sectors are included in European
PRTR Diffuse Sources?
For releases to air data for the sectors transport (road traffic, aviation, shipping and railway), military, domestic fuel combustion, solvent use, fossil fuel distribution, agriculture and roofing and road paving with asphalt are included in the inventory. For releases to water diffuse source sectors identified include natural background losses, agriculture, scattered dwellings and diffuse anthropogenic. A pathway related reporting on releases into water based on the MONERIS model - exemplarily presented in the inventory for the Danube river basin - differentiated releases from groundwater, tile drainage, erosion, surface runoff, atmospheric deposition and urban areas. You can find definitions for all sources sectors and pathways within the glossary.
- Are European PRTR Diffuse Source data complete and
comparable?
The European PRTR Diffuse Source inventory gives access to data from existing reporting activities and inventories, where data have been calculated following a harmonised methodology. Reference year is 2003. Thus data are comparable. As the attention of reporting and controlling on releases was focused on point sources and specific pollutants in the past, the status quo of reporting on releases from diffuse sources however differs significantly for compartments (air, water, land), sectors, pollutants and Member States. The data therefore are far from complete. While data on releases to air are relatively complete for a number of pollutants, data for releases into water are highly limited and data for releases to land are hardly available.
- How has the quality of European PRTR Diffuse
Source data been checked?
Data for the inventory are retrieved from official reliable data bases only. All data on releases into air were reported within existing reporting activities under international conventions on climate change and long-range transboundary air pollution. The data for releases into water originate from scientific reports within the river convention framework or official reports from Marine Conventions and the European Environmental Agency. All institutions are using established standards for quality assurance and quality control. In addition data have been checked for consistency while compiling the inventory.
- What is the difference between the options
under European PRTR Diffuse Source search?
Generally the inventory contains information on the annual releases of 91 pollutants from diffuse source sectors for all 25 EU Member States into the compartments air, water and land as far as data are available. Data is compiled by compartment in the section "data inventory" For releases to air data you can search by Member States, pollutants or one of 10 source sectors. For 21 pollutants listed by the European PRTR regulation data could be compiled. For releases into water you have the option to search for pollutant, sector, Member State, river basin and pathway as far as data are available.
Pollutant provides a compilation of releases from sectors per Member State, sector lists pollutants per Member States and Member State provides a national overview by sector and pollutant. The same principle applies for the EU overview providing data for pollutants versus sectors and pollutants versus Member States as well as for river basin (pollutants versus sectors). Tables are interlinked so that you can directly access the details you are interested in from the EU overview.
