Classification of environmental status in fjords with heavy industry – do chemical pollutants and soft bottom fauna correspond?

Summary

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) has been implemented in Norway and will form the basis for the management of environmental quality in freshwater and marine coastal areas. The national authority for the directive is the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The implementation is carried out by a Committee of Directorates that has been delegated the task of preparing national guidance and the development of classification systems. For coastal waters, national guidelines for classification of chemical pollutants (chemical status) and biological parameters (ecological status) have been developed. The guide for chemical pollutant status incorporates the list of 33 prioritised substances (45 substances as of 2013) identified by the EU that will form the basis for assigning the chemical status. To assign ecological status, classifications have been developed for phytoplankton, benthic algae and soft bottom fauna. The classifications systems are to be considered provisional (‘first generation tools’) and will be updated at intervals as new knowledge is obtained. The presently used guidelines were developed and taken into use in 2007 for chemical classification (SFT TA 2229) and in 2009 for ecological status (Veileder 01:2009), respectively.