Monitoring of water courses in the county of Hedmark, S Norway in 2016

Summary

The report presents the results from monitoring of water quality, biota and concentrations of pollutants in sediments in selected lakes and water courses in the county of Hedmark in 2016. The lakes Storsjøen in Rendalen, Hyllsjøen and Bæreia were found to be in good ecological status, whereas Lake Gjesåssjøen was found to be in moderate status in 2016. Lake Gjesåssjøen seems still to be impacted by nutrient inputs from anthropogenic sources in the catchment. However, lower concentrations of total P and smaller phytoplankton volumes in 2016 compared to the previous investigations in 2009 and 2013, possibly indicated some improvement of the environmental conditions. A sediment sample from a pond in an inlet brook of Lake Gardsjøen contained high concentrations of arsenic, copper, zinc and PAH-substances (environmental class III-V). The concentrations of the same elements and substances were markedly lower in the sediments of the downstream Lake Gardsjøen (class I-II). Both the abundance and the diversity of benthic macro invertebrates were very low in the pond. Based on investigations of benthic communities of algae and macro invertebrates, 12 out of totally 21 monitored brook or river localities were found to be in good or high ecological status in 2016. The ecological status of the remaining nine localities was classified as moderate or bad. For two of these localities the ecological status was close to good status. For one of the localities that was classified to be in bad ecological status, there was significant doubt about the classification because of comprehensive construction works at the place.