Water Quality in Slovenia - Agencija RS za okolje

Lake Bled
I N T R O D U C T I O N
According to the Environment Protection Act (2), the Environmental Agency of the Republic of
Slovenia is responsible for the water quality monitoring and evaluation of water quality status in
Slovenia. Monitoring programmes (3) are drawn up in accordance with regulations that summarise the
provisions of European directives, and in accordance with the status assessment and pressure analysis
of each individual water body. They include quality monitoring of rivers, lakes, sea, groundwater, and
water in protected areas.
The publication presents a brief overview of the water quality assessment in Slovenia, based on the
national monitoring results. The assessments of water quality have been made in accordance with
the currently applicable regulations that have already been partially adapted to the requirements
of the Water Framework Directive. On surface waters, the assessment of the chemical status has
been made; the methodology for the evaluation of the ecological status for all surface waters is still
in the course of preparation. Methods for the evaluation of status on the basis of some biological
quality elements and for certain pressures have already been elaborated. It should be emphasised
that the situation is similar in other European countries where methodologies for the evaluation of
ecological status are still being developed as well. Parallel to the development of methodologies,
Member States are conducting a process of intercalibration to ensure a comparable evaluation of
ecological status. For groundwater, the publication provides the evaluation of chemical status for 14
water bodies. The evaluations of the remaining seven water bodies will be based on data from 2007
when the monitoring network was expanded to include those water bodies for which monitoring
had not yet been established.
The full range of data and evaluations of the quality of rivers, lakes, sea and groundwater, as well as
water in protected areas, is published in annual reports available in the library and on the website of
the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (4).
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