The ENVIBASE-Project

Documentation / Online Handbook

Water

Description of the Problem

The city of Moscow is situated on the watershed of the Volga and Oka rivers (the main river of the city is the Moskva, the tributary of the Oka). Unlike many other capitals, potable water is obtained from Volga and Moskva rivers outside of Moscow. The most important water quality problems are associated with contamination of water bodies caused by industrial wastes and sewage plants.

The main goals and objectives of water monitoring are designed:

• to protect the water bodies and provide the Moscow population with clean drinking water and a favourable water environment;
• to maintain optimum conditions for water utilisation and the quality of surface and groundwaters in compliance with the sanitary and environmental requirements;
• to protect the water bodies from contamination, littering, and depletion, to eliminate adverse water effects, and to preserve biological diversity of the aqueous ecosystems.

The fundamental acts of the environmental legislation, including water laws of the Russian Federation, comprise: the Law of the Russian Federation "On Protection of the Environment;" Water Code of the Russian Federation; Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation "On Introduction of State Water cadastere of the Russian Federation;" Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation "On Approval of the Regulations of Water Protection Zones of Water Bodies and their Protective Coastal Strips."

The water body qualifies as a source of potable water depending on its safety and the possibility to set up zones and districts of sanitary protection in line with the provisions of State Tandart (GOST) "Sources of Centralised Domestic and Potable Water, Hygienic and Technical Requirements and Rules of Selection Thereof." The requirements for the quality of potable water are laid down in GOST "Potable Water." Apart from the above GOSTs, legislative practice has been widely relying on "Sanitary Standards and Rules" regulating hygienic requirements for the composition and properties of water. Along with the sanitary requirements for bodies of potable and domestic waters, there are those regulating the quality of water in the bodies used for fisheries' purposes.

Data Sources

Control over hydrochemical regime and contamination levels of water bodies in the Moscow region is affected by Moscow Municipal Centre of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. They regulate the hydrological and hydrochemical conditions of the river, hydrobiological parameters, and contamination of the surface water, and the control encompasses the quality of surface water in the Moskva, Volga, and Klyazma water intake areas at fifty-two surveillance sites. In the city of Moscow, control is exercised at three sites at the point of entry in the city, in the estuary of the Yauza river, and at the point where the river leaves the city. The samples are collected every ten days from the Moskva river and every month from the Yauza river. The operational unit conducts monitoring on the Moskva river tributaries and on the city's water bodies prompted by the local communities and municipal entities.

The sanitary and epidemiological service conducts monitoring at six sites on the Moskva river. The monitoring data has been supplied in dynamics since 1937. In recreation zones, water is controlled at twelve sites two times a month from May through September according to twenty-six organic and chemical indicators and four bacterial indicators. The data are reported to the above authority, the Moscow Centre of Sanitary and Epidemiological Control, and to the government of the city of Moscow through their own initiative or by request.

In addition, the water quality of the Moskva is regulary studied in the course of operational complex monitoring of the quality of soils, snow, bottom sediments, and plants conducted by the Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Crystallography, and Rare-earth elements. This Institute has been examining bottom sediments in the Moskva from its source to the mouth of the river since 1987, covering also the hydrographical system of the Moskva, Volga, Oka, and Klyazma, five Moskva tributaries, and eighty-two water bodies inside the city. The geochemical monitoring is conducted every three to five years.

The quality of potable water is controlled by the operations of the Moscow Centre of Sanitary and Epidemiological Control. The quality of water is assessed based on the requirements of the sanitary standards. Since 1989, the list of constantly monitored indicators has been expanded to include chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, dichlorbrommethane, organophosphorus pesticides, phenol, and a number of metals. Water quality is controlled for the above substances once a month.

The network of underground water monitoring sites consists of 369 observation wells, operated by the department of state underground waters monitoring and hydrogeological forecasts at Geocentre-Roskomnedra.

The state system of underground water monitoring is mainly intended to monitor their levels, temperature and chemistry, and to verify geofiltration and migration models. The in-well observation measures (once every six days) the level and temperature and collects samples for chemical analysis.

Underground water monitoring is conducted in compliance with the State Water Cadastre that accounts for the intake of water in the city in production wells drilled through three acquifers and in deeper water horizons from which come mineral waters and brines.

The Moscow-based structure of the state control corresponds on the whole to the list of territorial bodies charged by the Russian Government Resolution with the state monitoring of the water bodies. The first steps of the automatic system of portable water monitoring are designed by the enterprise "Prima."

Methods

Studies of water quality are conducted by geochemical, physico-chemical, and bacteriological explorations in accordance with laboratorial analyses.

The lack of information due to the insufficient number of sections in which water quality is monitored leads to a more extensive use of mathematical methods of water quality assessment (ZAGR or Zerkalo software).

The hydrogeological conditions in the city are further specified using the hierarchy of geofiltration models implemented in the software programmes of GWFS (Groundwater Flow Simulation and Mass) and MTS (Mass Transport Simulation). The software systems simulate filtration of underground waters in the intricate and quasitrichlorine water systems under stationary and non-stationary conditions.

Results and Uses

The Institute of Moscow City Master Plan is one of the key users of information on water. The Institute needs this information to work on such major projects as the Master Plan of water mains, sewage system drainage and treatment of the surface flows, regional planning in the Moscow area, or the Master Plan for the development of Moscow and its region, etc. Solely for the purposes of the territorial complex environmental plan of Moscow, the Institute has systematised over 20,000 water samples collected from 550 observation sections to compile maps of the Volga, Oka, and Moskva waters from the source to the estuary of the rivers. These maps, and in particular the comprehensive water quality maps, are important for town planners and decision makers as they are used for ecological control and for working out the plans of urban development as well as for environmental impact assessment and publicity.

Now four comprehensive maps have been computed using digital methods like hydrochemical and thermal anomalies, forecasting depths of groundwater, contami-nation of water bodies, contamination of bottom sediments, etc.