The Danube is a source of water for the household and industrial needs of Ukrainian population, industry and agriculture. The Danube waters are used for drinking centralized water supply in the cities of Kiliya and Vilkovo, as well as fisheries in the region. Therefore, it was important to carry out the “Environmental Risk Assessment for Drinking and Fisheries Use (on the example of the Danube River –the city Vilkovo)”. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the environmental risk criterion R on the basis of hydrochemical observations to verify the safety of drinking and fishery use. Analysis of environmental problems of the lower Danube River - Vilkovo; assessment of the environmental situation; calculation of water quality risk indicators according to the methodology of the Institute of Market Problems and Economic and Environmental Research of the NAS of Ukraine; establishing a link between water quality and risk is the finding of the research. It is established that the environmental situation is “critical” due to suspended substances, phenols, manganese and HCC for drinking water supply and “strained” through chromium, manganese, HCC, copper for fishery use. An assessment of the water quality by the modified Water Pollution Index (IWM) showed that the water is “moderately polluted” and “contaminated”. For both types of water use, normalized aggregated pollution indices were calculated taking into account the likelihood of a risk event occurring and R risk indicators were determined by year. It is established that there is a close linear relationship between WSS and R. It is shown that environmental risk estimates, based on the probability of exceeding concentrations of pollutants above the MPC, reflect well the ecological status of the water.
Estimating environmental risk assessment for drinking and fisheries use (on the example of the Danube river – the city Vilkovo)
