Abstract

In the past fifteen years, the problem of environmental pollution due to the presence of priority pollutants has decreased considerably in The Netherlands. The environmental pressure (emissions of substances to air, surface water and soil) has decreased and concomitantly the environmental state (concentrations of substances in the environment) has improved. However, for a number of substances the problem of environmental pollution by priority pollutants is not decreasing at a rate which ensures the achievement of policy goals formulated for 2010.
Priority substances are chemicals that are harmful to the environment and that are addressed with priority by the environmental policy. For these substances policy goals have been formulated for 2010. For some of these the emissions have remained higher than the maximum value set for 2010. Moreover, also the concentrations are still higher than the policy goals that must not be exceeded after 2010.
This appears from the course in time of the environmental pressure and state indicators that have been calculated from emission and concentration data. These indicators express numerically how far the present environmental pressure and environmental state differ from the policy goals ('distance to target').
With regards to the emissions, it has appeared that especially for cadmium the emission maximum to air, surface water and soil is still being exceeded. The heavy metals copper and zinc are often being emitted at too high amounts to the surface water and the soil.
The concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, lead and ozone in the air are often found above the goal values. This also goes for the copper concentrations in the surface water. Regularly, chromium, cadmium and nickel are being found in the groundwater at concentrations above the goals for the environmental state