Protection for an endangered asset

New standards for better water quality

At the TU Dresden, Dr. Jungmann and his team, in collaboration with GWT, developed the strategies for effects-based monitoring of surface waters and wastewater with in vitro bioassays for the ecotoxicological assessment of trace substances.

The in vitro biotests can summarize the toxic effect potentials, narrow them down to specific substance groups, identify sampling sites for more intensive investigations or polluters and emission sources, as well as accompany remediation and include both success monitoring and evaluation of measures. With effect-oriented monitoring, negative effects or potentials in the water can also be recorded, for example whether substances with a mutagenic potential are present at a sampling point and also dioxin-like or estrogenic effects.

In principle, monitoring with bioassays does not replace chemical analysis, but uncovers environmental contamination that is then clarified with chemical analysis. Conversely, however, it is also possible to characterize stretches of water in which potential environmental pollution cannot be detected and thus chemical analysis can be dispensed with. The complex pollution of surface waters with a multitude of possible substances can thus be characterized well in a first approximation with effect-based monitoring and the need for action can either be justified or excluded.