Chemical monitoring of river water bodies in an EU outermost region: examples from the Azores archipelago (Portugal).

Chemical monitoring of water quality on a total of 16 rivers in the Azores archipelago (Portugal), since 2003, made it possible to identify the major pressures and spatial geochemical variations along main course of the rivers. River water pollution is to a large extent associated to point sources, namely domestic wastewater discharges, especially in urban areas, and diffuse sources, associated with pasture land, and explain the high values on BOD(5) and nutrients (P and N). Heavy metals and metalloids, as well as hydrocarbons and pesticides, are generally under the detection limits of the analytical methods. Generally, river water reflects pollution loads according to a simple model, derived from land use in the watershed: in the upper part conditions are pristine, in the intermediate portion of the basin pasture land dominates and near the coast urban discharges are increasingly important. Results stress the role that an approach based on the watershed scale, coupled with land use management measures, are crucial to water management procedures and a successful WFD implementation in small river basin districts like the Azores. The paper also shows the need for full compliance regarding EU directives on urban wastewater and nitrate pollution due to agriculture.

Sete Cidades and Furnas lake eutrophication (São Miguel, Azores): analysis of long-term monitoring data and remediation measures.

Eutrophication of lakes in the Azores archipelago (Portugal) has been described since the 80s, and due to water quality deterioration several remediation methodologies were applied. Long-term monitoring data on water quality from Sete Cidades and Furnas lakes (São Miguel island) were analyzed in order to address that the success of the ongoing policy reverses their eutrophic status. Sete Cidades lake (4.46 km2), made by two branches (so-called Green and Blue lakes), has a water volume equal to 58×10(6) m3 and a depth in the range between 24 and 28.5m. Furnas lake (1.87 km2) has a volume equal to 14×10(6) m3 and a maximum depth of 15m. In Sete Cidades lake mean water temperature and pH range respectively between 13.4°C to 17.7°C and 7.04 to 8.06. Instead, mean temperature in Lake Furnas ranges between 16.6°C and 17.2°C, with a pH between 7.36 and 7.84. Mean water conductivity shows that both lakes correspond to very diluted waters, with values between 98.1 and 136.5 µS/cm. Water chemistry is influenced by the monomictic character of the lakes, as anoxic environment in the hypolimnion due to O2 consumption during the summer, when stratification prevents mixing along the water column, explains sharp increase in TP, TN, N-ammoniacal, Mn and Fe. Major-ion content is rather constant along time, with some seasonal fluctuations, despite a decrease in SO4 observed in Sete Cidades lake which is suggested to be a result of runoff diversion, a result also shown by the decrease of the molal ratio TN/TP in both studied lakes. Nevertheless, the application of the trophic state index (TSITP) does not suggest an improvement in what concerns trophic status, which is explained by the internal P-loading, a source that have to be managed by environmental authorities in the near future in order to revert eutrophication.