ECORIVER - Ecotoxicological evaluation of municipal and industrial waste waters

The projects main objective was to demonstrate the importance of eco-toxicology for wastewater management and to establish planning and controlling techniques for industrial and municipal wastewater networks. The project was implemented in the river Trancão and adjacent basin (a small, but is located in a heavily industrialised and densely populated area and flows into the Tagus estuary). The project integrated an eco-toxicological and psychochemical study of wastewaters from industries in different sectors, wastewater treatment plants as well as receiving waters. Some main conclusions and recommendations are: (1) DTA methodologies are available and should be used in evaluating and controlling wastewater eco-toxicity; (2) following eco-toxicological studies, the use of a selected test battery with bacterium, algae and crustacean is proposed; (3) the eco-toxicological approach is useful in the hazard and risk assessment of discharges into receiving waters; (4) modelling has proved to be  useful in evaluating the impact of effluents on the receiving waters and also suggested management actions and identified risk areas.