Legal requirements on waste water discharge into rivers, lakes and sea in Poland during the period of 1945-2005

Abstract

Post-war period in the area of water protection is studied not only in Poland, but in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The subjects of such analysis are: the legislation of water protection, economy of waste water treatment plants (WWTP) and the progress in the technology of WWTP. The understanding of the approach of the water protection and wastewater dumping became quite important in the last decades for cities, countries and around of the Baltic Sea. After 1945 many different rules of the waste water discharge to rivers, lakes, internal seas and marine water existed. There are many different evaluations, prepared by several professors, like Z. Rudolf, M. Roman, J. Dojlido, M. Gromiec and others. Concepts of these authors were taken into account in this paper. In this publication the evolution of the general rules of water protection during the period of 1945-2005 is presented and the example of the calculation is given, to illustrate the changes in the legal requirements over time. 1 PERIOD BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR The evolution of Polish legislation related to the wastewater treatment is presented in many details by Roman and Tabernacki [13]. They wrote that the beginning of the legal requirements related to the wastewater dumped into open water started in Poland in 1922. The legal act called Water Law was issued on 19th September 1922 (Dz.U. RP 1923/125/1016). It was modified several times. The full integrated text was published in 1928 but further changes were introduced in 1934, 1947,1950 and 1952. Water Law was binding in Poland until 1962, when new Water Law was prepared (30 May 1962, Dz.U. PRL 1962/34/158). In the first Water Law from 1922, as stated by Roman and Tabemacki [13] it was forbidden to pollute waters. That was an obligation on the registration on the wastewater discharge and a possibility of the state authority to stop the discharge of wastewater into rivers, lakes and sea. Responsibility of the water polluter and introduction of the concept of the sanitary zone to protect the water intakes for water supply systems were also included. Roman and Tabernacki [13] indicate that the sanitary legislation was issued for the health resorts in 1923 (Decree of Minister of Public Health of 19 November 1923 related to the sanitary standards of public health resorts, Dz.U. RP 1923/125/1016). This decree stated that it was necessary to establish the sanitary protection zones of the river catchment areas if the public health resorts are supplied in water from these rivers . This decree was binding until 1962, when new water law was issued. 245 https://doi.org/10.15626/Eco-Tech.2005.025 Kalmar ECO-TECH 05 and The Second Baltic Symposium on Environmental Chemistry KALMAR, SWEDEN, November 28-30, 2005 The next statute law to be considered was the Decree of the President of the State from 16 March 1928 related to the matter of the discharge of pollutants and rain water (Dz.U. RP 1928/32/311). According to Roman and Tabernacki [13] in this decree the President of Poland imposed an obligation to all communes of the country to take care on the discharge of pollutants and rain water (pollutants mean here the excreta of humans and animals, sewage, solid waste and household refuses) and to oblige the Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Public Works and Minister of Social Care and Health to establish the standards related to the treated wastewater, ready to be discharged to the open waters or to the ground . Unfortunately these standards were never issued by these ministers, even if the preliminary proposals were well prepared, according to Rudolf [14, 15]. In the year 1932 the Law on Fishery was issued (7 March I 932, Dz.U. RP 1932/35/357 and 1938/87 /58). This last law stated that it was not allowed to pollute waters in the degree harmful for fishing and that it is necessary to establish the permissible level of pollution of the open waters. This Law on Fishery was obligatory in Poland until 1961, when the new regulations related to the protection of water against pollution entered into force (3 I January 1961, Dz.U. PRL 1961/27/33). 2 POST-WAR PERIOD 1945-1955 Just after the second world war, in 1945, several regulations were in use. They included the Water Law issued in 1922, Decree of President of Poland related to the discharge of pollutants and rain water from 1928, Decree of Minister of Public Health on sanitary rules of the health resorts of 1923 and the Law on Fisheries of 1932. In the first years after the end of the war some statute laws related to the protection of the waters were issued. These laws were described by Goliszewski [2], Roman and Tabernacki [13] and others. They had the form of instructions and dunning letters: (a) Instruction of the Minister of Industry and Trade nr 4 of 3 February 1947 related to the obligation of industry to create and to maintenance waste water treatment plants Official Journal of Ministry of Industry Nr 2, item 40; (b) Instruction of the Minister of Industry and Trade of 18 August 1948 related to the obligation of industry to possess and to keep working waste water treatment plants Ministry oflndustry and Trade, General Department, OGIIA 0363/178 (see [ I 8]); (c) Decree of the Minister of Health of 15 September 1948 on the sanitary rules in the maritime harbours and ports (Dz.U. RP 1948/45/335); (d) Dunning Letter of 16 February 1949 (nr E/1/389/49) related to the water supply and discharge of pollutants Official Journal of the Ministry of Health, nr 6, item 39; (e) Dunning Letter of 23 August 1949 (nr E.I. 29/b/659/49) on the protection of open waters against pollution Official Journal of the Ministry of Health, nr 18, item I 41. The basic law related to the conditions of the discharge of waste water into open waters was issued in 1950 [13]. lt was the Decree of the Minister of Communal Economy of2 September 1950 on the obligatory conditions related to the wastewater discharged into water bodies and to the ground (Dz.U. PRL 1950/41/371). It was issued according to the binding Decree of the President of Poland of 1928. Mentioned authors wrote that in this decree of Minister of Communal Economy had introduced the classification of the surface waters into four categories, related to the potential utilisation of waters ( category I water of the highest quality, category IV water of the lowest quality) and for these four categories the demands related to the quality of the treated wastewater discharged to the open waters were established. The main idea consisted of the understanding that treated wastewater may change the quality