STUDY ON SURFACE WATER QUALITY IN DJERDAP/IRON GATE PROTECTED AREA Francisc Popescu, Milan Trumić, Ioan Laza, Bogdana Vujić, Virgil Stoica, Maja Trumić, Nada Štrbać, Ion Dragos Uţu, Milan Antonijević, Dorin Lelea, Carmen Rădescu, Snežana Đoševska The study is a result of “Academic Environmental Protection Studies on surface water quality in significant cross-border nature reservations Djerdap / Iron Gate national park and Carska Bara special nature reserve, with population awareness raising workshops”, financed thru the Interreg – IPA CBC Romania – Serbia Programme 2014 - 2020 Project acronym: AEPS Project eMS code: RORS-462 Project webpage: http://aeps.upt.ro TIMIŞOARA, 2021 ISBN 978-973-0-33702-0 Contents Acknowledgment .................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Danube. National Park Djerdap ....................................................................................................... 3 2. Danube. Iron Gates Natural Park .................................................................................................... 7 3. Danube’s main tributaries in National Park Djerdap – Iron Gate Natural park area .................... 14 3.1. Nera River .............................................................................................................................. 14 3.2. Berzasca River ........................................................................................................................ 18 3.3. Porecka River ......................................................................................................................... 20 3.4. Pek River ................................................................................................................................ 22 3.5. Cerna River ............................................................................................................................ 25 4. Cross-border legal framework in surface water quality ............................................................... 27 5. Study target surface water pollutants fact sheets ........................................................................ 31 5.1. Oxygen regime. Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) ..................................................................................................................................... 31 + + - - 5.2. Nutrients and general ions. Sodium (Na ), Calcium (Ca2 ), Nitrates (NO3 ), Nitrites (NO2 ), - 3- 2- - Ammonium (NH4 ), Orthophosphate (P-PO4 ), Sulphates (SO4 ), Chloride (Cl ) and Total Nitrogen (TN). ........................................................................................................................ 32 + + 5.3. Heavy metals. Mercury (Hg), Arsenic (As3 ), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn2 ), Cadmium (Cd), Manganese (Mn) and Iron (Fe) .............................................................................................. 34 6. Water quality assessment on Danube and its main tributaries in Interreg IPA-CBC Romania- Serbia programme eligible area. ................................................................................................... 37 6.1. Sampling, methods and analytical equipment. ..................................................................... 37 6.2. Water quality on Danube, in Iron Gate / Djerdap cross-border natural parks. .................... 41 6.3. Water quality on Nera River. ................................................................................................. 48 6.4. Water quality on Berzasca River. ........................................................................................... 57 6.5. Water quality on Porecka River. ............................................................................................ 64 6.6. Water quality on Pek River. ................................................................................................... 68 6.7. Water quality on Cerna River. ............................................................................................... 73 7. Conclusion and results analysis ..................................................................................................... 79 References ............................................................................................................................................ 86 1 Cooperation beyond borders. Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme is financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) and co- financed by the partner states in the Programme. Acknowledgment This study was conducted in the frame of research project “Academic Environmental Protection Studies on surface water quality in significant cross-border nature reservations Djerdap / Iron Gate national park and Carska Bara special nature reserve, with population awareness raising workshops.”, acronym AEPS, conducted in partnership of University Politehnica Timisoara (RO), University of Belgrade - Technical Faculty in Bor (SR), Pro Mehedinti Association (RO) and Citizen’s association “Village – Movement for Rural Development Zlot (SR). The project was founded thru Interreg IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme 2014-2020, Programme Priority: PA 2 Environmental protection and risk management / Specific Objective: 2.1 Environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. As water is essential to life and is an indispensable resource for ecosystems and their services and for nearly all human activities, our project team experts focused project activities to reach 2 main objectives: Evaluation of environmental current situation in cross border “sister” Danube banks nature reservation Djerdap (Serbia) and national parks Iron Gate (Romania) Raising the awareness of young generations on both sides of the border on the immediate need to protect the region remarkable natural heritage All project activities, outputs, photo gallery and visibility actions can be followed on project webpage: www.aeps.upt.ro 2 Cooperation beyond borders. Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme is financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) and co- financed by the partner states in the Programme. 1. Danube. National Park Djerdap Danube river, one of the longest rivers in Europe, along its flow makes natural border, and one of the remarkable areas, between Republic of Serbia and Romania - „Iron gate“, the pearl of the Danube river. This area is proclaimed as protected areas on both, Serbian and Romanian, sides. Hence, on Romania side, there is National park „Parcul natural Portile de fier" that covers 115655 ha, in Caras-Severin and Mehedinti County, the second largest NP in Romania. National park „Djerdap” is one of the five national parks and the largest one in Serbia. For the first time it is proclaimed as protected area by the Low on NP „Djerdap“ (Official Gazette of RS, No. 39/1993, 44/1993-correction, 53/1993, 67/1993, 48/1994, 101/2005 and 36/2009). The boundaries of NP „Djerdap“ are established by the Law on National Parks (Official Gazette of RS, No. 84/2015 and 95/2018) where it is defined that it covers area of total 63 786,48 ha (45.454,87 hа is state property and 18.331,60 hа is private property). Photo 1. View of the Danube. 3 Cooperation beyond borders. Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme is financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) and co- financed by the partner states in the Programme. The most impressive landmark of this area is certainly gorge “Iron gate” the biggest and one of a kind in Europe, consisting of four smallest gorges and three basins, covering 100km in length and reaching the maximum depth of 170m. It encompasses parts of the massifs of North Kucaj, Miroc and Strbac in the width of 2-10 km, as well as part of the Danube, which belongs to the Republic of Serbia. Photo 2. View of the Danube’s gorges. Additionally, this area is habitat of the over 1100 plant species (e.g.Corylus colurna, Juglans regia, Syringa vulgaris, Taxus baccata, Tilia argentea,Tilia caucasia, Acer intermedium,Quercus pubescens, Ilex aquifolium, etc). Also, this is the only habitat in the world of the Tulipa hungarica, the unique tulip flower. Rich flora and forest ecosystems contributed to the variety of fauna. Hence, the NPs are home of the more than 150 bird’s species. Some of them are exceedingly rare and unique (Aquila chrysaetos, Circaetus gallicus, Haliaeetus albicilla, Ciconia nigra etc). The mammals are also remarkably diverse in this area. For example, this is habitat of otters (Lutra lutra), bears (Ursus arctos) lynx (Lynx lynx), golden jackal (Canis aureus), wild boar (Sus 4 Cooperation beyond borders. Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme is financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) and co- financed by the partner states in the Programme. scrofa), deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra). Also, the uniqueness of national parks is also internationally recognised. Hence, NP “Iron gate” is included on the RAMSAR list of wetlands of international importance and this area is recently designated as UNESCO GLOBAL GEOPARKS, as one of the 15 unique geoparks in the world, as well. The specificity, diversity and the importance of the terrain, flora and fauna