The Rhine for Beginners km 100 200 North Sea The Netherlands © R. Haid dpa © R. © Michael Apitz Rhine delta Lower Rhine After the Sandoz accident in 1986, tons of eel were disposed Germany of and Rhine alarm was raised Introduction Page 2-4 down to the Netherlands. Belgium Middle Rhine 1 Clean? – Chemistry Page 5-7 Luxembourg International Rhine Germany The Rhine is used for drinking water production and some people Upper Rhine go swimming in its branches. How clean is the water today? Water flows across the frontiers. 9 states share the Rhine catchment with its countless sources, brooks and tributaries. Imprint Publisher: I C P R 2 Living? – Biology Page 8-11 The ICPR = International Commission for the Protection of International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine High Rhine the Rhine was founded in 1950. At first, it fought against the Kaiserin-Augusta-Anlagen 15, D-56068 Koblenz 30 years ago, following a chemical accident near Basel, life in France Lake Constance use of the Rhine as wastewater sewer. That was the main www.iksr.org the Rhine was extinct along large stretches. Which animals problem until the 1970s. As more and more wastewater Editor: ICPR Secretariat and plants are living in the Rhine today? treatment plants were built, the river recovered, but in 1986, Concept and text: Barbara Froehlich-Schmitt Austria a warehouse for chemicals of the Sandoz works near Basel in Photo cover page: © Wolfgang Pehlemann Switzerland burnt down. Highly toxic wastewater polluted with Photo last page: © Jörg Schneider Switzerland Liechtenstein 3 Wild? – Physics Page 12-15 pesticides flowed into the Rhine, turned the river blood-red and 2 Print: Lokay print, FSC certificated 3 Plant-based colours DIN ISO 12647-2 caused fish death along several hundreds of kilometres. Circlesilk Premium White Recyclepaper The Rhine is controlled and canalized along large stretches. Alpine Rhine For weeks, the riparian waterworks from Germany to the ISBN: 978-3-946755-20-3 But floods are threatening. Which preventive actions are taken? Netherlands could not use Rhine water for drinking water © IKSR-CIPR-ICBR 2016 production. © J. Schneider © J. © Fotolia.de Rhine 2020 © IKSR Required standard: Good 1 Clean Rhine? – Chemistry After the disaster along the Rhine, the Rhine bordering states damages are to be reduced. The corresponding ICPR programme Has the water of the Rhine become cleaner? Is fish from the Rhine edible? triggered the Rhine Action Programme in 1987. The target was is “Rhine 2020”. Yes - on the whole, water quality has improved! Yes - to a certain extent. Fish in the Rhine, e.g. fatty eels still to cut the pollutant load by half, to revitalise the ecosystem The wastewater load has diminished. contain numerous toxins, such as dioxins and mercury. and to enable salmon to return to the Rhine. Additionally, a The states along the Rhine aim at jointly achieving three targets: It is not possible to directly drink Rhine water, but 30 million Warning and Alarm Plan aimed at rapid reporting of accidents. 1) Rhine water is to become cleaner. inhabitants use Rhine water treated in waterworks. Salmon are protected all year long and there is a ban on 2) The Rhine system is to recover biologically. salmon fishing. The European Union boosted the project with the “Water 3) Flood prevention is to be improved. Can we go bathing in the Rhine? Framework Directive” in 2000 and with the “Floods Directive” No - not as far as the main stream downstream of Basel is 4 in 2007. In these Directives, river districts are considered as concerned, as EU standards for bathing waters are not met. 5 entities, respectively as ecosystems and the objective is set for Strong currents and navigation may threaten the lives of the all water bodies to achieve the “good status” and flood swimmers. © Stadtentwässerung Koblenz © Stadtentwässerung Industry & Power Plants Agriculture Metals (e.g. mercury) Fertilizers Chlorinated hydrocarbons Chemical plant protection accumulating in fish (e.g. HCB) Microplastics e.g. originating from cosmetics accumulate pollutants and are © J. Schneider © J. © S. Glinka / BUND © S. resorbed by aquatic animals. Oestrogens from oral contraceptives, 1a Problematic substances may feminize, male fish! 1b Treatment Plants Micro-pollutants from households Why does the list of noxious substances become longer Pharmaceuticals, hormones, Success for Water Quality and longer? Remedy for Father Rhine? • Today, 96 % of the 60 million inhabitants in the Rhine What remains to be done? The concentration of micro- odoriferous substances in detergents • Because it has been easier to detect pollutants catchment are connected to treatment plants. • Continuously reduce pollutants! pollutants in the Rhine water • Further improve wastewater treatment plants! • Because new pollutants are being produced. corresponds to a pill dissolved in a • Nitrogen and phosphorus discharges have been heavily swimming pool, but highly dissolved reduced. diclofenac e.g. gets the fish down. • The quantities of further substances carried by the Rhine As an example, active carbon filters may filter micro- into the North Sea have strongly diminished, as they are pollutants from wastewater. So far, traditional wastewater being recycled or have been phased out. treatment plants discharge pharmaceuticals contained in 6 • Also, international conventions to reduce certain pollutants urine and artificial odoriferous substances from detergents 7 (e.g. mercury) have entered into force. into the Rhine. Phytoplankton Insects Do you know how many...? © A. © A. Kureck © J. Schneider © J. ...little flies play © LBH Freiburg In the bright summer heat? How many little fishes cool themselves In the clear water tide? © P. Hebert © P. Lullaby by Wilhelm Hey (1837) Zooplankton Molluscs The mayflyEphoron virgo only flies for Crayfish are omnivorous, one summer evening, and then there are they feed on insect larvae, © M. Manas © M. The river nerite © Wendling K. swarms of them. For one year, its larvae molluscs, fish and plants. Theodoxus fluviatilis lives live on the bottom of the Lower Rhine and on diatoms browsed from Biology Monitoring filter the smallest food particles from the stones. Its spreading in the Programme Rhine water. Periodic inventories of the Rhine indicates ecological biocoenosis in the Rhine improvement. document and assess their state. 2 Living Rhine? – Biology 2a Biological Network How many fish species are living in the Rhine today? What plants are living in the Rhine? The Rhine ecosystem is as strong as the 64 - all but the sturgeon have returned! Algae, the so-called phytoplankton, are floating in the water. links of its food chains. The species number is almost complete, but the species Diatoms live on the water bottom. Higher species of water composition is different from what it used to be. Today, carp plants such as pond weeds are living on the river banks and in species such as roach and immigrated gobies are dominant. side waters. Fischer © J. Fish Aquatic plants Are there other animals in the Rhine? / Trepte © A. photo-natur.de 8 Apart from fish, the Rhine fauna includes worms, mussels, 9 snails, crustaceans, insects, birds and mammals. From the Alpine Rhine until the North Sea, more than 500 Mühlhoff © U. invertebrate species were detected on the bed of the Rhine. Birds ©IKSR © J. Fischer Fischer © J. © J. Schneider © J. © C. Fischer © C. Fischer © wikimedia cc © B. Eiseler © B. The spinycheek crayfish comes from North Nuttall’s waterweed originally America and is crowding out the European crayfish. came from North America. For some time, the Asian clams Salmon again migrate Via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal the round were the most common mussel upstream from the North Sea goby (photo redd) has immigrated from the species in the Rhine but are and into the Upper Rhine © O. Niepagenkemper © O. Black Sea into the Rhine system. today declining, which might and Rhine tributaries. be due to reduced thermal discharges. 2b New Rhine species 2c Ecological Balance Is the species diversity in the Rhine natural? The Egyptian goose has fled from A good sign Success of the Master Plan Migratory Fish European zoos and is spreading The biology of the Rhine has become more diversified, but it In 2015 and compared to previous years, the biomass of In future, salmon, sea trout, sea lamprey and allis shad are from the Netherlands upstream is not, what it used to be. Several non-indigenous species, so- the Rhine system. / Trepte © A. photo-natur.de plankton algae in the Rhine has sunk supposed to migrate upstream as far as Switzerland and to called alien species have immigrated from faraway countries • as less nutrients enter the river reproduce naturally. By 2012 and with a view to achieving this or have come attached to the hulls of ships, for example. • because the immigrated species, such as mussels filter out target: the algae. Invasive species • 480 barriers in the Rhine system were made passable for fish (at times) crowd out native species and may be a threat to What remains to be done? • 80 alluvial water bodies were reconnected with the river 10 natural ecosystems. Some of the new species in the Rhine are • River banks, tributaries and brooks must be made more natural! • 21 % of spawning biotopes were again made accessible. 11 considered to be “invasive”. • Downstream migrating eel and other fish must be protected Since about the year 2000, annually several hundreds of salmon against turbines of hydropower plants along the Rhine! again migrate upstream into the Upper Rhine and reproduce naturally in the accessible salmon waters! View from the Isteiner Klotz upstream the Rhine towards Basel (Painting of Peter Birmann about 1800) © F. Reimann © F. © B. Froehlich-Schmitt Froehlich-Schmitt © B. The floodplain forests along the Rhine are havens of biological © wikipedia cc diversity, they tolerate floodings, maps © google filter water, fill-up underground © Wikimedia cc aquifers and retain floods.