Identifiering av skyddsvärde och skada hos vattenförekomster i samband med föroreningspåverkan / Identification of protective value and damage of waters, caused by contaminating substances
Uncontaminated water is essential for life. That is a fact that ought to be a sufficient argument for groundwater aquifers and surface water resources to be considered as worth protecting from contamination. Despite this, numerous of contrarious interests exist that might lead to contamination of water. In this article it is discussed, that the type of reasoning and legislation that should be used in order to decide the protective value of groundwater or surface water varies depending on how the water is used or is going to be used. Furthermore, the protective value depends on whether or not any valuable ecosystem has been identified to be in or in connection
with the water resources. A correct evaluation of any damage caused by contamination should be made by measuring the deviation from the normal state, rather than measuring the concentration of a certain substance. It is in practice only relevant to measure damage of objects and organisms that have a protective value. Since the definition of protective value differs, also the purpose of protecting the water resources varies. Therefore, the definition of damage varies from case to case causing inconsistent baseline information to be produced and confusing the priorities when deciding on protective values for water resources.