State of the Environment Bulgaria 2003
What is the general situation with the air quality in Bulgaria?
General
In 2001, 76 monitoring stations (MS) operated in the National Air Quality Monitoring Network, 13 of which were automated measuring stations (AMS).
The stations are located in 40 settlements. Ambient air quality is monitored in major cities and “hot spots” where there is a potential risk to human health due to worsening air quality (for instance near big chemical or metallurgic enterprises and TPPs.
Regulation 9/1999 on the limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particulate matter, and lead in the ambient air, effective in 2000, introduced transitional periods for complying with the relevant limit values. By pollutant, they are: 2005 for sulphur dioxide, 2010 for nitrogen dioxide, 2008 and 2010 for fine particulate matter, and 2005 for lead. Temporary limit values and admissible deviations that decrease linearly each year, were introduced for the respective pollutants during the transitional periods.
Table 1 shows the limit values for ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter (PM10) and lead, which must be complied with during the respective year, as well as the allowed deviations for the year 2001.
Ambient air quality assessment by pollutants
The following pollutants are measured by the National Air Quality Monitoring System: dust, lead, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen chloride, phenol, ammonia, chlorine, carbon monoxide, cadmium, aerosols of hydrochloric acid, methane, non-methane hydrocarbons, benzene, and fine particles.
The monitoring network is served by the 15 RIEWs, EEA and the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH). For complete pollutant concentrations assessment, additional data provided to the National Data Base by 10 monitoring stations of the Ministry of Health (Regional Hygiene and Epidemiology Inspectorates) have been used.
Last update on March 2003