title: Legal requirements and wastewater discharges to Polish water bodies, 1945-2003.
abstract: The postwar development of water protection legislation and wastewater discharges is poorly known for the Baltic Sea region as a whole. This article presents national efforts to govern wastewater discharges in Poland using legal tools over the twentieth century with an emphasis on the postwar period, 1945-2003. The study also attempts to evaluate how the state authority responded to changing legal demands in terms of urban and industrial wastewater discharges in the postwar period. It outlines the main changes during the socialist regime in Poland and after it regained independence. Also the implications of Poland's integration into the European Union are briefly discussed. Mathematical calculations are used to illustrate some changes in legal requirements over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sanitary Engineering, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland. pkow@pg.gda.pl
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kowalik
authors.forename: Simo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laakkonen
mesh_terms: D001454:Baltic States; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005062:European Union; D005843:Geography; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007220:Industrial Waste; D011044:Poland; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste