ABSTRACT
(Received August 15, 1986)
Over the last three decades, the quality of the Val Parma water courses has undergone a drastic deterioration that can be linked to industrial and demographic transformation which have occurred there. From 1951 to 1981 there was a 360% increase in the pollution load by human activities with most of that increase occurring between 1961 and 1971. In 1976 a program was started to depurate the waste products in the water, but it only succeeded in holding the pollution levels to the values recorded in 1971. Furthermore, this intervention was even less effective on the nitrogen and phosphorus loads received by streams. The high level of pollution of some water courses is now having negative effects on the quality and availability of ground water and creating situations of conflict owing to the necessity of using these for drinking, industrial and irrigation purposes. The comparative analysis of the causes and effects produced by pollution over 30 years has also made it possible to define the objectives needed for an estimate of the cost of a reclamation program.
