Water Bodies Pollution Due to Highways Stormwater Runoff: Measures and Legislative Framework

Nowadays, it is a common ascertainment that stormwater runoff in the urban and interurban road network consist non-point source pollution which contributes to the degrading of the quality of water of ground and surface water bodies. Taking into account the fact that water pollution has impacts to people and also to flora and fauna, the need to take measures in order to confront this environmental problem becomes inevitable. The adverse impacts of the stormwater runoff can be minimized with structural and non-structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) or with a combination of them. Within the content of the present paper the following are included: a) the investigation and presentation of the receiving waters pollution issues from the highway road network stormwater runoff together with the European transport policy concerning the development of an integrated highway road network, b) the examination of the respective pollutant generation and characteristics, c) the presentation of their impacts, d) the examination of the measures (structural and nonstructural BMPs), e) the presentation of the “first flush” phenomenon, f) The presentation of the existing legislation in the EU with emphasis in the E.U. Directive 2000/60/EC as well as the presentation of the relevant existing environmental legislation in Greece, including also the presentation of the way the Highway Guidelines actually deal with the specific problem.