Diagnoza stanu prawnego i organizacyjnego monitoringu wód podziemnych w Polsce

The article presents the current groundwater monitoring system in Poland. It points out the ambiguity of the terminology and the correlation between the previous concept, based on the areal criterion for monitoring networks (national, regional and local) and the recently introduced three types of monitoring: diagnostic, operational and research monitoring. In this context, the problem of changing legal regulations that govern the groundwater monitoring has been given special attention. Constant changes in the legal acts result in the ambiguity about who is currently responsible for the groundwater monitoring system and its various types in Poland. The paper explicitly addresses the question of the functioning of the local monitoring in Poland and the presentation of the results. It has been found out that the approach to the local and research monitoring ofgroundwater in annual reports on the state of the environment in particular regions published by the Voivodeship Inspectorates of Environmental Protection (WIOS) is inconsistent. These reports, being an essential element in disseminating information about the environment, should be complete, clear and consistent. Unfortunately, the quality of reports is highly variable in both technical terms and the merits. In many cases, they are incomplete due to the lack of information about the local monitoring as well as the fact that the issue of groundwater is frequently dealt with in a very superficial manner. The access to the data contained in these reports is sometimes difficult because of their different location on the websites of WIOS.