SALZBURG - Environment
Endeavours to solve the conflict between environment and economy
About 7% of the total amount of solid waste collected is being landfilled in 1999.
Salzburg has achieved a considerable reduction in its output of pollutants, and this is one reason why European limit values for sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere are no longer exceeded. Although it has an above-average share of low-polluting Austrian-registered motor cars and vans (64.1% in the city of Salzburg as opposed to the national average of 54.4%), the heavy volume of traffic in greater Salzburg and on the Tauern motorway still leads to excessive noise and nitrogen dioxide levels.
As well as localized emissions in the north, there is a considerable amount of atmospheric pollution imported over greater distances: excessive levels of cadmium, arsenic and vanadium are deposited in the soil, and in the forests above-average numbers of trees are dying at the top. Wind snap and bark beetles have added considerably to the damage caused by air pollution. Around most of the industrial areas, limit values are being exceeded for nickel and lead deposits in the soil, as well as for sulphur content in the needles of coniferous trees. In the south of the Bundesland, the damage is generally slight.
Overall, the quality of surface water and groundwater is good.
Salzburg has a larger percentage of its total area included in national parks than any other Bundesland. The Hohe Tauern national park in the upper reaches of the Tauern river covers 12% of the total area (804 km2, 430 of them totally unused) and the Kalkhochalpen (high Limestone Alps) National Park covers 3%. More than half (54%) of the area within the national parks is privately owned and divided into zones. In the outer zones, although they may have cultivated areas, the natural environment is disturbed as little as possible. The Salzburg authorities take the views of the local population into account when settling conflicts pitting land use against nature protection and are vigorously campaigning on behalf of nature preservation.
In 1998, 85.2% of the population was connected to public sewage in Salzburg; this is above the Austrian average (81.5%).
The share of persons connected to public water supply system (90.5%) was higher than the average percentage of the whole population in Austria.
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