Water Framework Directive
Background
The Water Framework Directive is the most significant piece of European water legislation to be produced over the last thirty years. The Directive passed through the European Parliament in 2000 and was taken into UK law in 2003. The Environment Agency is the competent authority responsible for implementing the legislation in England and Wales. Content
Whilst the legislation will rationalise and update existing water legislation,it is not simply aimed at improved standards of protection for individual water categories. It is very much concerned with the overall process of managing all freshwater bodies, groundwater, estuaries and coastal waters. An integrated approach will be taken to water quality and water quantity issues. A key part of this approach will be the concept of river basin management. The legislation requires this to be developed through a process of public participation.Timescale and Impact
The overall requirement of the Directive is that all river basins will achieve “good ecological and good chemical status” by 2015 unless there are grounds for derogation. This will require a management plan to be prepared for each river basin. Draft management plans will be published for consultation in 2008. Finalised plans will be published by end-2009, together with the detailed programme of measures needed to meet the objectives within each river basin. These measures must be operational by 2012. These programmes will raise implications for all industry sectors whose activities affect the water environment. As well as the water industry itself, this will include agriculture, construction and any business with trade discharge consents, trade effluent licences or water abstraction licences.
There is an ongoing consultative process between DEFRA and industry national stakeholders, where the interests of the chemical industry are represented by the Chemical Industries Association. At this stage the detailed issues for the chemical industry are not clear. However an impact assessment conducted by DEFRA in 2001 and available from its website, gives a list of Priority Substances where they believe the impact will be significant. Within this is a list of Priority Hazardous Substances, where releases to water should cease or use of which should cease within a twenty year period.
The current version of the North West River Basin Management Plan is available through the Environment Agency website here.
Actions are currently being defined for how to bring the North West rivers up to the proposed standards. Chemicals Northwest sits as an observer on the management plan, along with a representative from CIA member companies.
Further Information
To obtain further information on how this legislation may affect your business, contact Amy Peace.
The Directive itself can be accessed on the EU Website, within the “Legislation” section. The background thinking about EU water policy generally can be found at http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/index.html
A copy of the UK legislation is available from the HMSO website .
Other useful sources of information are:
- The Environment Agency website provides information on the legislation and on work being carried out within EA in preparation for implementation.To read the Chemical Industry Briefing Paper from the Environment Agency click here.
- The DEFRA website provides information on the regulations and assessment of their impact.
