Transcript Slide 1

Water Seminar – 14 April 2010, Athlone
European Communities Environmental Objectives
(Surface Waters) Regulations 2009
S.I. No. 272 of 2009
Pat Duggan
Senior Adviser
Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government
Context and purpose of the regulations
• Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for community
action in the field of water policy (the Water Framework Directive)
• Provides a system for classifying surface waters
• Establishes environmental objectives
• Provides for exemptions in certain cases
• Protected areas
• Directive 2006/11/EC on pollution caused by dangerous
substances (the Dangerous Substances Directive)
• Prior authorisation for discharges to surface waters
• Environmental quality standards to be laid down for waters
• Discharge authorisations - emission limits based on quality standards
• Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards
• Quality standards for priority substances presenting a ‘significant risk’
• Inventory of emissions, discharges and losses
• Requirement to progressively reduce and/or cease or phase out
General obligations on public authorities
• Wide ranging obligations imposed on public authorities
• Must undertake their functions in a manner that promotes compliance with the
environmental objectives and requirements of the regulations
• Must ensure, in so far as their functions allow, that – Surface water bodies comply with environmental quality standards established
– Protected areas achieve compliance with the relevant standards and objectives
• Must put in place the necessary measures to achieve the environmental objectives
and standards established by the regulations
• May not undertake their functions in a manner that knowingly causes or allows
deterioration in water status
• Prosecution and application to the Courts where a public authority fails to
comply with a duty under the regulations
Surface Water Classification
• EPA is responsible for calculating water status
• Criteria and standards laid down in Schedules
• Sets the basis for future actions and measures
• Starting point for river basin planning
• Knowledge gaps
• Further work
Exemptions
• The obligation under the regulations is to protect all waters and/or restore
to good status; 2015 deadline applies for ‘restoration’ objective.
• WFD aims at a balance between sustainable water use and the protection
of waters; certain exemption provisions are provided for in the regulations
where allowed by the directive:
• Extension of deadlines (2021 or 2027 at the latest; Article 30)
• Less stringent objectives (Article 31)
• Temporary deterioration (Article 32)
• New modifications and sustainable developments (Article 33)
• Strict conditions and requirements apply to the application of exemptions;
the reasons must be set out and explained in river basin management
plans
• Application of exemptions must at all times be consistent with the
implementation of other Community legislation
Environmental quality standards for marine waters
Substance
Cadmium
AA-EQS
[µg/l]
MAC-EQS
[µg/l]
PHS
0.2
PS
7.2
Not applicable
PHS
0.05
0.07
PS
20
Not applicable
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons
PHS
Individual EQS
applicable
Individual EQS
applicable
Trybutyltin
PHS
0.0002
0.0015
Lead
Mercury
Nickle
•The EQS refers to the dissolved concentration for metals (cadmium, lead, mercury and nickle)
•Elsewhere, EQSs are expressed as total concentrations in the whole water sample
Some considerations
• Port operations are essential to the economic well-being of the country.
Dredging and the disposal of dredge spoil will need to continue
• There is a legacy of contamination of harbour sediments; many of the
substances have low water solubility and a high affinity for particles. Many
are extremely toxic and are liberated during re-suspension of bottom
sediments e.g. TBT, PCBs and PAHs; risk of breaching EQSs and risk of
dispersal to sensitive (protected) areas
• Many, but not all, of the contaminants arise ‘externally’ e.g. from
upstream agricultural and urban land use activities
• Solutions in some cases will be technically difficult, costly and will take
time
• How are continued port dredging activities to be dealt with within the
overall framework and requirements of the regulations?
Water status and protected areas
• Protected Areas
• Drinking water abstractions
• Shellfish growing waters
• Bathing waters
• Nutrient sensitive areas
• Natura 2000 sites
• The regulations require EPA to
assign a status of ‘less than good’
where a surface water body that is
also a protected area fails to meet
the standards and objectives for
the protected area and where that
failure arises from a failure to meet
the water quality or hydrological
standards set down for the
protected area
• EPA must explain / set out reasons
Some comments on the Natura 2000 network
• Any Natura 2000 site with Annex I aquatic habitat types or Annex II
aquatic species under the Habitats Directive or with water-dependent bird
species in Annex I of the Birds Directive (and where the presence of
these species or habitats is the reason for the designation of the
protected area) has to be considered for inclusion in the register of
‘protected areas’ as a ‘water-dependant Natura 2000 site’
• For these Natura 2000 sites, the objectives of both the WFD and the BHD
apply. Therefore, the WFD objective of good status may need to be
complemented by additional measures in order to ensure that the
conservation objectives for protected areas are achieved. Article 4.2 of
the WFD states that ‘where more than one of the objectives … relates to
a given body of water, the most stringent shall apply’
• Example – if a certain concentration of phosphorus is needed to achieve
good ecological status and a more stringent value is needed to achieve
favourable conservation status, then the more stringent value applies.
But by when must the objectives for water-dependant
Natura 2000 sites be reached?
• Article 4.1.(c) of the WFD requires, for protected areas, that ‘Member States shall
achieve compliance with any standards and objectives at the latest 15 years’ of the
WFD entering into force ‘unless otherwise specified in the Community legislation
under which the individual protected area has been established’
• There is no specific date mentioned in the Birds or Habitats Directive to comply
with the conservation objectives, but under the Habitats Directive the conservation
objectives and conservation measures have to be established within six years after
a site of Community importance has been adopted. Furthermore, appropriate steps
must be taken to avoid the ‘deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of
species’ (Article 6.2, Habitats Directive)
• It is generally accepted that the exemption provisions of the WFD are applicable to
all environmental objectives under Article 4.1, and thus also to Article 4.1.(c) which
describes the objectives for protected areas (including Natura 2000 sites)
• However, their application must ensure the same level of protection as is provided
by the Birds or Habitats Directives i.e. the WFD does not allow derogation from the
requirements of the BHD
Environmental quality standards and discharge
consents (1)
• Legally binding standards established for:
• Biological quality elements
• Chemical and physico-chemical supporting quality elements
– 33 EU priority chemicals and 8 formerly ‘List I’ substances
– temperature, DO, BOD, salinity, acidification, nutrients
– 16 other substances discharged in significant quantities
• Emission limits must lay down the maximum concentration and the
maximum quantity of a substance permitted in a discharge and must aim
to achieve the environmental objectives and quality standards
established, including any standards or objectives for protected areas
• Discharges are to be controlled on the basis of the ‘combined approach’
• Programme for the examination and review, as appropriate, of existing
authorisations; must be completed by not later than 22 December 2012
Environmental quality standards and discharge
consents (2)
• Discharge consent systems under the following Acts
• Dumping at Sea Acts
• Foreshore Acts
• Fisheries Acts
• Water Pollution Acts
• Environmental Protection Agency Acts
• Waste Management Acts
• Relevant regulations under the European Communities Acts
• A public authority may decide to not apply emission limits based on the EQSs laid
down in the regulations where the discharge is made into waters for which a case
has been made for an extended deadline or the application of less stringent
environmental objectives, the reasons are explained in the river basin
management plan and the requirements of existing Community legislation is not
compromised
• The regulations provide for a mixing zones adjacent to a point of discharge subject
to certain conditions provided the mixing zone has been expressly provided for in
the authorisation allowing the discharge
Pollution reduction plans
• Specific EU measures on pollution control and environmental quality
standards adopted on 16 December 2008 (Directive 2006/11/EC)
• Priority substances - progressive reduction of discharges, emissions
and losses
• Priority hazardous substances – cessation or phase out
• Environmental quality standards established for 41 chemical
substances
• Regulations impose specific obligations on public authorities (Part V)
• EPA, in consultation with co-ordinating local authority, must establish
inventory of discharges, emissions and losses for first time by 22 June
2011
• Co-ordinating local authority, in consultation with EPA and relevant public
authorities must prepare pollution reduction plan for first time by 22 June
2012
THANK YOU