Water Seminar – 14 April 2010, Athlone

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Environmental quality standards for marine waters • 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

7. 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?

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. THANK YOU