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Environmental quality standards applicable to surface water
Environmental quality standards applicable to surface water
Environmental quality standards applicable to surface water
Directive 2008/105/EC setting environmental quality standards in the field of water policy
The directive sets EQSs for priority substances and eight other pollutants. These substances include the metals cadmium, lead, mercury and nickel, and their compounds; benzene; polyaromatic hydrocarbons; and several pesticides. Several of these priority substances are classed as hazardous.
The EQSs in Directive 2008/105/EC are limits on the concentration of the priority substances and eight other pollutants in water (or biota*), i.e. thresholds which must not be exceeded if a good chemical status is to be met. There are two types of water standard.
The EQSs are different for:
EU Member States must ensure compliance with the EQSs. They must also take measures to ensure that the concentrations of substances that tend to accumulate in sediment and/or biota do not increase significantly.
Directive 2013/39/EU
Directive 2013/39/EU updated the EQSs for seven of the 33 original priority substances, in line with the latest scientific and technical knowledge concerning the properties of those substances.
The revised EQSs for those seven existing priority substances had to be taken into account for the first time in Member States’ river basin management plans from 22 December 2015, with the aim of achieving good surface-water chemical status for those substances by 22 December 2021.
It included 12 newly identified priority substances whose EQSs were be taken into account in the drawing-up of supplementary monitoring programmes and in preliminary programmes of measures to be submitted to the European Commission by the end of 2018, with the aim of achieving good surface-water chemical status for those substances by 22 December 2027.
Watchlist
Directive 2013/39/EU also required the Commission to establish a watch list of substances for which EU-wide monitoring data are to be gathered to support future prioritisation exercises. Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/1307 establishes the latest watch list.
Mixing zones
Directive 2008/105/EC also requires Member States to designate mixing zones near discharge points, where the EQSs may be exceeded provided that the rest of the surface water body complies with the standards. These areas must be clearly identified in the river basin management plans established in accordance with the water framework directive.
Inventories
For each river basin district, Member States must set up an inventory of emissions, discharges and losses of all substances listed in Part A of Annex I to the directive. On the basis of this inventory, the Commission will verify whether progress is being made towards the objectives of:
The directive had to be transposed into national law by 13 July 2010.
Compliance with the EQSs should benefit both the public and the environment. It should reduce the costs of treating surface waters used for drinking-water production and improve the health of plants and animals living in these waters and of livestock drinking these waters.
For further information, see:
Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directives 82/176/EEC, 83/513/EEC, 84/156/EEC, 84/491/EEC, 86/280/EEC and amending Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, pp. 84–97).
Successive amendments to Directive 2008/105/EC have been incorporated in the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/1307 of 22 July 2022 establishing a watch list of substances for Union-wide monitoring in the field of water policy pursuant to Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2022) 5098) (OJ L 197, 26.7.2022, pp. 117–120).
last update 10.08.2022