EU Directives on Dangerous Substances in Water

Council Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for community action in the field of water policy

This new Directive was published in December 2000. It will be several years before it is fully implemented in the UK. It seeks to create a framework for water legislation, protecting groundwater, surface water, coastal and territorial waters. Under the Directive, new listed substances and daughter Directives will be agreed.

This is a framework Directive updates the original 1976 one. It provides for the elimination or reduction of the pollution of inland, coastal and territorial waters by particularly dangerous substances. Most changes are still to be made, until then the current position under the old Directive stands. These will all be updated in time. Standards for specific substances are set by separate ‘daughter’ Directives.

 The annex to the Directive has two lists of substances:

• List I of those substances considered the most dangerous. Those substances on list I for which daughter Directives have been adopted are referred to as ‘Black List’ substances;

• List II (the ‘Grey List’) of those considered to be less dangerous.

To date daughter Directives have been developed for the following List I substances (i.e. form the ‘Black List’)

Council Directive 80/68/EEC on the protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances

Provides for the protection of groundwater by preventing or limiting the introduction of certain dangerous substances into such water.

The annex to the Directive has two lists - List I and List II. However, this Directive takes a different approach to the classification of substances to Directive 76/464. For List I substances all direct discharges are prohibited and any disposal on land of either List I or List II that could lead to indirect discharges must be authorised. All direct discharges of List II substances are subject to authorisation. 

Guidance on the implementation of the Groundwater Directive in England and Wales

DoE Circular 20/90 (Welsh Office 34/90) - EC Directive on protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances (80/68/EEC): classification of listed substances. ISBN 0-11-752344-5.

It should be noted that the lists above are being revised by the new Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and its daughter directive (2001/2455/EC) on Priority Substances in Water as outlined in Chapter 5. The table below shows the current status of the proposed PS and PHSs. The full draft Directive from the European Commission on priority substances and the proposed EQSs can be found in COM (2006) 397 is available here.