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Press Release from The European Commission DG XI, Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection,
The proposal comes shortly after the appearance of the new Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC), which was adopted in September and entered into force on 22 December 2000. The Directive emphasises a high level of protection of rivers, lakes, coastal waters and the seas from hazardous substances.
Upon presentation of the proposed priority list Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said: "This final step of the long process to adopt and implement the Water Framework Directive is a milestone in water policy not only for the Community but also in a global context. I am very happy to present a list of priority substances which includes the pollutants that we have to deal with first if we take our commitments for the protection of surface and marine waters seriously. We will tackle pollutants that we have known well for years and others which came to our attention only more recently. The subsequent measures will improve and sustain the protection of our aquatic heritage and will lead towards more integration of environmental protection policies because they will have an impact on other policy areas including chemicals, air, soil and industrial pollution."
After two years of preparatory work the Commission presented its first proposal for a list of 32 priority substances in the field of water policy on 7 February 2000 (see Annex). With support from the European Parliament, the Commission, just before the agreement on the Water Framework Directive, decided to introduce a higher ambition: the phasing-out of certain hazardous substances that can be considered as the "tip of the iceberg". After only three months of preparation, the Commission now presents this amended proposal, which identifies eleven "priority hazardous substances" and eleven "priority substances under review" out of the 32.
The latter will undergo thorough scrutiny in order to come up with a final decision as to whether they should be identified as "priority hazardous substances" by the end of 2003. For the remaining 10 priority substances, there is no evidence that these are "toxic, persistent and liable to bio-accumulate" or that they give rise to an "equivalent level of concern" based on the best available knowledge.
The presence of dangerous or hazardous substances in European waters is still a major threat to the aquatic environment and to human health where surface waters are used for drinking water abstraction or fishing. There are many known adverse effects like eco-toxicity to aquatic organisms, bioaccumulation in the food chain and toxicity to man through drinking water. Pesticides like lindane and atrazine affect water plants and lead to increasing treatment requirements if the water is to be used for drinking water. Heavy metals like mercury and organic metal compounds like tributyltin (TBT) pollute water and sediments and are currently accumulating in the aquatic food chain. Populations of marine and limnic snails have been found to be endangered by increasing concentrations of TBT.
The Commission hopes for a swift adoption by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament of the list of priority substances, which will signify the successful completion of a re-organisation of Community water policy that started in the mid-90s.
Together with the agreement on the persistent organic pollutants (POP) Convention in Johannesburg in December 2000, this is a strong sign that the Community is pursuing a proactive, prudent and ambitious policy with regard to these chemicals, which are of major concern for human health and the aquatic environment.
Background on the Water Framework Directive
The adoption of the Water Framework Directive was of major importance for Community environmental policy. For the first time, objectives and management were based on an integrated, holistic and sustainable approach. The river is seen as forming a whole, an indivisible unit with its basin. The uniform objective of "good status", both ecological as well as chemical, must be implemented throughout Europe within the next 15 years.
Furthermore, cost recovery of water services, public participation, information and monitoring will be strengthened by the new Directive. Key dates will be the elaboration of river basin management plans with detailed programmes of measures by 2009.
Finally, pollution control will be based on the "combined approach" using synergies of emission reduction and water quality control. A progressive reduction of discharges, emission and losses into rivers, lakes, groundwater, coastal water and the sea will be a priority for the coming decades. In particular, the time has come to end all releases of certain extremely dangerous substances.
The complete amended proposal (COM/2001/17) including the specific substances can be downloaded from the eur-lex database of the following address:
Annex
Substances on the list
32 substances or group of substances are on the proposed list of priority substances, including selected existing chemicals, plant protection products, biocides, metals and other groups like Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) that are mainly incineration by-products and Polybrominated Biphenylethers (PBDE) that are used as flame retardants. The complete list is given below.
List of priority substances in the field of water policy (simplified) : Name Name |
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