The River Basin Districts Typology, Standards and Groundwater threshold values (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Directions 2009 The Secretary of State and the Welsh Ministers, with the agreement of the Secretary of State to the extent that there is any effect in England or those parts of Wales that are within the catchment areas of the rivers Dee, Wye and Severn, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 40(2) of the Environment Act 1995(a) and now vested in them(b), and having consulted the Environment Agency, hereby give the following Directions to the Environment Agency for the implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy(c): Citation and commencement and extent 1.—(1) These Directions may be cited as the River Basin Districts Typology, Standards and Groundwater threshold values (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Direction 2009 and shall come into force on 22nd December 2009. Interpretation 2.—(1) In these Directions— ―the Agency‖ means the Environment Agency; ―the Groundwater Directive‖ means Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration(d); ―the Priority Substances Directive‖ means Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy(e); ―threshold value‖ has the same meaning as in the Groundwater Directive; and ―the Directive‖ means Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23rd October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. (2) Any expression used in both these Directions and the Directive and not otherwise defined in this Direction has the same meaning for the purposes of this Direction as it has for the purposes of the Directive. Application of the Directions 3. For the purposes of Article 4(2) of the Directive, where an environmental standard has been specified for a parameter or quality element as regards any protected area, or part of such area, of a type referred to in section 1 of Annex IV to the Directive, and that environmental standard is more stringent than the equivalent environmental standard specified in Part 2 of the Schedule to (a) 1995 c. 25. (b) By article 2 of and schedule 1 to the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672), the (b) By article 2 of and schedule 1 to the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672), the functions under section 40 of the Environment Act 1995 are exercisable by the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales concurrently in relation to the Environment Agency as a cross border body. The functions of the National Assembly for Wales are now exercisable by the Welsh Ministers by virtue of section 162 of and schedule 11 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 (c. 32). The Welsh Ministers may exercise these functions only with the agreement of the Secretary of State where such exercise would have an effect in England or where the exercise of the functions relates to matters including water resources management, rivers or other water courses or control of pollution of water resources, in those parts of Wales which are within the catchment areas of the rivers Dee, Wye or Severn. (c) O.J. No. L327, 22.12.2000, p. 1; as last amended by Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and Council on environmental standards in the field of water policy (OJ No. L348, 16.12.2009, p.84. (d) OJ No L 327, 27.12.2006, p.19. (e) OJ No L348, 24.12.2008, p.84 these Directions in respect of the same parameter or quality element, then the more stringent standard shall apply. Directions 4. For the purposes of characterisation, classification, objective setting, establishing programmes of measures and monitoring of water bodies, the Agency is directed as follows. 5. Subject to paragraph 6, in order to work towards achieving the environmental objectives laid down in the Directive, and in particular when exercising the functions listed in paragraph 7, the Agency must, as applicable, in respect of inland waters, transitional waters and coastal waters, or parts of such waters— (a) assign a Type or Types in accordance with Part 2 of the Schedule; (b) apply environmental standards to each river, lake, transitional water and coastal water, or part of such river , lake, transitional water or coastal water, according to its assigned Type or Types, as applicable, in accordance with Part 3 of the Schedule; (c) apply the standards for Specific Pollutants in accordance with Part 4 of the Schedule; (d) apply the environmental quality standards for priority substances in accordance with Part 5 of the Schedule; (e) apply the biological element status boundary values in accordance with Part 6 of the Schedule; and (f) apply the threshold values for groundwater in Table 1 of Part 7 of the schedule to each body of groundwater and, if any threshold value is exceeded, undertake an appropriate investigation to determine whether or not the applicable conditions for good groundwater chemical status are met in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 4 of the Groundwater Directive. 6. Except where the quality elements are so affected by the use and modified characteristics of an artificial or heavily modified water body as to make them inappropriate for classifying that water body, the quality elements and standards applicable to such a water body shall be those applicable to the surface water body type most closely comparable to that water body. 7.—(1) The functions referred to in paragraph 5 are— (a) any review of the characterisation of each river basin district; (b) monitoring and classifying the status of the water environment in each river basin district; (c) the setting of environmental objectives for each body of surface water in each river basin district; and (d) preparing a programme of measures to achieve those objectives. (2) The values for the boundary between ‗moderate‘ and ‗poor‘ and the boundary between ‗poor‘ and ‗bad‘ for the physico-chemical elements listed in Part 3 of the Schedule must not be used for the processes at sub-paragraph (b). Solway Tweed River Basin District 8.—(1) In relation to the Solway Tweed River Basin District, in order to ensure a common approach, the Agency must act jointly with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and may, as necessary, adapt the requirements of these Directions for that purpose. (2) In this Direction, ―Solway Tweed River Basin District‖ means the area identified in regulation 3 of the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (Solway Tweed River Basin District) Regulations 2004(a). (a) S.I. 2004/99. 2 Chris Ryder 21 December 2009 Signed by the Authority of the Secretary of State A Senior Civil Servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ] 21 December 2009 Claire Bennett Head of Climate change and Water Division under authority of the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, one of the Welsh Ministers SCHEDULE Direction 5 PART 1 Definitions ―5-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers is less than the standard for more than 5 % of the time; ―10-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers is less than the standard for more than 10 % of the time; “90-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers (e.g. concentration of a pollutant) is greater than the standard for 10 % or more of the time; ―95-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers (e.g. concentration of a pollutant) is greater than the standard for 5 % or more of the time; ―98-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers (e.g. concentration of a pollutant) is greater than the standard for 2 % or more of the time; ―99-percentile standard‖ means a standard that is failed if the measured value of the parameter to which the standard refers (e.g. concentration of a pollutant) is greater than the standard for 1 % or more of the time; ―Ambient river temperature‖ means the river temperature in degrees centigrade of a river or part of such river in the absence of any heat pollution or artificial release of water affecting the river temperature of that river or part; ―Annual mean standard‖ means a standard for which the compliance assessment period is a period of 12 consecutive months or a multiple of such period; ―Compliance assessment period‖ means the period over which measured values are obtained for the purposes of calculating an arithmetic average or a percentile value and may be part of a year; a year; part of several years; or several years; ―Good‖ means the boundary between the conditions consistent with the description of ―good ecological status‖ and ―moderate ecological status‖ in accordance with section 1.2 of Annex V 3 to the Directive; Values on the boundary are consistent with the description of good status. In relation to the priority substance and dangerous substance environmental standards, ―good‖ also means the boundary between conditions consistent with the description of ―good surface water chemical status‖ and ―failing to achieve good surface water chemical status‖ in Article 2 of, and Annex V to, the Directive; ―High‖ means the boundary between the conditions consistent with the description of ―high ecological status‖ and ―good ecological status‖ in accordance with section 1.2 of Annex V to the Directive.