Verification of Vulnerable Zones Identified Under the Nitrate Directive \ and Sensitive Areas Identified Under the Urban Waste W
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FINAL REPORT European Commission Directorate General XI Verification of Vulnerable Zones Identified Under the Nitrate Directive and Sensitive Areas Identified Under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive United Kingdom March 1999 Environmental Resources Management 8 Cavendish Square, London W1M 0ER Telephone 0171 465 7200 Facsimile 0171 465 7272 Email [email protected] http://www.ermuk.com FINAL REPORT European Commission Directorate General XI Verification of Vulnerable Zones Identified Under the Nitrate Directive and Sensitive Areas Identified Under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive United Kingdom March 1999 Reference 5004 For and on behalf of Environmental Resources Management Approved by: __________________________ Signed: ________________________________ Position: _______________________________ Date: __________________________________ This report has been prepared by Environmental Resources Management the trading name of Environmental Resources Management Limited, with all reasonable skill, care and diligence within the terms of the Contract with the client, incorporating our General Terms and Conditions of Business and taking account of the resources devoted to it by agreement with the client. 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PART I AN OVERVIEW OF THE IDENTIFICATION PROCESS FOR VULNERABLE ZONES AND SENSITIVE AREAS IN THE UK ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT I1 1 DIRECTIVE DEFINITIONS AND UK INTERPRETATIONS 1.1 INTRODUCTION The objectives of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD)1 and the Nitrates Directive2 are to reduce and prevent “pollution”, from urban waste water treatment plants (hereafter ‘sewage treatment works’, STWs, following the UK terminology) and from agricultural nitrates respectively. Some aspects of the Directives are closely defined, others are – to some degree – left open to interpretation by Member States, individually or collectively. This first part of the report reviews the objectives of the two Directives as they relate to estuarine and coastal sites; examines the UK’s operational interpretation of these; and finally reviews the available official UK documentation relating to implementation at specific sites. 1.2 THE URBAN WASTE WATER TREATMENT DIRECTIVE There are a number objectives and requirements of the UWWTD that relate to the estuarine and coastal environment. The main elements are: • First, the stated objective, “to protect the environment from the adverse effects” of waste water discharges and “pollution” arising from waste water (Article 1); • In order to achieve this secondary treatment shall generally be required (Article 4); • However within ‘Sensitive Areas’ additional action is required, throughout the catchment area, for those treatment plants that contribute to “pollution” (Article 5.5). For estuaries and coastal waters the current or future potential for eutrophication is a criteria that results in their prescription as a Sensitive Area (Annex II). While Annex II allows some flexibility for “small agglomerations”, the requirement for “large agglomerations” is absolute: phosphorus and/or nitrogen should be removed unless it can be demonstrated that removal will have “no effect” on the “level” of eutrophication – a claim that a contribution will be ‘insignificant’ does not provide a defence for failure to implement. • In addition an estuarine or coastal water “must be identified” as a Sensitive Area where further treatment than that set out in the UWWT Directive is “necessary to fulfil [other] Council Directives”. 1Council Directive of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment (91/271/EEC). 2 Council Directive of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (91/6765/EEC) ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT EUROPEAN COMMISSION - DGXI I - 1 • The Directive also allows for the creation of ‘Less Sensitive Areas’, LSAs, providing “comprehensive studies” demonstrate that discharges “will not adversely affect the environment” (Article 6.2). Such discharges must receive at least primary treatment. In estuaries this stipulation applies to discharges from “agglomerations” of between 2,000 and a maximum of 10,000 person equivalents, p.e.. Above this size LSA status is not allowed and the provisions of Article 4 regarding secondary treatment apply. In coastal waters the equivalent limit is 150,000 p.e. • Estuarine discharges under 2,000 in estuaries or under 10,000 p.e. in coastal waters must, by 2005, receive “appropriate” treatment – that necessary to meet the “relevant” aspects of this and other Directives. • Other Directives relevant to estuaries and coastal waters included those relating to hazardous substances, bathing water, shellfish, and habitats and species protection. 1.2.1 UWWTD: Biochemical oxygen demand and eutrophication Having allowed for the requirements of other Directives, two aspects of pollution specifically deal with by the UWWTD are the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of the decomposing sewage effluent, and eutrophication. BOD, with quantitative criteria set out in the Directive’s annex, is relatively straight-forward, at least in its definition. However that for eutrophication is more complex. The Directive states (2.11) that “‘eutrophication’ means the enrichment of water by nutrients, especially compounds of nitrogen and/or phosphorus, causing an accelerated growth of algae and higher forms of plant life to produce an undesirable disturbance to the balance of organisms present in the water and to the quality of the water concerned.” With the exception of the insertion of the value judgement “undesirable” this is fairly close to the standard scientific definition of eutrophication1. One 1 In scientific terms an eutrophic system is, by extention from the origianal medical definition, a ‘well fed’ system. In the literature Nixon (1995) defines eutrophication operationally as: “Eutrophication (noun) – an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter to an ecosytem”. The source of increasing supply of organic matter (‘organic carbon’ is used synonymously) may be from within the system (‘autochthonus’), most familiarly by increased plant growth, or imported into the system from elsewhere (‘allochthonus’). Nixon also proposed a classification scheme for the trophic status of estuarine and coasal ecosystems: Organic Carbon Supply (g C m-2 y-1) oligotrophic < 100 mesotrophic 100–300 eutrophic 301–500 hypertrophic >500 Nixon continues “The definition has several desirable features. It is short and simple. It is consistent with historical usage. It does not confuse causes or consequences of the phenominon with the phenominon itself. It also focuses on the major process of concern – a change in the metabolic resources and, potentially, the trophic status of an ecosystem. If it can be shown … that the primary production of a bay or estuary is increasing, we can say that the system is undergoing eutrophication. The cause of the eutrophication may be an increase in the input of inorganic nutrients, a decrease in the turbidity, a change in the hydraulic residence time of the water, a decline in grazing pressure, etc.. All of these factors may cause eutrophication, but they are not the phenomena itself. A variety of other changes may be associated with or even caused by the increse in the supply of organic carbon (for example, species changes, hypoxia, fish kills), but they are not the phenomina itself. It is also clear that ‘eutrophication’ is a process, a change. It is not a trophic state. For ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT EUROPEAN COMMISSION - DGXI I - 2 significant difference is that, in scientific terms, the organic (carbon) burden can also result in eutrophication, entering the food chain via bacteria and certain facultative or obligate heterotrophic microplankton, rather than via ‘plants’, although in taxonomic and functional terms the distinction can become rather indistinct. Although allowed for in the Directive definition, the emphasis is on nitrogen and phosphorus. Another distinction is that ‘eutrophication’, as a process, might be said to have ceased – scientifically speaking – once the situation has stabilised at a new, higher level, although that state would be more eutrophic. Of course, the site would be still be affected by ‘pollution’. In practice eutrophication has come to be interpreted in a narrower sense than that allowed for in the Directive. Water bodies (particularly estuaries in the context of this report) vary significantly in their natural, background, nutrient concentrations. Anthropogenic nutrient inputs result in a shift along this continuum. Relatively speaking a small input into a nutrient poor (oligotrophic) estuary may have a greater impact on its biodiversity than a larger input to a naturally rich (eutrophic or, in extreme cases, hypertrophic) site. Yet the policy concern, (including other fora such as PARCOM, its successor, OSPAR, and the North Sea Ministerial Conferences) has been almost exclusively at the (more visible) extreme hypertrophic