Prevention and Control of Water Pollution
Law and regulation help to prevent and reduce water pollution incidents. A legislative action plan against water pollution has been developed at the international, European and national level.
International Water Pollution Legislation
International law deals mostly with marine pollution. These laws prohibit dumping of waste and other hazardous materials at sea and also regulate oil spillages from ships and other vessels. International law has played a major role in controlling and reducing pollution in international waters.
Examples:
The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 73/78)
International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation, 1990 (OPRC)
International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) by Sea
Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Co-operation to Pollution Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances, 2000 (OPRC-HNS Protocol
The International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships
Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, 2007
EC/EU Legislation
UK national water quality standards have to a large extent been influenced by EC law and policy. The European Community (EC) at its First Action Programme on the Environment in 1973 set out water pollution as a priority matter. Since then, the EC (now the European Union (EU)) has passed several directives to reduce and control pollution in European waters.
Examples:
Dangerous Substances in Water Directive 76/464 (to be fully repealed in 2013 by Water Framework Directive)
Agricultural Nitrates Directive 91/676
Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271
The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC
UK Legislation
Legislative Development
UK laws on water pollution date back to 1388 where legislation was passed that made it illegal to dump animal waste, dung or litter into rivers. In the 19th century, the River Pollution Prevention Act 1876 was passed to deal with river pollution. This was followed by the River Boards Act 1948 which created river boards with regulatory powers to deal with water supply and sewage functions.
However, it was not until the enactment of the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Acts of 1951 and 1961 that a coherent system of water pollution control was developed. The Control of Pollution Act 1974 further strengthened controls on water pollution while the Water Act 1989 established the National Rivers Authority as the main regulatory body for water pollution in England and Wales. The Environment Act 1995 replaced the National Rivers Authority with the Environment Agency, the main environmental regulator for England and Wales. The 1995 Act also replaced the river purification authorities in Scotland with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Northern Ireland has an equivalent regulator.
In England and Wales, the Water Act 1989 has been replaced by the Water Resources Act 1991 which consolidated existing water laws. Most recently, the parts of the Water Resources Act that deal with water offences and discharge consents have been replaced by new environmental permitting regulations. The legislation regulates discharges to waters. It is a criminal offence to make discharges into controlled waters without proper authority from the Environment Agency. More information about the water pollution offences is available here. The water legislation is based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle which requires polluters to pay for the environmental costs of their discharges into controlled waters. Drainage of water or trade effluents into the sewage system is dealt with by other legislation including the Water Industry Act of 1991.
In Scotland, the Control of Pollution Act 1974 was replaced by the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005. Known as the Controlled Activities Regulations, or CAR, these regulations implemented parts of the Water Framework Directive in Scotland. Any activity liable to cause pollution of the water environment is controlled under CAR, and it is an offence to carry on a controlled activity without a CAR authorisation.
The 2005 Regulations, amended several times, have recently been consolidated in CAR 2011.
The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 will provide further protection and improvement to the marine environment. Visit our Water Pollution Law Search page for a comprehensive listing of Water Pollution legislation.
Common Law and Water Pollution
Historically, nuisance law was the primary branch of common law that provided legal remedy on water pollution. Nuisance law deals with unlawful interference with a person’s use or enjoyment of land or of some right over or in connection with it. Under private nuisance, claims could be brought against a person who polluted water resulting in the unreasonable interference of the claimant’s use or enjoyment of land. A riparian owner (a person who owns property by a watercourse) could also initiate an action against any person who detrimentally affected the use or enjoyment of the watercourse near his or her home. Similarly, riparian owners also have a duty not to pollute the watercourse near their homes.
A claim in public nuisance could also be maintained if the water pollution is widespread and affects a large section of the public. Today, water pollution claims are more likely to succeed if they are brought under statutory law (laws passed by the Parliament) as opposed to common law.
Our Water Pollution Law Search provides links to the laws that deal with the prevention and control of water pollution.
The Directive 76/464/EEC of 4 May 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community [scanned PDF file] was one of the first water related Directives to be adopted. It had the ambitious objective of regulating potential aquatic pollution by thousands of chemicals already produced in Europe at that time. The Directive covered discharges to inland surface waters, territorial waters, inland coastal waters and ground water. In 1980 the protection of groundwater was taken out of 76/464/EEC and regulated under the separate Council Directive 80/68/EEC (1) on the protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances.
The Directive introduced the concept of list I and list II substances, which were listed in the Annex to the Directive, and which are discussed below.
The purpose of the Directive is to eliminate pollution from list I substances and to reduce pollution from list II substances.
List I and 'Candidate list I'
List I included a number of groups and families of pollutants from which certain individual substances were to be selected on the basis of their
persistence,
toxicity and
bioaccumulation.
In 1982, the Commission communicated a list to the Council (OJ C 176 of 14 July 1982, p. 3) that included 129 "candidate list I substances". Three more substances were subsequently added to the list to bring the total up to 132.
Specific Directives for list I substances
Up to now, 17 individual substances of the "candidate list I" have been regulated in five specific Directives (also called 'daughter' directives) setting emission limit values and quality objectives on a Community level. These Directives were the first mandatory minimum requirements for an approach based on best technical means (later known as best available techniques or BAT).
The regulation of other "candidate list I substances" was suspended at the beginning of the 1990s due to the preparation of a more comprehensive and integrated permitting system for industrial installations. In 1996, the Directive on integrated pollution prevention and control, the IPPC Directive (96/61/EC (2)) was adopted. The Directive includes the emission limit values for the 18 list I substances of the specific directives as minimum requirements for large installations.
List II - pollution reduction programmes (Article 7 Directive 76/464/EEC)
List II includes groups and families of substances that have a deleterious effect on the aquatic environment. It also consists of all the individual list I substances not yet regulated at Community level yet. As there are only 17 'real' list I substances, all the other 114 substances of the 'candidate list I' and the groups and families of substances listed under list I must be considered as list II substances. For the relevant pollutants of list II, Member States must establish pollution reduction programmes including water quality objectives according to Article 7 of the Directive 76/464/EEC.
Progress in properly implementing list II substances that are regulated under Article 7 of the Directive proved to be very slow. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Commission decided to start infringement procedures against most of the Member States. Most of the cases are before the European Court of Justice and there have been already several rulings against Member States.
The Commission has recently assessed the pollution reduction programmes under Article 7 of Directive 76/464/EEC in all Member States. An initial report was prepared in 2001 titled "Assessment of programmes under Article 7 of Council Directive 76/464/EEC"). Two further reports are now available to on the implementation of Directive 76/464/EEC in the transition period : "Pollution Reduction Programmes in Europe : Updated report" on the Assessment of Programmes under Article 7 of Directive 76/464/EEC" and "Achievements and obstacles in the Implementation of Council Directive 76/464/EEC" on Aquatic Pollution Control of Dangerous Substances (1976-2002)".
Transition to the Water Framework Directive
The Council Directive 76/464/EEC has been integrated into the Water Framework Directive.
Article 22 together with Article 16 of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) set out the transitional provisions for the existing Directive on discharges of certain dangerous substances (76/464/EEC).
In summary, the provisions are as follows:
Article 6 of the Directive 76/464/EEC on the emission limits and quality standards for list I was repealed with the entry into force of the Directive 2000/60/EC;
Since 13 January 2009 onward, Annex X of the Water Framework Directive is replaced by the Annex II of the Directive 2008/105/EC (Article 10 of the Directive 2008/105/EC). The new Annex X replaces the first list of priority substances (Decision 2455/2001/EC) and therefore the "candidate list I";
Since 13 January 2009 onward, environmental quality standards settled by the specific directives (also called "daughter" directives) and listed in Annex IX of the Water Framework Directive are repealed by those specified in Part A of Annex I of the new directive (Article 11 of the Directive 2008/105/EC);
The remaining parts of the directives listed in Annex IX of the Water Framework Directive will be repealed from 22 December 2012 onward, according to Article 12(1) of the Directive 2008/105/EC;
Environmental quality standards established under the first River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) shall be at least as stringent as those required to implement Directive 76/464/EEC (Article 22(6) of the Water Framework Directive);
Until 22 December 2012, the monitoring and reporting obligations will be carried out according to Article 5, 8 and 15 of the Water Framework Directive (Article 12(2) of the Directive 2008/105/EC).
Under the Water Framework Directive, Member States shall furthermore set quality standards (according to Annex V point 1.2.6) for river basin specific pollutants (listed in Annex VIII, point 1-9) and shall take action to meet those quality standards by 2015 as part of ecological status (Article 4, 11 and Annex V point 1.3, WFD). For this purpose a programme of measures (according to Article 11) shall be in place by 2009, and become operational by 2012. This procedure will then replace Directive 76/464/EEC after its full repeal in December 2013.
Documentation
Documents relating to Directive 76/464/EEC are available here.
(1) complemented by Directive 2006/118/EC
(2) codified by Directive 2008/1/EC and currently under revision
