GROUNDWATER POLLUTION (12985/03)
Letter from Ian Pearson MP, Minister of
State for Climate Change & Environment, Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs
I last wrote to you on 4 August 2006[75]
to update you on the above proposal. I am writing again to inform
you that agreement was reached on Tuesday 17 October in Conciliation
between the European Parliament, Council and Commission.
I do not yet have a text but I understand that
the agreement is a good one for the UK. It will ensure a flexible,
risk-based directive which will protect groundwater in a cost-effective
way and will avoid the introduction of conflicts with the Nitrates
Directive and the Water Framework Directive. In particular, it
secures the elements of the text agreed in Council in June 2005
which were of most importance to the UK, namely:
— risk-based criteria for assessing
groundwater chemical status, including standards for nitrates
and pesticides from EU directives and for other substances set
by Member States;
— an assessment of groundwater chemical
status where exceedances trigger investigation rather than automatic
failure of good status;
— reversal of environmentally significant
pollution trends based on appropriate monitoring, flexible triggers
for action, and realistic timescales;
— prevention or limitation of inputs
of pollutants from diffuse and point sources, providing for exemptions
in relation to disproportionate costs, technical feasibility and
circumstances beyond Member States' control,
Whilst avoiding the most problematic of the
European Parliament's Second Reading amendments—for instance,
ones which would have introduced impossible new objectives, and
(conversely) ones which would have created extremely large loopholes
in groundwater protection.
I shall write to you again when a text is available
and when the full Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced.
As always, if it would be useful in the meantime to discuss any
of the issues informally with Defra officials, they should be
happy to attend at the Committee's convenience.
2 November 2006
Letter from Ian Pearson MP to the Chairman
Further to my letter of 2 November on the above,
I attach a provisional draft text which has been published following
Conciliation (not printed). The draft is provisional since it
is still subject to legal and linguistic scrutiny. However it
is consistent with my understanding of the agreement between the
European Parliament and Environment Council, as outlined in my
previous letter. Although the precise timetable is not yet clear,
there is a possibility that the proposal will go forward for formal
adoption in December.
The UK Regulatory Impact Assessment is currently
being updated to reflect the new text. I will send you a copy
as soon as it is available.
In the meantime, if you feel it would be helpful
to discuss any of the issues informally with Defra officials,
they should be happy to attend at the Committee's convenience.
16 November 2006
Letter from Ian Pearson MP to the Chairman
Further to my letter of 16 November on the above,
I attach a text which has been formally communicated to Member
States following Conciliation (not printed). Member States will
be invited to adopt this text at the 11 December Transport, Telecommunications
and Energy Council meeting.
The formal text does not contain any substantitive
differences to the provisional post-conciliation text which I
sent you, except for clarification that the time period for implementation
will be two years following entry into force of the directive.
If it would be helpful for the Committee to
discuss any of the issues informally with Defra officials either
before or after adoption of the text, they should be happy to
attend at the Committee's convenience.
30 November 2006
Letter from the Chairman to Ian Pearson
MP
Your letters of 2 November 2006 and 16 November
2006 regarding the Conciliation Agreement reached on the above
Proposal were considered by Sub-Committee D at its meeting of
6 December.
We are content with the approach adopted by
the Council and European Parliament and we are therefore releasing
the Proposal from scrutiny.
I have already written to you (29 November 2006)[76]
about our concerns regarding the cost-effective and environmentally
sound implementation of the Water Framework Directive as a whole.
We therefore look forward to receiving the revised Regulatory
Impact Assessment for the Groundwater Directive at the earliest
opportunity.
6 December 2006
75 Correspondence with Ministers, 40th Report of Session
2006-07, HL Paper 187, pp 254-255 Back
76
Refer to 11816/06 Environmental Quality Standards in water. Back
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