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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Scotland's water environment is in a relatively good condition compared with that of many European countries. We also now have in place an integrated framework to protect and improve our water environment through the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 (the WEWS Act), which transposed the European Water Framework Directive ( WFD), and the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 ( CAR).
However, our water environment is under pressure from a variety of uses, with nearly 45 % of our water bodies identified in 2005 as being at risk. We need to ensure that water use is sustainable in order to protect aquatic life and to safeguard the water environment as a resource for the future. The framework provided by the WEWS Act and CAR will be vital in ensuring that we can protect the quality of the waters we have, and where necessary and practicable, improve the status of those that are under pressure.
GENERAL PURPOSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS
The key mechanism for delivering improvements to the water environment will be the river basin management planning process. This process will rely on the use of environmental standards and conditions to help us assess risks to the ecological quality of our water environment and to identify the scale of improvements which would be needed to bring those waters not in good condition back to good health. The development of environmental standards and conditions is therefore a key part of our implementation of the WEWS Act.
The standards define a range of environmental conditions needed to support healthy aquatic life. They include standards for oxygen levels, water flow conditions, concentrations of key chemicals and the physical structure of river banks and beds - all factors on which aquatic plants and animals depend. The standards have been developed on a UK basis by technical experts in the UK Technical Advisory Group for the WFD ( UKTAG)
The standards will underpin our efforts to protect and, where necessary, improve the water environment by informing decisions made under CAR on the regulatory controls required for activities that could adversely affect the water environment. They will also help us identify what is needed to support the achievement of 'good ecological status' - the overall aim of the WFD for all surface water bodies - and so inform the setting of environmental objectives in the river basin management planning process. It is therefore important that the standards are based on sound science and set at levels which protect the varying needs of Scotland's aquatic ecosystems.
1.2 Aim of this Policy Statement
This paper provides information on the principles behind the environmental standards and conditions and the process of developing the standards across the UK. It explains how the standards will be introduced in phases, and how they will support the various aspects of the implementation of the WEWS Act. It also outlines the Scottish Executive's policy on how the standards will be used by SEPA and other regulators to protect, and where necessary to improve, our water environment.
This paper is supported by Directions to SEPA, which set out the first tranche of standards and instructs SEPA in their use.
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