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2. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK AND PRINCIPLES
2.1 Aims of the WEWS Act
The Scottish Executive's key aim in implementing the WEWS Act is to strike the right balance between protecting and improving the water environment and supporting the social and economic needs of those who depend on it.
The WEWS Act introduced two key systems for the protection of our water environment:
- water management through the development of River Basin Management Plans ( RBMPs); and
- regulatory control under CAR of a range of activities that can impact on the water environment
RBMPs will be developed through a 6-year cyclical planning process. The process will identify appropriate environmental objectives for each water body in Scotland, and the measures that will be used to achieve them. 1
Regulatory control under CAR will be a key tool in securing the protection and improvement of our water environment. SEPA is tasked with regulating activities which pose a risk to the water environment, including abstractions, impoundments, discharges and engineering works in freshwater.
Activities controlled under CAR require an authorisation. SEPA may impose such authorisation conditions as it considers necessary to protect and improve the water environment. In making regulatory decisions, SEPA is expected to contribute to achieving the objectives of the WFD and other legislation, take account of the interests of other users of the water environment and help secure efficient and sustainable water use.
2.2 Contribution of the standards to WFD implementation
To implement the WFD, we need to identify the environmental standards that are necessary to support aquatic plants and animals at good ecological status and at high ecological status. This will enable us to assess whether waters at high status or good status are at risk of deterioration and what improvements would be needed to restore other waters to good ecological status, the principal objective of the WFD. Table 1in Annex A sets out the full list of elements listed in the WFD which require environmental standards to be set.
2.3 Relationship to standards established under other EU directives
A number of EU directives have established environmental standards relevant to the water environment. For example, environmental standards are already in place to protect areas designated under the Bathing Waters Directive, the Freshwater Fish Waters Directive and the Shellfish Waters Directive.
The standards required to comply with other directives will continue to apply. Where both a standard introduced under the WEWS Act and a standard required to comply with another directive apply, the most stringent will take precedence.
Some of directives which set standards for the water environment will be repealed at the end of 2013. These include the Freshwater Fish Waters Directive and the Shellfish Waters Directive. The objectives of these directives will be carried forward through the WFD's network of Protected Areas. The environmental standards applying to areas established to protect economically significant aquatic species will be revised, where necessary, to reflect improvements in scientific understanding of the conditions needed to achieve this protection.
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