Environmental standards and conditions
The Water Framework Directive aims to prevent deterioration of water status and to try to restore all waters to 'good' ecological status by 2015. A key component of this process will be our assessment of water quality. Previously, water quality has been assessed using chemical parameters, whereas the WFD has broader environmental objectives, and considers the overall health of the ecosystem as well.
Specific environmental standards and conditions are therefore needed to assess and define the wider environmental conditions that support a healthy ecosystem. These will include factors like water flow regimes and alterations to river beds and banks as well as concentrations of key chemicals. The standards will then provide a basis for setting objectives in River Basin Management Plans, to ensure that existing ecological status is maintained, or improved where necessary. It is therefore vital that the standards and conditions are based on sound scientific evidence.
In order to develop a robust framework, it is important to consider the science-base first, independently of any potential cost implications. However it is equally important that the social and economic impact of the new standards is assessed rigorously. The objective-setting process of River Basin Management Planning provides flexibility for Ministers to set less stringent objectives where the achievement of 'good' status is technically infeasible or disproportionately expensive. Given this flexibility, the environmental standards will not automatically drive costs. A Regulatory Impact Assessment is currently being prepared to provide detailed advice on the cost implications of the standards that are proposed. A public consultation will be carried out on these standards in the early summer 2006.
The contextual statement from the UK administrations ( Scottish Executive, Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - DEFRA, Department of the Environment Northern Ireland, Welsh Assembly Government) outlines the approach being taken to development of these environmental standards and conditions, and the process for their introduction here in the UK.