Directive 76/464/EEC - Water
pollution by discharges of certain dangerous substances
Introduction
Directive 76/464/EEC has been codified as 2006/11/EC.
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:
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 |
