European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations, 2010

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 9/2010
• Year: 2010

S.I. No. 9 of 2010

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES (GROUNDWATER) REGULATIONS, 2010

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of22nd January, 2010.

I, JOHN GORMLEY, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), consider it necessary for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2000/60/EC 1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy and giving effect to Directive 2006/118/EC 2 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration to make provision for offences under the following Regulations to be prosecuted on indictment:

AND WHEREAS, I consider that it is necessary, having regard to section 3(3) of the Act of 1972, and for the purpose of ensuring that penalties in respect of an offence prosecuted in that manner under the following Regulations are effective, proportionate and have a deterrent effect, having regard to the acts or omissions of which the offence consists, to make such provisions in the following Regulations:

NOW THEREFORE, I JOHN GORMLEY, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) as amended by the European Communities Act 2007 ( S.I. No. 18 of 2007 ) and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy and giving effect to Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration hereby make the following Regulations:

PART I PURPOSE AND INTERPRETATION

Citation and commencement

1. (a) These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations 2010;

(b) These Regulations shall come into operation on 27th January 2010.

Purpose and scope of the Regulations

2. These Regulations are made to give effect to the measures needed to achieve the environmental objectives established for groundwater by Article 4(1)(b) of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter known as the Water Framework Directive) and to give effect to the requirements of Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter known as the Groundwater Directive), and include the following:

(i) measures to prevent or limit the input of pollutants into groundwater and to prevent the deterioration of the status of all bodies of groundwater, in accordance with the requirements of Article 4(1)(b)(i) of Directive 2000/60/EC and Article 6 of Directive 2006/118/EC,

(ii) measures to protect, enhance and restore all bodies of groundwater and to ensure a balance between abstraction and recharge of groundwater, with the aim of achieving good groundwater status by not later than 22 December 2015 in accordance with Article 4(1)(b)(ii) of Directive 2000/60/EC,

(iii) measures requiring the reversal of any significant and sustained upward trend in the concentration of any pollutant resulting from the impact of human activity in order to progressively reduce pollution of groundwater in accordance with Article 4(1)(b)(iii) of Directive 2000/60/EC,

(iv) measures for determining: groundwater quantitative status in accordance with section 2.1 of Annex V of Directive 2000/60/EC and groundwater chemical status in accordance with section 2.3 of Annex V of Directive 2000/60/EC,

(v) measures establishing criteria and procedures for assessing groundwater chemical status in accordance with the requirements of Article 3 and Article 4 of Directive 2006/118/EC,

(vi) measures establishing procedures for the identification of significant and sustained upward trends and the definition of the starting point for trend reversal in accordance with the requirements of Article 5 of Directive 2006/118/EC,

(vii) the laying down of rules for the presentation and reporting of groundwater monitoring results, trend assessments and the classification of quantitative status and chemical status of groundwater bodies in accordance with the requirements of Article 15, Annex V and Annex VII of Directive 2000/60/EC and Articles 4 and 5 of Directive 2006/118/EC.

Interpretation

3. (1) In these Regulations, save where the context otherwise requires,—

“Act of 1972” means the European Communities Act of 1972 as amended by the European Communities Act 2007 ;

“Act of 1977” means the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 as amended by the Local Government (Water Pollution) (Amendment) Act 1990 ;

“Act of 1992” means the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 as amended by the Protection of the Environment Act 2003 and the Water Services Act 2007 ;

“Act of 1996” means the Waste Management Act 1996 as amended by the Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2001 , Part 3 of the Protection of the Environment Act 2003 , Part 2 of the Waste Management (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2005 ( S.I. No. 290 of 2005 ), Waste Management (Environmental Levy) (Plastic Bag) Order 2007 ( S.I. No. 62 of 2007 ), Waste Management (Registration of Brokers and Dealers) Regulations 2008 ( S.I. No. 113 of 2008 ) and the Waste Management (Certification of Historic Unlicensed Waste Disposal and Recovery Activity) Regulations 2008 ( S.I. No. 524 of 2008 );

“Agency” means the Environmental Protection Agency;

“aquifer” means a subsurface layer or layers of rock or other geological strata of sufficient porosity and permeability to allow either a significant flow of groundwater or the abstraction of significant quantities of groundwater;

“available groundwater resource” means the long-term annual average rate of overall recharge of the body of groundwater less the long-term annual rate of flow required to achieve the ecological quality objectives for associated surface waters specified under Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC, to avoid any significant diminution in the ecological status of such waters and to avoid any significant damage to associated terrestrial ecosystems;

“background level” means the concentration of a substance or the value of an indicator in a body of groundwater corresponding to no, or only very minor, anthropogenic alterations to undisturbed conditions;

“baseline level” means the average value measured at least during the reference years 2007 and 2008 on the basis of monitoring programmes implemented for the purposes of Regulation 10 of the 2003 Regulations or, in the case of substances identified after these reference years, during the first period for which a representative period of monitoring data is available;

“body of groundwater” means a distinct volume of groundwater within an aquifer or aquifers;

“body of surface water” means a discrete and significant element of surface water such as a lake, reservoir, stream, river or canal, part of a stream, river or canal, a transitional water or a stretch of coastal water;

“co-ordinating local authority” has the same meaning as in the 2003 Regulations;

“Commission” means the Commission of the European Communities;

“Direct discharge to groundwater” means discharge of pollutants into groundwater without percolation throughout the soil or subsoil;

“Directive 80/68/EEC” means Council Directive 80/68/EEC of 17 December 1979 on the protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances (OJ No. L 20, 26.1.1980);

“Directive 91/414/EEC” means Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market;

“European site” means—

(a) a site (until the adoption, in respect of the site, of a decision by the European Commission under Article 21 of Council Directive 92/43/EEC for the purposes of the third paragraph of Article 4(2) of that Directive)—

(i) notified for the purposes of Regulation 4 of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations ( S.I. No. 94 of 1997 ), subject to any amendments made to it by virtue of Regulation 5 of those Regulations,

(ii) details of which have been transmitted to the Commission in accordance with Regulation 5(4) of the said Regulations, or

(iii) added by virtue of Regulation 6 of the said Regulations to the list transmitted to the Commission in accordance with Regulation 5(4) of those Regulations,

(b) a site adopted by the European Commission as a site of Community importance for the purposes of Article 4(2) of Council Directive 92/43/EEC in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 21 of that Directive,

(c) a special area of conservation within the meaning of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations, ( S.I. No. 94 of 1997 ), or

(d) an area classified pursuant to Article 4(1) or 4(2) of Council Directive 79/409/EEC;

“good groundwater status” means the status achieved by a groundwater body when both its quantitative status and its chemical status are at least good;

“good groundwater chemical status” means the chemical status of a body of groundwater, which meets all the conditions for good chemical status set out in Regulations 39 to 43 of these Regulations;

“good groundwater quantitative status” means the quantitative status of a body of groundwater, which meets all the conditions for good quantitative status set out in Regulations 33 to 36 of these Regulations;

“groundwater” means all water which is below the surface of the ground in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the ground or subsoil;

“groundwater quality standard” means an environmental quality...