1. water.europa.eu REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION on the establishment of groundwater threshold values Balázs Horváth European Commission DG ENV Unit for “Protection of Water Environment”

2. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Legal base Article 3.1 (b), 3.5 and 3.7 of the Groundwater Directive 2006/118/EC: –Member States established groundwater threshold values for the assessment of chemical status –Commission publishes a report on the basis of the information provided by Member States –All threshold values established published by Member States in the river basin management plans

3. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Data collection Questionnaire to MS in spring 2009 Possibility of data updating the information in autumn 2009 Information submitted was not yet final, as work on the finalisation of the WFD river basin management plans was still ongoing

4. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Structure Report from the Commission (8 pages) Commission staff working document (20 pages + 100 pages Annexes) –Introduction –Requirements of GWD –Results of the Assessment of the Threshold Values Established by Member States Communication and completeness of the reports Established threshold values Methodologies applied for the establishment of threshold values –Summary –Annex 1 Assessment result tables –Annex 2 Empty questionnaire –Annex 3 Information about every Member States

5. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Completeness of the report 26 Member States have reported on the establishment of threshold values (except Greece) Denmark provided information on the process of establishing threshold values but neither on the substances concerned nor on the numerical values Portugal did not establish any threshold values as no groundwater body was identified as being at risk for pollutants other than nitrates.

6. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Results / conclusions 24 MS established threshold values for substances In total threshold values for 158 different pollutants/indicators have been established

7. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Number of pollutants/indicators for which threshold values have been established by each Member States

8. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Results / Conclusions Drinking water standards were most frequently reported as basis of threshold values: 23 MS referred to drinking water standards to be considered for TV establishment 5 MS reported TVs for nitrates and 7 MS for pesticides that are stricter than GWD quality standards 18 MS established GW TVs for pollutants that do not pose risks to GWBs

9. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Substances of Annex II GWD cause risk in a considerably high number of Member States Substance/Indicator Group of substances Number of Member States Range of threshold values Unit FromTo ChlorideAnnex II222412,300mg/l Arsenic Annex II 210.75189 µ g/l SulphateAnnex II21129.754,200mg/l Ammonium Annex II 210.08452mg/l Lead Annex II 205320 µ g/l Cadmium Annex II 190.0827 µ g/l Mercury Annex II 180.031 µ g/l ConductivityAnnex II1448510,480 µ S/cm NickelMetal111060 µ g/l CopperMetal1010.12000 µ g/l Tetrachloroethylene Annex II101.150 µ g/l TrichloroethyleneAnnex II101.550 µ g/l Sum of Trichloroethylene and Tetrachloroethylene Annex II10540 µ g/l Pollutants/indicators for which at least 10 Member States have established threshold values The ranges of threshold values established in Europe which is very broad for many substances

10. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 From all the pollutants considered nitrate is posing risk to and cause poor status of the highest number of the groundwater bodies in Europe Pollutants posing riskpoor status GWBsMember StatesGWBsMember States Nitrate*4781750414 Ammonium2761414713 Chloride2561811713 Sulphate2161611715 Molybdate Reactive Phosphorus (as P) 21011021 Arsenic128134211 Benzene1247586 Benzo(a)pyrene1104513 Cadmium10111555 Tetrachloroethylene966626 Lead9010515 *partial information Pollutants posing risk to more than 100 groundwater bodies or causing poor status to more than 50 groundwater bodies in Europe

11. Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 21-8.2009 Next steps –Official adoption of the report is expected next week –All the language versions will appear in http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water- framework/groundwater.html shortly after the adoption http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water- framework/groundwater.html –Compliance check of RBMPs from 2010 –GWD Annex I and II review in 2013