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”

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) Structure Report from the Commission (8 pages) Commission staff working document (20 pages 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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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.

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

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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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 µ g/l SulphateAnnex II ,200mg/l Ammonium Annex II mg/l Lead Annex II µ g/l Cadmium Annex II µ g/l Mercury Annex II µ g/l ConductivityAnnex II ,480 µ S/cm NickelMetal µ g/l CopperMetal µ g/l Tetrachloroethylene Annex II µ g/l TrichloroethyleneAnnex II 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

Meeting of European RBD Authorities, Stockholm (SW) 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* Ammonium Chloride Sulphate Molybdate Reactive Phosphorus (as P) Arsenic Benzene Benzo(a)pyrene Cadmium Tetrachloroethylene Lead *partial information Pollutants posing risk to more than 100 groundwater bodies or causing poor status to more than 50 groundwater bodies in Europe

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