1. Groundwater watch list
7 October 2015, Brussels
Elisa Vargas Amelin
DG Environment, Unit C1

2. Background I
Commission Directive 2014/80/EU amending Annex II to Directive 2006/118/EC (to be transposed to national legislations until 11 July 2016)
Recital 4
The need to obtain […] information on other substances posing a potential risk […]. A watch list for pollutants of groundwater should be established under the CIS (2) to increase the availability of monitoring data on [those] substances, and thereby facilitate the identification of substances, including emerging pollutants, for which groundwater quality standards or threshold values should be set.
Reference:

3. Background II
Commission Directive 2014/80/EU amending Annex II to Directive 2006/118/EC. Explanatory Note. Text on recital 4.
The Commission would like to ensure the improvement of data availability by the time of the next review, […] it proposes [voluntary and limited] mechanism to provide high-quality data on emerging pollutants […] for the purpose of risk assessment, following a similar approach to the Watch list […] of the Priority Substances Directive 2013/39/EU […]. The mechanism should focus on a limited number of substances and […] monitoring sites, but should provide representative data. Once [the] mechanism is more mature, an obligatory mechanism might be considered.
No significant risk: substance removed/ If risk: substance could be considered for Annex I or Annex II to the GWD. On average, a substance to remain on the watch list for 2 to 4 years.

4. Groundwater watch list first steps
Pilot data collection (pharmaceuticals) , group of volunteers led by DE:
Agreement of first steps in Rome 2014.
Set-up of group of volunteers (~ 15 members).
Results presented in Brussels in April 2015.
Data on pharmaceuticals from MS.
Preselection of 16 substances following criteria (sites, limit of quantification…).
Assessment report to be provided by end 2015.

5. Groundwater watch list first steps
Berne volunteers meeting 8-9 September 2015.
Technical discussions: mainly on risk vs. potential risk, data to be collected (format, quantity, and quality control issues).
Main decisions:
Mandate, roadmap and index for concept paper.
Continuation in parallel of pilot data collection on pharmaceuticals.
Results presented to the WG Groundwater in Luxembourg: 5-6 October Broad support to continue! (LU, BE, UK, NL…)

6. What do we understand under “GW watch list”?
All new/emerging pollutants
Assistance from
Member States
monitoring
Watch List
Candidate list for GWD Annex 1 & 2

7. Process to set up a watch list
Select Substances (procedure to be defined)
Process to set up a watch list
Column I
(Collection of existing monitoring data)
Set up a database for existing monitoring data (agreed format, including meta-data and supporting information, …)
Summary and assessment
Column II
(«Exposure assessment»)
Use data
Persistence
Mobility …
Risk assessment
(including toxicity, bioaccumulation, etc.)
Prioritization
> (Dynamic) Watch list
Identification of
research needs

8. Road map Summary report for SCG
First draft available
Approval by the SCG 9./
Report (>lead and potential contributors to be confirmed)
Elaborated draft March/April 2016
Discussion in WG groundwater plenary April 2016
Finalization Autumn 2016
Continuation of pilot study on pharmaceuticals Beginning 2016
based on findings, feedback to report development
Start of first data collection
Candidates for watch list expected (ideally) end of 2017
Contribution to WFD/ GWD revision (ideally) 2019