Challenges for the Environment Agency and Research

1
Challenges for the Environment Agency and
Research

• Paul Logan - Water Framework Directive Programme
  Manager

2
Route map

• Introduction to the Directive
• Implementation processes Europe and England
  Wales
• Technical Challenges
• Technical Consultation
• Conclusions

3
Introduction

• Purpose
• River Basin Planning
• Objectives
• Overview
• Programme of Measures

4
The Directive
A complex environmental Directive

• Consists of
• 26 Articles (21 pages)
• 11 Annexes (51 pages)

Principles are simple, flexible and familiar
Welcomed by UK Agencies
5
Purpose
Protect and enhance the status of the water
environment
Promote sustainable water use
6
River Basin Planning Cycle
Identify water bodies at risk
Set appropriate environmental objectives and
design measures
Monitoring
Implement programmes of measures
Achieve objectives
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Status and Objectives

• Chemical elements
• specific pollutants (priority substances other
  substances discharged in significant quantity
• Biological elements
• fish, invertebrates, algae, macrophytes
• Physico-chemical elements
• e.g. thermal conditions, oxygenation, nutrients,
  acidification
• Supporting hydromorphological elements
• e.g. hydrological regime, river continuity and
  morphology

8
Ecological Objectives
9
Overview


10
Programme of measures

• Current regime of discharge and abstraction
  control will continue
• Programme of measures requires use of measures
  under other directives
• e.g. Urban Waste-water treatment, Nitrates, IPPC
  etc
• Will require additional measures to achieve Good
  status
• e.g. economic instruments, codes of good
  practice, recreation and restoration of
  wetlands,control of diffuse pollution
• Integration of planning
• Catchment Abstraction Management, Flood Defence
  Catchment Management,

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Implementation

• Timescales
• Common Implementation Strategy
• UK Implementation
• River Basin Districts
• Environment Agency Programme

12
River Basin Planning Requirements
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Common Implementation Strategy -
14
Developing the process - Common Implementation
Strategy
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UK Implementation
Department of Environment Food
Scottish Executive
Department of Environment
Rural Affairs
Northern Ireland
Welsh Assembly Government
Environment Heritage Service
Environment Agency
SEPA
Northern Ireland
Scottish Natural Heritage
English Nature, CCW
DEFRA Implementation Steering group
Departments from English Welsh Ministries
Agencies from England Wales
Representatives from Scotland and North Ireland
UK Technical Advisory Group


Co-ordination of technical advice for UK
administrations

Environment Agency
Scottish Natural Heritage
Environment Heritage Service
English Nature
Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Republic of Ireland, Ministry of Environment
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WFD Boundaries

• River Basin Districts

• CAMS, LEAPS etc.
• cross border boundaries
• Agency other boundaries

17
Water Framework Directive Programme Projects
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Technical Challenges

• Characterisation
• Typology
• Reference Conditions
• Pressures
• Monitoring
• Risk analysis
• Validation
• Classification
• Surface Waters
• Groundwaters
• Intercalibration

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Characterisation -Categories and Typology

• Water Body Categories
• Rivers, Lakes, transitional and coastal waters
• Wetlands ?
• Subject of a new EU working group
• No environmental objectives ?

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Characterisation -Typology

• Water Body Types
• How many types are required ?
• Sufficient to identify natural differences in
  ecological communities.
• Allows description of type specific reference
  condition
• Provides a simple reporting format for the
  directive.
• Relates to Programme of Measures
• Factors
• Obligatory (Geology, Size, Altitude)
• Optional (Substrate, Distance from source)
• Types and Biological Elements

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Characterisation - Reference Conditions

• Represents a state of no, or only very minor
  change.
• The standard for reference conditions must take
  account of an appropriate vision for Good
  ecological status
• Purpose of the Directive is to promote
  sustainable use of the water environment, not to
  return it to pristine conditions.
• Need to strike a balance
• We cant set targets based on current activity,
  but we also cannot take our reference criteria
  from a landscape that bears no comparison with
  modern Britain.

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Characterisation - REFCOND draft guidance

• A state prior to or without intensive
  agriculture, extensive air-borne industrial
  pollution, significant water abstraction and
  significant morphological change.
• Suggest a flexible temporal bench mark which
  reflects a significant step-change in for example
  the intensity of land-use.
• Could include morphological change if result has
  negligible effect on ecological structure and
  function

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Characterisation - Reference Conditions Methods

• Spatial network
• May not exist, at least for some water body types
• Predictive models
• RIVPACS approach uses environmental
  characteristics to predict invertebrate community
  in rivers
• Hindcasting nutrients in lakes from land-use
  using export coefficient and simple lake models
• Temporal data
• historical data
• paleoreconstruction
• Expert Judgement

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Characterisation -Pressures Impacts

• Assess risk from human activity
• Potential pressures
• Potential effects
• Characteristics of water bodies
• Susceptibility to pressures
• Probability of effects from pressures
• Risk of failing objectives

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Monitoring

• To provide a coherent comprehensive overview of
  water status within the River Basin District and
  permit the classification of surface water bodies
  into one of five classes.
• Not all water bodies need to be monitored
• 3 levels of monitoring
• Surveillance
• Operational
• Investigative

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Surveillance monitoring

• Sufficient water bodies included to provide an
  assessment of the overall surface water status
  Supplement validate risk assessment
• Assessment of long term change
• Covers all quality elements
• Provide information for efficient and effective
  design of future monitoring

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Operational monitoring

• Establish the status of those water bodies
  identified as being at risk of failing to meet
  their environmental objectives
• Will provide data for Environmental Quality
  Ratios
• Assess any changes in the status of such bodies
  resulting from the programme of measures
• Monitor elements most sensitive to the pressures
  on water body
• Sufficient sites to assess magnitude and impact
  of pressure

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Investigative monitoring

• Reasons for failure (of Environmental Objectives)
  is unknown
• Ascertain cause of water body failure
• Magnitude and impact of pollution incidents

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Monitoring hierarchy
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Classification

• Surface Water Status assessed using
• Ecological Status and
• Chemical (pollutant) Status.

• Ecological Status lower of

• Biological
• benthic invertebrates, aquatic flora, fish
• composition, abundance, biomass, diversity, age
  class etc.
• is reference based (observed versus expected)

• Or Physico-chemical elements
• oxygen regime, salinity

• Not -Hydromorphological
• flow, level, physical structure

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Classification Normative definitions e.g. lakes
in High Status

• Phytoplankton - 3 Biological quality elements
• taxonomic composition and abundance of
  phytoplankton corresponds totally or nearly
  totally to undisturbed conditions
• average phytoplankton biomass is consistent with
  the type specific physico-chemical conditions and
  is not such as to significantly alter the
  type-specific transparency
• Planktonic blooms occur at a frequency
  intensity which is consistent with the type
  specific physico-chemical conditions
• Need to develop methods that measure these
  attributes
• Functional taxa, Chlorophyll a, Secchi disc,
  incidence of surface algal scums ?
• Need numeric measures if EQR is to be calculated

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Classification - High/Good/Moderate Boundary

• Critical Boundaries
• Currently still insufficient information on how
  this will be determined
• Guidance from REFCOND is suggesting that Pressure
  criteria in combination with sensitivity are used
  to set boundaries
• Agency view is that Good status should reflect
  sustainable water use
• Agency consultation is currently asking for
  examples of sites that are in either High or Good
  status and reasons for selection

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Uncertainty and Classification

• In decision making it is imperative to be aware
  of how uncertain we are when making a decision.
• The status of water bodies will be determined
  from monitoring and thus from sampled data.
• This must be compared with a reference condition
  to calculate an Environmental Quality Ratio
• Error is associated with both the sampled
  (Observed) data the Reference condition. These
  errors do not cancel, it is closer to the sum of
  the errors in Observed Reference.
• It is thus important to minimise the variability
  in the Reference condition. (In practice it is
  likely to be assumed to be error free)

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Classification - Groundwater Status
Inputs of of pollutants prevented or limited.
Drinking Water protected
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Intercalibration

• Intention that Good status should represent the
  same level of biological quality across Europe
• Benchmarking exercise to be completed by 2006
  using a register of IC sites

Requires selection of sites at the boundary by
2004 (draft list of sites by 2003) Monitoring
does not start until 2006 and most MS have still
to develop their classification tools No
requirement to Intercalibrate Physico-chemical
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Good status for all waters ?

• Artificial or Heavily Modified water bodies
• Good Ecological Potential (GEP) rather than Good
  Ecological Status (GES)
• Numerous examples
• Impounded rivers creating lakes, lakes created by
  human activity
• Canalised rivers

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Technical Consultation

• The Water Framework Directive - Guiding
  principles on the technical requirements
• Annex II and V
• waterframeworkdirective_at_environment-agency.gov.uk
• end of September 2002

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Consultation Issues

• Water Bodies
• Surface Water Classification
• Heavily Modified Artificial Water Bodies

• Groundwater Classification
• Review of Human Impacts
• Monitoring requirements

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Conclusions

• Directive will change the nature of water
  management policy for many years
• Focus on Ecology
• Builds on what we already do
• It should provide for harmonisation across Europe
• Require new approaches in Programmes of Measures
• The Environment Agency welcomes the opportunity
  to work with others to overcome them.

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Challenges for the Environment Agency and
Research

• Paul Logan - Water Framework Directive Programme
  Manager