EU SPECIFIC WATER LEGISLATIONS

Urban wastewater treatment plants and regulations and/or prior authorisations

Urban wastewater treatment plants built to comply with those requirements must be “designed, constructed, operated and maintained to ensure sufficient performance under all normal climatic conditions” taking into account seasonal variations of the load (Article 10) .
Discharge of industrial wastewater into collective systems and urban wastewater treatment plants are subject to regulations and/or prior authorisations pursuant to further requirements (Article 11). They must most notably be subject to pre-treatment in order to: protect the health of staff working in collecting systems and treatment plants, ensure that collecting systems, wastewater treatment plants and associated equipment are not damaged, that the operation of the wastewater treatment plant and the treatment of sludge are not impeded, that discharges from the treatment plants do not adversely affect the environment, or prevent receiving water from complying with other EU Directives, and that sludge can be disposed of safety in an environmentally acceptable manner (Annex I(c)). Biodegradable wastewater from certain food-processing industries must also comply with conditions established in prior regulations and/or specific authorisations on the basis of specific requirements (Article 13).

The implementation of the directive has been notoriously laborious in many Member States as a result of it requiring large investment by most municipalities. Most Member States have been condemned, even repeatedly by the Court of Justice for failing to fulfil their obligations under this directive. In the last report on the implementation (2020) of this directive, over 26 600 agglomerations generate wastewater amounted 612 million population equivalents. According to the Commission, “an amount of urban wastewater corresponding to 6.6 million p.e. (1%) is not collected” and “over 37 million p.e. (6%) of the wastewater collected are not sufficiently well treated to meet secondary treatment standards”. Finally, “nearly 32 million p.e. (8%) do not meet more stringent treatment standards” . However, these averages hide the disparities between Member States. The Commission confirms that the major challenge is again financial and the total investment to ensure compliance with this directive already was estimated in 2016 at EUR 229 billion. Following the Refit evaluation concerning this directive launched in 2017 , the Commission is identifying the different options to improve this old specific Water Directive. In parallel, the implementation of Directive 91/676/EEC is also facing several difficulties, illustrating the complexity of the transition towards a sustainable agricultural model.