Integrating Groundwater Quantity Control Into European Community Water Policy

• Date: 01 November 1999
• Author: Jürgen Lefevere
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9388.00213
• Published date: 01 November 1999

Volume 8 Issue 3 1999 Groundwater Quantity Control in the EC

Ju

¨rgen Lefevere

Introduction

Over-exploitation of groundwater resources, although

particularly severe in the southern Member States, is

occurring in most of the Member States of the European

Community (EC), including parts of the United Kingdom,

the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. The

systematic and ongoing over-exploitation of aquifers

often causes a lowering of groundwater levels, which in

its turn results in a wide range of problems, including

damage to wetlands, desertification, the drying up of

springs and upper river reaches, the reduction of river

flows, salt water intrusion into aquifers, groundwater

quality problems and damage to buildings and infra-

structure due to the settling of the soil.

1

Although the

problem of groundwater over-exploitation is widespread

and well known, the pressure on groundwater resources

is showing no signs of improvement. It is estimated that

the extraction of groundwater rose by almost 35%

between 1970 and 1985 and it is still increasing.

2

Even though water policy was one of the first environ-

mental policies of the EC, groundwater quantity issues

have thus far only played a minor role in its develop-

ment. It is only in the recent process of restructuring the

body of EC water legislation that groundwater quantity

aspects are being addressed.

This article discusses the integration of groundwater

quantity aspects in EC water and environmental policy.

It begins with an overview of the development of EC

water policy and legislation and the role of groundwater

protection therein. Then it will discuss elements related

to the protection of groundwater quantity levels under

current EC legislation. Finally, this article will discuss the

new proposal for a new EC water framework Directive

and the role of groundwater quantity issues therein.

Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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The Development of EC

Water Policy

The First ‘Wave’ of Community Water

Legislation

The 1973 first environmental action programme (the first

EAP)

3

was the basis for the first EC legislation on water.

In this programme the EC opted for two basic

approaches: setting quality standards for water for spe-

cific uses, and setting emission standards for specific

substances. The emission standards aimed at limiting

the emissions of particular substances through the

adoption of emission limit values for these substances.

In order to address the problem of the cumulative

impact of emissions under the emission standards

approach the quality standards were to define the mini-

mum quality requirements of water for a specific use.

The first ‘wave’ of Community water legislation was

adopted shortly after the first EAP, between 1975 and

1980. The first water Directive, adopted on 16 June 1975,

aimed at setting quality standards for surface water for

the abstraction of drinking water.

4

This Directive was fol-

lowed by a number of other Directives setting quality

standards for water for various uses, including bathing

water,

5

water for freshwater fish,

6

water for shellfish

7

and

the quality of drinking water.

8

In the same period several

Directives were proposed with the aim of laying down

emission standards for various substances. The first,

and most important, of these Directives was the frame-

work Directive on the discharge of dangerous sub-

stances into the aquatic environment, which was

adopted on 4 May 1976 (surface water Directive).

9

The

surface water Directive set out a general regime for the

control of discharges and water quality, but did not con-

tain any specific standards itself. These standards were

to be laid down in the daughter Directives.

10

This Direc-

tive was followed in 1979 by the Directive on the protec-

tion of groundwater against pollution caused by certain

dangerous substances (groundwater Directive).

11