23/03/2005 - The Environment
Agency has completed an assessment of the
water environment in England and Wales as
part of the UK’s commitment to a far-reaching
new European environmental improvement programme.
The initial assessment of the water bodies
in England and Wales, together with assessments
carried out in Scotland and Northern Ireland,
has just been submitted to European Commission
by the Department for the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs under the requirements of
The EU Water Framework Directive.
The Directive requires all member states
to ‘aim to achieve good status’ in all waters
by 2015 but requires the identification and
characterisation of waters within river basin
districts this year. The Environment Agency
has produced characterisation and risk assessment
maps for each of the 11 river basin districts
in England and Wales.
The Directive provides a new approach to
identifying the potential man made risks and
impacts to the water environment, including
establishing a long term improvement programme
with the involvement of stakeholders. Characterisation
is the first stage in this structured planning
framework, which offers a more integrated
way of managing the water environment.
The characterisations show the main risks
from agricultural, industrial or urban pressures
on the water environment in England and Wales
and will be used to assess the best way of
managing and reducing these pressures in the
future. Water bodies currently identified
as not at risk of failing ‘good status’ will
be monitored to ensure there is no further
risk or deterioration in status.
Paul Logan, Water Framework Directive Policy
Manager, said: “This work will help us move
towards a better and more comprehensive understanding
of the water environment and the pressures
on it. That, in turn, will allow us to plan
to give communities a cleaner and richer water
environment. The work brings together innovative
thinking on risk assessment and environmental
planning using geographical information systems.”
Submission of these reports to the European
Commission follows draft findings issued for
consultation in September 2004.
Throughout the development of the characterisation
reports, the Environment Agency has involved
stakeholders including the water industry,
conservation agencies and farming representatives,
making them aware of the environmental improvements
required by the Directive.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Water Framework Directive (WFD), which
is being implemented between now and 2027
will require the Environment Agency to consider
a wider range of monitoring parameters than
previously and to set statutory standards
with the aim of meeting WFD objectives by
2015.
The Environment Agency recently published
for public review the initial draft results
of its first characterisation of the water
environment. This looked at a wide range of
pressures on the water environment that could
prevent bodies of water achieving good status
by 2015.
These initial results are now final and have
been included in the Characterisation Reports
submitted to Europe by Defra.
The Agency has updated its own WFD internet
pages to support the release of these reports,
including a link to the Characterisation Reports
on Defra’s website, background information
on river basin characterisation, a summary
and full technical method statements and national
maps on characterisation and risk assessment.
These can be found on the Environment Agency's
WFD webpage.
The UK Government is obliged to ‘characterise’
all water bodies in the UK, including an assessment
of all water bodies at risk of not meeting
these objectives for the WFD if no work is
carried out. These assessments form part of
the review of the impact of human activity
on the status of water bodies and is an important
first step forward in evaluating risk under
the Water Framework Directive. However, at
this early stage the European Unions’ final
objectives have not yet been set so these
results are not a classification of status
- they are an indication of risk only and
represent a theoretical risk to the environment
by 2015 only.
The assessments are based on ecological quality,
chemical quality and water resource availability
against over 20 or more separate pressures,
including water abstraction, effluent discharges
from industry and navigation. The pressure
and impact assessments are an indication of
risk only, they are not a classification of
status. ‘At risk’ means at risk of failing
to meet good status according to objectives
of Article 4 of the WFD (by 2015).‘Good status’
is not determined yet.
The Agency is committed to refining these
initial assessments in the future. A Guidance
Note issued by the UK Administrations (Defra,
WAG, Scottish Executive and DoE Northern Ireland)
on the next steps for characterisation can
be found at the Environment Agency WFD webpage.
