DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (414/07) issued by
The Government News Network on 12 November 2007
Defra and the
Welsh Assembly Government have published proposals today for
delivering improved bathing water quality under the revised
Bathing Water Directive. Views on these proposals are sought as
part of a consultation which runs until 4 February 2008.
The Directive will deliver significant environmental and public
health benefits. It sets more stringent microbiological water
quality standards for popular bathing areas, and requires improved
public information about sites, including advice against bathing
where the minimum standard is not met. It introduces four new
water quality classifications - excellent, good, sufficient and
poor. All bathing waters in Europe, with some limited exceptions,
must achieve at least the sufficient standard by 2015.
Publishing the consultation, Environment Minister Phil Woolas said:
"England achieved its highest ever bathing water quality
results in 2006, with 99.5% of sites meeting mandatory standards,
and 75% meeting the tighter guideline standards. This is an
improvement since 1997 of 11.5 and 40 percentage points respectively.
"The tighter standards under the revised Directive mean we
have got to be even more ambitious, and there will be significant
benefits for all of us in delivering these improvements. I would
encourage everyone with a role in water quality or an interest in
the bathing water around our coasts to get involved and make their
views known."
To meet these new standards, Defra and WAG have identified three
scenarios for implementing the Directive:
* Meeting the minimum requirements, with all bathing waters
reaching at least sufficient status by 2015;
* Meeting the minimum requirements, but with the use of a
'prediction and discounting' system. This would provide
additional protection to bathers by requiring local authorities
and operators of private sites to provide advice against bathing
where the Environment Agency has identified waters which may be
subject to short term pollution (not exceeding 72 hours). This
system would additionally enable the Environment Agency to exclude
from the compliance figures samples taken from such sites during
these periods, since no risk is posed if the public is not
bathing; and
* Going beyond the minimum requirements. This scenario could
increase the number of Blue Flag beaches, which are seen as a
valuable tourist attraction.
An impact assessment of the costs and benefits of the three
scenarios is included in the consultation. This finds that:
* Less than 10% of bathing waters need improvement to meet the
new standards;
* Annual costs over 25 years of implementing the changes are
considerably lower than the £2bn spent by the water industry to
meet the existing standards.
* Costs of further water quality improvements would fall to the
water industry, agriculture and other parties;
* Annual benefits of between £149m and £379m comfortably exceed
the costs, with most of the benefits arising from improved public information;
* There are appreciable potential savings arising from the
predict and discount system, which suggest further development is
justified; and
* The additional direct health benefits of going beyond the
minimum requirements are approximately twice the additional costs.
Notes for editors:
1. The consultation is published at
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/bathingwaters/index.htm
2. The current Bathing Water Directive came into force 30 years
ago to help protect public health and the environment from faecal
pollution at popular bathing waters.
3. The revised Directive updates the 1976 Directive primarily by
setting more stringent microbiological water quality standards for
popular bathing areas and by requiring improved public information
on signs at these sites. It must be transposed into UK law by 24
March 2008 with the new monitoring, information provisions and
quality standards being phased in from 2012 to 2015. Advice
against bathing must be given at any sites not meeting the minimum
quality standard.
4. Much of the implementation follows the same pattern as the
1976 Directive, with the regulations placing obligations primarily
on the Environment Agency as the competent authority for
monitoring and achieving the required water quality standards. A
new aspect of the regulations is the requirement for local
authorities and the small number of private beach controllers to
provide information and advice on water quality through beach signage.
5. Use of the predict and discount system would be subject to a
number of conditions, for example a 15% limit on the number of
samples disregarded, and the need for conventional measures to be
in place. Although this is a novel approach in England and Wales,
a prediction system is already in use at around 10 Scottish beaches.
6. Improvement measures will fall primarily on farmers to reduce
diffuse water pollution from agriculture (see Defra consultation
on tackling diffuse sources of agricultural pollution, launched in
August 2007, http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/waterpollution-diffuse/index.htm),
on water companies to provide additional sewage treatment and
reduce combined sewer overflows, and on water companies and local
authorities to reduce urban diffuse pollution for example by
addressing sewer misconnections.
7. The costs and benefits of each scenario are shown in the
following table:
Scenario Costs (£m) Benefits (£m) Net Benefit
(NPV) (£m)
Annual Total (PV) Annual Total (PV)
(25 yrs) (25 yrs)
1A 6.8-10 107-171 149-365 2,550-6,219 + 4,266
1B 4.3-6.9 65-121 149-365 2,550-6,219 + 4,312
2 11.6-17.6* 206-380* 158-379* 2,691-6,466* + 4,305
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