Water Quality - EC Bathing Water Directive

Revision of the Bathing Water Directive

The Commission's Proposal and Defra's Assessment

The EU Commission produced a proposal for the revision of the bathing Water Directive on 24 October 2002. The Commission propose:

• an obligation to meet a much tighter bathing water quality standard than the existing Bathing Water Directive
• very limited provisions for recreational waters with no standards for these waters
• some management measures for bathing waters
• improved provision of information at bathing waters

European Commission documents on bathing waters are available at www.europa.eu.int/water/water-bathing/index_en.html.

Defra have produced an Explanatory Memorandum (40kb) on the Commission's proposal under the UK Parliamentary scrutiny procedures and a partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (80kb). These documents provide background to the main issues arising from the proposal and the Government's initial consideration of the issues.

Consultation with the full range of UK stakeholders is ongoing.

Background

In December 2000 the European Commission issued a Communication which outlined the broad principles of the revision. An Environment Council in March 2001 welcomed the Communication and called for, amongst other things, a cost-benefit assessment and a sound scientific basis for the European Commission's proposal to revise the Directive.

The Commission published its proposal on 24 October 2002. The proposal is the text used as the basis for negotiation on the revision involving Member States, the Commission and the European Parliament.

Negotiations in the Environment Council Working Group in Europe started under the Greek Presidency in January. Ministers held a public debate on the proposal at the Environment Council in March 2003. The Council gave a qualified welcome to the plans to revise the Directive but were sceptical about the evidence used to justify the tighter bathing water standards and the quality of the Commission's cost/benefit analysis. There was strong opposition from most Member States to extending the scope of the Directive to recreational waters. The current EU Presidency, Italy, are continuing work on the proposal and aim to reach a common position at the Environment Council in December.

The European Parliament held their First Reading on the proposal on 21 October. The Parliament began their examination of the proposal earlier this year in the Committee on Environment, Health and Consumer Policy. The rapporteur for the Committee produced two reports: an initial consideration of the proposal and a more detailed draft report which included a number of amendments to the Commission's proposal. Further amendments were proposed by other members of the Environment Committee and the Committee voted on all the amendments on 2 October. The Committee's final report , which included the successful amendments, was sent for discussion at the European Parliament's Plenary session on 20 October and some additional amendments were proposed by MEPs. The European Parliament voted on the Committee's report and the additional amendments on 21 October. The Parliament voted in favour of extending the scope of the Directive to other recreational activities, a limited management system for bathing waters affected by short-term pollution problems, closer integration with the Water Framework Directive and increased public information requirements. The European Parliament's First Reading Opinion will now be sent to the Environment Council for consideration.

UK Parliamentary scrutiny has been completed for the proposal as it currently stands. The House of Commons held a debate on the proposal in European Standing Committee A on 4 June. The House of Lords completed their examination of the proposal and produced a report on 18 November 2003.

More detail...

Bathing water quality standards

The Commission has proposed a minimum bathing water quality standard (the "good quality" standard) of 200 intestinal enterococci per 100ml at 95 percentile compliance and 500 E. coli per 100ml at 95 percentile compliance. This is roughly equivalent to the Guideline standard in the existing Bathing Water Directive. A tightening of the minimum standard from the existing situation could entail a dramatic fall in compliance - down from 98.5% compliance to around 70% compliance based on year 2002 results, although with planned improvements, compliance with such a standard would be expected to be higher by, say, 2010, around the time when the revised Directive could be implemented. An assessment has been made by the Environment Agency of the impact on compliance of the proposed bathing water quality standards in England and Wales.

The Commission has used World Health Organisation (WHO) draft methodology to justify the tightening of bathing quality standards in terms of public health benefits. We are concerned that the Commission's proposal emphasises the requirement to achieve good microbiological quality standards (drawn from the draft WHO guidelines) but largely disregards other aspects of the WHO approach such as the role of management action as a means of public health protection.

Recreational waters

The Commission has decided not to extend the scope of the bathing water quality standards to recreational waters. Instead Member States will only be required to provide information on water quality at recreational waters adjacent to designated bathing waters. However the European Parliament is clearly in favour of recreation water quality standards, and the recreational water provisions of the final revised Bathing Water Directive could go further than the information requirements in the current proposal.

Management actions for bathing waters

The Commission has not fully adopted the management approach for bathing waters as espoused in its December 2000 Communication and endorsed in the Environment Council Conclusions in March 2001. Its proposal allows a management approach to be adopted during the first three years of implementation of the Directive but has no role for an ongoing management approach. Such an approach would incorporate short-term actions to protect public health, including public warnings when runoff from agricultural land or sewage discharges could prejudice bathing water quality temporarily after rain. This would put more weight on the provision of information and advice for the public to make informed choices, rather than on absolute standards.

Information provision

The proposal requires Member States to post-up-to-date information including bathing water quality data at bathing sites and through other media, e.g. the Internet.

Implications of the Revision for Local Authorities

The implications of the revised Bathing Water Directive could be significant for local authorities (the beach operators). Follow this link for an issues paper which describes key issues arising from the revision. This paper was produced before the proposal was issued and will be updated as the shape of the revision becomes clearer.

Potential benefits and costs of the revision of the Bathing Water Directive

Defra has commissioned two studies, one into the costs and one into the benefits of adopting the broad principles set out in the Commission's December 2000 Communication on the revision of the Bathing Water Directive.

Costs of the Revision of the Bathing Water Directive

The cost study consisted of a three-phased approach:

Phase 1: To carry out a classification of bathing waters in England and Wales using classification methodology set out in the draft World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines for Safe Recreation Water Environments . Then to evaluate the suitability of the draft WHO guidelines for regulatory application, such as in the revised Bathing Water Directive.

Phase 2: To develop regulatory scenarios which reflect feasible ways in which the compliance and implementation of the revised Directive could work.

Two reports have been produced for phases 1 and 2 of the project:

• Summary of Phases 1 and 2
• Evaluation of the Draft WHO Beach Classification Methodology

Phase 3: To assess the cost implications of each of the scenarios.

The final report of phase 3 of the project is available below:

• Costing of the Revision of the Bathing Water Directive: Phase 3 Studies

The cost study estimated that the costs of achieving the Commission's expected minimum bathing water quality standards would be between £2.5 and £3.9 billion over 25 years for England and Wales. The bulk of this estimate is the costs of reducing agricultural diffuse microbiological pollution of bathing waters, which would entail costs for farmers or for agricultural support mechanisms. There will also be some costs to the water industry (and through them to water charge payers) from further work on the sewerage infrastructure. However the costs quoted should be treated with extreme caution - the level of costs estimated is uncertain and may change once more information on the effectiveness of measures to address diffuse agricultural microbiological pollution becomes available.

Benefits of the Revision of the Bathing Water Directive

The objectives of the benefit study were to assess people's willingness to pay for various beach attributes (for example bathing water quality improvements, public information systems, absence of litter and dog mess and the presence of amenities), and from this produce an estimate of total benefits to England and Wales from the revision of the bathing water Directive.

The focus of the project was a national survey using "choice modelling" techniques. A cross-section of the general public in England and Wales were presented in face-to-face interviews with a series of hypothetical beach scenarios and asked to choose their preferred one. Economic methodology was then used to determine their willingness to pay for each of the beach attributes considered.

The benefits study found a high willingness to pay for improved information provision and avoidance of dog mess/litter but a relatively low value for bathing water quality improvements to reduce the risk of suffering bathing-related gastroenteritis. Assuming the WHO draft methodology (see "Bathing water quality standards" above), used by the Commission to justify its preferred standard, is correct then the benefits of reducing the risk of gastroenteritis through tighter bathing water quality standards - the principal benefits expected from the revised Bathing Water Directive - are expected to range from £0.8 to £1.4 billion over 25 years for England and Wales. There may however be other benefits of the revision of the Bathing Water Directive, which it has not been possible to quantify or value in this study.

The final report of the project is available below:

• Valuation of Benefits to England and Wales of a Revised Bathing Water Quality Directive and Other Beach Characteristics Using the Choice Experiment Methodology

Costs and benefits compared

Accepting the current limitations in the figures, comparing the potential costs and benefits above suggests that for England and Wales the benefits of the revision cannot be justified by the current cost estimates. We investigated how the cost-benefit ratio could be improved in the revision. This could be achieved by introducing some flexibility in the obligation to meet specified bathing water quality standards, for example through a management approach (see "Management actions for bathing waters" above). The results of this assessment are contained in the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (80 KB).