Quick Guide to consultation on draft
River Basin Management Plans

¹⁾ Classification of waters

Surface waters are classified according to their chemical and ecological status and groundwater is classified according to its chemical and quantitative status as summarised below.

For Surface Waters

Chemical status is assessed by compliance with environmental standards for those chemicals that are priority substances and priority hazardous substances.

Ecological status is assessed by:

• The condition of biological elements, for example phytoplankton or fish.
• The concentrations of supporting physico-chemical elements, for example pH, dissolved oxygen or ammonia.
• The concentrations of specific pollutants, for example copper.
• The hydromorphology – depth, flow, structure.

The ecological status has a scale of high, good, moderate, poor and bad. While good chemical status means achieving the required standards for relevant substances.

For a water body to be in overall ‘good’ status, both its ecological and its chemical status must be at least ‘good’.

For Groundwater

Groundwater status has two classes, either good or poor, and must be assessed for both chemical and quantitative status.

Further information on the classification system is available on the UKTAG website:
(http://www.wfduk.org/UKCLASSPUB/)
 

Draft Plans are available for each River Basin District and comments were invited by the Competent Authorities in each country as part of the public consultation and participation process required by the Directive.

The consultation period ran from 22 December 2008 until 22 June 2009. THE CONSULTATION IS NOW CLOSED

The comments received by the Competent Authority will be used during the development of the first River Basin Management Plans. In England and Wales these plans will be submitted to Ministers on 22 September, be accessible on the Environment Agency website and finally published on 22 December 2009.

Have there been any responses to date which are available now?

Yes, click on Responses to dRBMPs to find links to responses from stakeholders and co-deliverers such as NGOs, the water industry and other interested parties.

• Responses to dRMPs

Aim of this quick Guide

The draft River Basin Management Plans necessarily contain a lot of detailed and useful information for interested parties, whether their interests are sectoral, regional or local. The aim of this Guide is to provide a summary of how the draft RBMPs were developed and what they contain, and to help the user quickly find the information they need so that they can respond to the questions posed by the Competent Authorities in their consultation.

How were the draft RBMPs developed?

The measures in the draft Plans have been developed by the Competent Authorities with the assistance of River Basin stakeholder advisory bodies that included representatives of a range of sectors such as agriculture, water industry, planning authorities, businesses, environmental organisations, fishing, boating and other water users. The Competent Authorities are: for England and Wales, the Environment Agency (EA), for Scotland, the Scottish Environment Agency (SEPA), for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), for Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local government authorities.

How are the draft Plans structured?

The draft River Basin Management Plans all follow a similar format and the key information provided is to:

• Describe the current condition of the water environment
• Set objectives for improving it
• Propose measures needed to deliver the improvements

What do the RBMPs consist of and how can I find them?

The draft RBMPs are extensive sets of documents with numerous Annexes and interactive maps. You can find and download the Plans for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in our Key WFD Documents section:

(http://www.euwfd.com/html/key_wfd_documents.html).

Are there any variations specific to devolved administrations?

There are variations in the draft Plans specifically related to the situation in the devolved administrations and these can be found by clicking on the countries below:

• England and Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland and Ireland

What were Competent Authorities asking for in the consultation?

Each Plan presents a set of consultation questions seeking views, comments and suggestions. The questions cover a range of issues, such as:

• Have the most significant pressures been identified?
• Have the correct objectives and levels of improvement by 2015 and by 2027 been proposed?
• Have all the important existing measures required to meet the objectives been identified and are there any appropriate new measures?
• How best to work together?
• How best to link river basin plans with other planning, such as climate change, flood risk management, and land use?

What about other Member States?

Draft RBMPs prepared by other Member States can be accessed from the EC DG Environment website:

(http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/participation/index_en.htm).