Annexure - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 318

Annexure
Annex 1
Directive 2006/118/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Directive 2006/118/CE of the European Parliament and Council
has to do with the protection of groundwater against pollution and
deterioration.
Groundwater is considered to be a precious natural resource for the
production of drinking water (it is the EU's principal water resource) and
for the ecosystems it is in relationship with. Due to its sensitivity, it must be
protected in order to avoid its deterioration in quality and thereby reduce
the degree of treatment necessary in order to make it potable. This protection
applies to its current and future uses.
One of the goals of the 6th community action program for the
Environment is to cause neither impacts nor signifi cant risks for human
and environmental health.
In order to accomplish this goal, the concentration of harmful pollutants
(concept of dangerous substances) in groundwater must be avoided,
prevented, or limited, by establishing evaluation criteria for the chemical
state of water (norms and threshold values), the evaluation of increasing
trends, and the determination of the starting points of trend reversals. These
trends will be determined by statistical procedures standardized at the
international level, in order to enable comparisons between results.
Quality standards are important in order to evaluate the state of
groundwater masses, particularly in terms of nitrates, pesticides, and
biocides.
Adherence to standards requires reliable and comparable (standardized)
analysis and monitoring methods.
In the Common Agricultural Policy, fi nancial measures are provided
for adherence to standards.
The measures do not concern high concentrations of naturally present
substances, or temporary changes (brief and limited) in the fl ux of water.
An analysis of the environmental and socio-economic impact of the
threshold values is desirable. Research (and distribution of the resulting
information) on the defi nition of criteria to guarantee quality will be
encouraged and fi nanced.