This Monday, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (the Member States) reached a provisional agreement to update the rules on the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater, for which, in the current version, Brussels has imposed the highest fine on Spain. High point in its history and has brought it back to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for repeated non-compliance. The agreement, which still has to be ratified by both parties, envisages extending the validity of the regulations to municipalities with 1,000 inhabitants or more (previously 2,000) by 2035.
“The EU has agreed to take proactive measures for cleaner urban wastewater to protect its citizens from harmful discharges, including pharmaceutical and cosmetic waste, ending up in our waters. “This will make our water cleaner and protect our health,” said Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, welcoming the agreement. The agreement allows for a renewal of the 1991 directive, which the European Commission says will also benefit “cleaner rivers, lakes, groundwater and seas across Europe.”
Negotiators agreed that by 2035 all municipalities with 1,000 inhabitants or more should be required to subject municipal wastewater to secondary treatment (removal of organic, biodegradable substances) before it is discharged into the environment, as highlighted by the European Parliament. Four years later, the Twenty-Seven must also ensure tertiary treatment (removal of nitrogen and phosphorus) in all facilities covering a population of 150,000 or more inhabitants, and by 2045 also in those with 10,000 inhabitants, from which date these municipalities must also be quaternary Treatment to eliminate a “broad spectrum of micropollutants.”
Among other things, the expanded directive will also apply the polluter pays principle for the first time in this sector to ensure that the costs of the agreed additional protection are borne in part by the responsible industry and not by the taxpayer. Specifically, the most environmentally harmful sectors, the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors, must bear at least 80% of the costs for the purification of micropollutants, the so-called quaternary treatment.
In addition, the Commission notes, it will move the wastewater sector towards “energy and climate neutrality” and improve stormwater management, an issue “that will become increasingly important given increasing rainfall due to climate change,” he emphasizes.
Brussels is also celebrating that the new legal text will guarantee access to health facilities in public spaces for two million of the “most vulnerable and excluded” people in the EU. “Clean water and access to sanitation are a right, not a luxury,” emphasized Sinkevicius in this context. The new law will also strengthen monitoring of various public health parameters, such as SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, as well as contaminants caused by microplastics and chemicals such as polyfluoroalluylated substances or PFAS, the so-called “perpetual chemicals”. Remember Efe.
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Sanctions against Spain
Repeated non-compliance with the current directive has been a headache for Spain in recent years. Not only has the Commission led Brussels to impose the country's highest fine since it joined the community club – almost 11 million euros every six months since 2018 – but on December 21 it took Spain to the ECJ for “non-compliance”. . “widespread” wastewater legislation.
According to Brussels, Spain must continue to ensure that 29 municipalities have wastewater collection systems and, where the use of individual plants or other appropriate systems is justified, that the same level of environmental protection is achieved as with a collector system. Furthermore, in another 225 metropolitan areas, Spain still does not provide the required level of treatment for total metropolitan pollution or does not provide the required treatment outcomes in terms of post-treatment discharges.
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