WGC - GROUP 2 PROTECTED AREAS

GENERAL POINTS Few written comments on first draft; Heavy emphasis on Drinking Water Protected Areas (DWPA) in the paper we cannot find much to put in about other Protected Areas; Propose 2nd draft following meeting and comments back by mid-Dec, with a further draft for discussion at the Feb 2006 meeting; SCG may insist that any paper that includes DWPA must also cover surface water as well; Only a few key issues at this stage + some points of detail.

PROTECTED AREAS - GENERAL POINTS Timescales for meeting objectives : Article 4.1c : 22 December 2015 unless otherwise specified in source Directives; What about Protected Areas created under the WFD? Are there any exemptions? Differing opinions, but general feeling that above date applies and there are no exemptions. Need more wording on transboundary protected areas. Any other relevant points on other Protected Areas?

DRINKING WATER PROTECTED AREAS ARTICLE 7 - Objectives meet requirements of Drinking Water Directive; Article 7.3 What does the objective mean? ; Minimum is an aim to avoid deterioration in quality that could cause an increase in treatment ; Compliance point - point of abstraction; Summary interpretation - is this broadly acceptable?

DRINKING WATER PROTECTED AREAS Delineation : majority consider DWPAs are whole water bodies; minority consider DWPAs should be smaller than groundwater bodies; CIS guidance and some legal opinions support majority view; key issue is that WFD requires delineation but compliance with Article 7.3 objective is assessed at points of abstraction; cannot resolve this in group - refer to Commission for a view/legal opinion.

DWPA - compliance Have to meet Drinking Water Directive at relevant sources; Set new baseline if DWD changes; What is a level of treatment? What is a significant change in treatment? Cannot be prescriptive because this is complex and there are many site-specific factors; Focus on changes in raw water quality because it is difficult to assess changes in treatment; Only if there are significant changes in raw water quality do you then look at treatment.

SAFEGUARD ZONES Safeguard Zones can be used to focus measures to achieve the objective in Article 7.3 of the WFD but their delineation is optional - Member States can decide; no restrictions on size or basis for zones; different zones for different types of pollution threat; Safeguard Zones can be smaller than DWPAs; could use existing groundwater protection zones or equivalent; what about Nitrate Vulnerable Zones? need to ensure consistency of measures in NVZs

Groundwater body (Drinking Water Protected Area) River Basin catchment Groundwater body (Drinking Water Protected Area) Boundary of Drinking Water Protected Area Abstraction point Safeguard Zone (capture zone to drinking water abstraction)

Capture zone (Safeguard Zone) Monitoring borehole (up-gradient) Capture zone (Safeguard Zone) Abstraction borehole Monitoring borehole Groundwater flow Water table Groundwater flow

ARTICLE 7 Monitoring Link with Monitoring guidance establish need within this paper but detail of what monitoring is required should be in Group 1 paper. a few detailed but minor points to raise with Group 1 Concern about perceived need to monitor all abstractions focus on at risk bodies representative monitoring well fields where supplies are blended prior to treatment - where and how do you assess compliance?

DWPAs - examples/case studies Range of different hydrogeological environments: eg. porous flow, fracture flow, karst, shallow unconfined, deep confined etc. use same examples as monitoring group. contributions welcome but need to co-ordinate Annexes: summary of existing protection zone practices; vulnerability assessment schemes; DWPA delineation to date