EurEau News

Position paper: PFAS in the urban water cycle

Removing PFAS from the urban water cycle causes a wide range of problems for water service providers. While technologies exist to remove most PFAS, they are unsustainable, mainly due to their technical complexity, resource intensity (water, energy, treatment chemicals etc.) and the generation of PFAS-containing residues. Reliance on end-of-pipe solutions creates a substantial stumbling block on the water sector’s journey towards climate neutrality. Any emissions of chemicals belonging to this group into the environment need to be avoided, using the Precautionary Principle and the Control-at-Source Principle. This can be best achieved by an EU-level ban of all PFAS uses.

You can read our position paper here.

Speaking Out

On 19 January, Oliver Loebel, Secretary General, spoke at the DVGW steering group on water management and water quality, presenting current European developments related to drinking water.

Caroline Greene, Senior Communications Manager with EurEau spoke at the DCU Water Café, presenting EurEau and the 8 challenges facing the water sector, on 27 January.

EU news

Legislative developments

French Presidency of the EU: Presidency programme released

The programme for the French Presidency of the EU is out. The French will focus on a healthy environment, especially chemicals: European ministers will be invited to discuss the management and negative consequences of chemicals at a ministerial conference in May. You can read it here.

Water legislation

Drinking Water Directive: Implementation

The Watch List under the DWD was published in January 2022. 

Bathing Water Directive

On 29 November the Commission organised a workshop on the evaluation of the Directive.

Our position is that the Directive has worked well but needs small improvements such as an increase in the number of samples (per month of the bathing season) and include harmful algal blooms at the national/local level. Following the WHO recommendations, we want to avoid recreational uses to be covered by the BWD as well as emerging contaminants that are covered by other pieces of legislation (WFD or Marine Strategy).

We submitted our response to the public consultation.

Rafael Heredero from the EurEau Secretariat was quoted in an article in POLITICO (behind a paywall) on the BWD.  

The BWD requires Member States to monitor and assess bathing water for at least two parameters of (faecal) bacteria. They must inform the public about BW quality and beach management.

Water and agriculture

Fertilising Products Regulation: Delegated Acts and new study

The Commission published the new proposal for a draft Delegated Act for a new Component Material Category (CMC15) for high purity products recovered from waste in December 2021 based on the JRC recommendations. This CMC15 is covering products recovered from off-gas treatment of waste water and sludge.

Read more about delegated acts here. As the EP and Council will have three months to react, the delegated act should be ready for the entry into force of the Fertilising Product Regulation on 16 July 2022.

The DG ENV Study on Contaminants in Fertilisers was published.

Statistics on Agricultural Input and Output Regulation: EurEau recommendations for the Trilogue

The draft SAIO Regulation defines the data collection requirements mainly for pesticides with the EU Parliament proposing the inclusion of biocides, fertilisers, veterinary medicines and antibiotics in animal feed. Access to such data would significantly facilitate the risk management under the drinking water safety plans.

EurEau is finalising a statement for the Trilogue, supporting many of the Parliament’s amendments, including the data collection frequency, the including of more input/output data, the dose applied, the area treated etc.

Water and the environment

Mercury Regulation: revision foreseen

Although not explicitly foreseen in the Commission Programme, the Mercury Regulation should be revised in 2022, with the legislative proposal to be adopted by the Commission in Q4. Our priority includes the phase-out of dental amalgam. A public consultation should be launched shortly.     

Pharmaceutical legislation revision

We answered the public consultation and the stakeholders’ survey in December 2021.

A workshop focusing on the evaluation of the current legislation was held on 19 January 2022. The discussions included the shortcomings of the ERA. A second workshop on the validation of the results will be held in the future months. The legislative proposal will be adopted in Q4.

The legal framework for human medicines sets standards to ensure a high level of public health protection and the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines. It promotes the functioning of the internal market, with measures to encourage innovation. A medicinal product requires a marketing authorisation by the competent authorities before being placed on the market.

CLP and REACH: response submitted

We submitted our response on the revision of the CLP Regulation in November 2021, asking for the introduction of new hazard classes: ED, PBT, vPvB, PMT and vPvM.

The legislative proposal was expected for Q1 2022 but now it is not on the Commission agenda for the first half of 2022.

The Commission launched the public consultation on REACH on 20 January, it is open until 15 April. We will submit an answer.

Internal markets for renewable and natural gases and for hydrogen (recast)” Regulation

In December the Commission launched the proposal for the Internal markets for renewable and natural gases and for hydrogen (recast) Regulation. Our main demand is included: to ensure access to the gas grids for the biomethane produced at the WWTPs (the regulation includes tariff discounts for renewable gases).

We will write a short statement to send to the European Parliament rapporteurs, stressing the importance of these provisions.

The recast will seek to establish the conditions for facilitating the rapid and sustained uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases and improve the market conditions and increase engagement of gas consumers.

Taxonomy: study being finalised  

The Taxonomy Four study should be finalised by the end of February or the beginning of March according to media reports.

Ecodesign Directive

A roadmap feedback is open on water pumps and energy consumption.

The Directive provides consistent EU-wide rules for improving the environmental performance of products, such as household appliances, information and communication technologies or engineering. It sets out minimum mandatory requirements for the energy efficiency of these products. 

RoHS Directive: exemptions published

The annexes with the exemptions for the use of mercury-containing UV lamps for disinfection were published as delegated acts in December 2021. The Commission did not add the specific exemption that we had asked for but we can keep using our UV lamps under the published exemptions. We are checking if further clarification is needed. This brings uncertainty to manufacturers, installers and utilities using low pressure lamps with more than 15 mg Hg that are more efficient than the smaller ones.

The RoHS Directive sets out EU rules restricting the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment to protect the environment and public health.

Environmental impact of waste management: roadmap open for feedback

The roadmap for the Waste Framework Directive is now open.

The Waste Framework Directive protects public health and the environment through the proper management of waste.

Other news

Commission publishes a second Statement on Emerging Health and Environmental Issues

The Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) of the European Commission published a second statement on emerging health and environmental issues. Among the risks identified are the human-computer/robot interfaces, climate change and water pollution, nanotechnology organics, and the chemical risks in a circular economy. You can download it here.

Sanitation and Water for All

We have been accepted as a partner to Sanitation and Water for All. SWA is a global partnership committed to achieving universal access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. You can learn more about them on their website. 

News from our members

Svenskt Vatten report: valuing our water services

Svenskt Vatten has published a study of how Swedish companies are affected financially in the event of an interruption in the water supply. It’s available in Swedish here.

Events

3 February 2022 - Financial sustainability of wastewater management in the Danube region. More…

20-22 June 2022 - 4th European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform, Vienna & hybrid https://phosphorusplatform.eu/espc4  

22-24 June 2022 - Water Safety Conference in Narvik, Norway. More.

11-15 September 2022 - IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition; Water for smart liveable cities in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Call for Content is open and you can read more here.

12-15 September 2022 - LuWQ2022, 5th International Interdisciplinary Conference on LAND USE AND WATER QUALITY: Agriculture and the Environment; Maastricht, The Netherlands.