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18
C&EN Jan. 19, 1976
International
EEC adopts pollution control for waterways Environment ministers of the Europe an Economic Community have reached an important compromise decision for dealing with pollution of the communi ty's waterways. The governments of the nine-nation EEC may opt either for uniform emission norms for a speci fied list of potentially toxic substances or for quality objectives of the receiv ing waters. Agreement to adopt this dual approach toward reducing pollu tion of EEC's rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and territorial seas marks an end to a running debate that has lasted for some time. "I am glad that we did reach this compromise," says Stanley Johnson, who heads the division for prevention of pollution nuisances within the environ ment and consumer protection service at EEC's Brussels headquarters. "It means that we are able now to go ahead with a lot of measures that might other wise have been blocked. For a start, we can proceed with actual implementation of this decision on the discharge of dan gerous substances into our aquatic en vironment." The EEC environment council also authorized the EEC Commission to participate in negotiations on steps to be taken to lessen pollution of the Rhine River. France, West Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are party to the Interna tional Commission for the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution. "The pro posals we have made on dangerous substances in EEC's aquatic environ ment will have to be applied to the Rhine and should make a big differ ence to the river," Johnson notes. The prime target of the new EEC di rective is a number of highly toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chem icals. This so-called "black list" in cludes organohalogen, phosphorus, and tin compounds; carcinogens; mercury, cadmium, and their derivatives; persis tent mineral oils and other hydrocar bons of petroleum origin; and synthet ics "which may interfere with any use of the waters." There also is a "grey Johnson: big difference to the Rhine
list" of less harmful substances com prising 20 metals, metalloids, and their compounds ranging from antimony to zinc. Included are biocides other than those on the black list. EEC member states now must take steps to bring into line their individual programs to reduce pollution from this wider range of items. The long-standing debate that de layed agreement until now centered on fundamental differences in the stance on aquatic pollution control between the U.K. and its EEC partners—Bel gium, Denmark, France, West Germa ny, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Denis Howell, the U.K.'s minister of state for the envi ronment, adamantly refused to go along with the adoption of uniform emission standards blanketing EEC. These would set an upper limit on the quantity of offending chemicals ema nating from individual sources, regard less of their location. Howell argued that such a blanket ruling would be unfair. Uniform emis sion standards wouldn't take into ac count the capacity of the local aquatic environment to absorb pollutants safe ly. As a result, industries sited on fastflowing rivers would lose some of their competitive edge. "It would be quite inequitable for a firm in Scotland, for example, to be prevented from taking advantage of the assimilative capacity of Scottish waters while competing firms continued to enjoy the advan tages that they derive from being sit uated nearer to the economic heart of the community," he reasons. Ignoring the natural ability of local conditions to cope with pollutants also would "lead to wasteful expenditures in cases where [emission standards] are more stringent than necessary to meet the environmental objective of the re ceiving water," Howell adds. "At a time like this, when we are all facing economic problems, it is more than usually important to ensure the expen diture on pollution control is cost effec tive." Were discharge standards en forced, U.K. industry would have to spend upward of $1.5 billion to comply with them. The EEC environmental council now has two years in which to draw up and adopt maximum "limit levels" for the black list substances. It also will estab lish monitoring systems for evaluating pollutant levels. In cases where water quality objectives are chosen as the pollution criteria, it will be necessary to demonstrate to the commission through agreed monitoring arrange ments that these are being met. Local authorities will have the responsibility of ensuring that standards laid down are respected. α
