EU Water Law

(B) Water law as a collateral consideration for other environmental law provisions

Many water treatment and distribution projects aiming at the implementation of water legislation give rise to issues pertaining to public information and participation or other “transversal” environmental law provisions. As a general rule, members of the public - such as neighbours of a water treatment plant or NGOs – may seek to enforce in national courts their right to be informed of a projected plant, they may participate in the decision-making process or, should this be the case, contribute to the environmental impact assessment process, etc. More generally, national courts as well as competent administrative authorities have to apply general environmental laws in relation to projects concerning water services.

For instance, many of the plans and programmes required to be adopted and implemented by Member States under EU water legislation fall within the ambit of Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment, which requires that an environmental assessment shall be carried out.

Likewise, under Directive 2011/92/EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, projects listed in Annex I, which as such shall be made subject to an assessment (Article 4(1)), have a series of possible contacts to water.

Furthermore, certain plants having something to do with water are the subject-matter of Chapter 4 of the Industrial Emissions Directive.

Judges may also have to ascertain the conformity of national laws implementing EU water law provisions with Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. Under that Directive, Member States shall rule that certain conduct constitutes a criminal offence when unlawful and committed intentionally or with at least serious negligence. Such conduct relates, inter alia, to “the discharge, emission or introduction of a quantity of materials or ionising radiation into (…) water, which causes or is likely to cause death or serious injury to any person or substantial damage to (…) the quality of water (…)” (Article 3(a)), and to “the collection, transport, recovery or disposal of waste, (…) which causes or is likely to cause death or serious injury to any person or substantial damage to (…) the quality of water (…)” (Article 3(b)).