Dutch Law Pollution Surface Water LPSW Since 1960

Dutch Law Pollution Surface Water (LPSW) • Since 1960 the quality of surface water in The Netherlands (Holland) deteriorated rapidly • In next slides 4 examples are given • To improve the situation the LPSW was created. • The law went into operation in 1971

Example 1 of water pollution • Before 1960 people could swim in the river Rhine and families had picnics along the shore • After 1960 swimming as forbidden due to bad quality • After 1970 there were no more fish in the river!

Example 2 of water pollution • The city of Rotterdam gets its drinking water from the river Meuse • After 1960 the water had to be treated so strongly before it could be used y the households that the taste was not nice • People were used to drink water from the tap but now they bought bottled mineral water

Example 3 of water pollution • Horticulture in glasshouses river water for sprinkler irrigation • After 1960 the leaves of the plants got damaged by the bad quality water • The farmers suffered great economic losses

Example 4 of water pollution • Holland has many rivers, canals, watercourses, drains and lakes • After 1960 the waters got choked with algae due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus and oxygen levels were low • The waters smelled badly and aquatic life disappeared. Cattle could not drink from the ditches • People could no more swim in the lakes

General features of LPSW • No one is allowed to discharge used water into surface water without permission • Permission can be obtained from Water Administration Authorities (WAA) • The polluter pays! • There are WAA at different levels of government • WAA must adhere to the law when issuing permissions • Permissions contain conditions about the water quality of the effluent that the permission holder must obey

Government levels 1. State government with popularly elected parliament, which has the supreme power 2. Provinces with popularly elected council, which has the highest authority within the province. Provinces are supervised by the state 3. Municipalities and water-boards, each having its own popularly elected council. They are supervised by the province 4. Civilians and enterprises pay taxes at all levels.

Water Administrative Authorities (WAA) • WAA at state level controls the large inter-provincial rivers and lakes. Task have been delegated to ministry of public works and waterways • WAA at provincial level (PROV) control the smaller waterways and lakes within the province. Tasks are delegated to water-boards (WB). Sometimes there are inter -provincial WB. • PROV controls groundwater under another law (Law Environmental Management) • Municipalities (MUN) control the sewage and municipal drainage in the built up areas only. • Drainage within in MUN but outside the built up areas (agricultural land) is controlled by WB

Interdependent WAA (1) • MUN must collect water from households (HH). Households are free to discharge normal HH waste water but they pay sewage charges to MUN. It is forbidden to put unusual chemicals in the water (medicines, paint residues, car oil). • MUN also collects water from industries. They need permission from MUN. • MUN delivers sewage water to WB, therefore MUN needs permission from WB. • WB discharges into state waters and need ok from state WAA. Condition: treatment plant. Norms are: BOD, COD, Nitrate, Phosphate, solid matter

Inspection • At each WAA level inspection officers check whether water disposers fulfill their obligations • If not, WAA can impose administrative sanctions (e. g. fine, take action and send bill, withdraw permission) • Also WAA can prosecute infractions in court • If disposers disagree with WAA they can also got to court. • Some times WAA at different level sue each other in court

Industries (IND) • IND can discharge in the sewage but also directly in surface water. They need >1 permission. • There is a list of all different kinds of IND with standard financial charges for pollution • IND pay extra charges for dangerous matter and heavy metals, but only when there are no economical means to prevent their discharge • To reduce the cost of the permission IND can have their own purification and recycling systems • Infractions against the permission can be punished up to 1 million Euro or 6 years jail.

Industrial associations (IAS) • The government can discuss norms of permissions with IAS. • When agreements are reached, the norms will be applied to the all the permissions given to industries in the same group. • In the agreements, law requirements (black list of dangerous matter, gray list) must be adhered to • The agreements can be contested in court by any person or organization who feels that they harm their interest or are against the law.

Results of LPSW • Not all problems have been solved, but fish is back in the Rhine, the drinking water of Rotterdam is tasty again, the horticultural crops in glasshouses can be sprinkled and the watercourses in the country side have come to live again. • However the work must go on. Still we can not swim in the Rhine and still there are cancerous fish from heavy metals in the sea that we cannot eat.

Conclusions • Because of the hurry to improve water quality the LPSW is only effluent oriented • New European directives have come that the quality of the recipient waters must be targeted. Hence governments must classify the waters and prescribe quality standards. • This will bring about a new phase in the protection of environmental quality.