The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2003

Regulation 2(2)

SCHEDULE 1 DIRECTIVE DEFINITIONS

“Aquifer” means a subsurface layer or layers of rock or other geological strata of sufficient porosity and permeability to allow either a significant flow of groundwater or the abstraction of significant quantities of groundwater.

“Body of groundwater” means a distinct volume of groundwater within an aquifer or aquifers.

“Body of surface water” means a discrete and significant element of surface water such as a lake, a reservoir, a stream, river or canal, part of a stream, river or canal, a transitional water or a stretch of coastal water.

“Coastal water” means surface water on the landward side of a line, every point of which is at a distance of one nautical mile on the seaward side from the nearest point of the baseline from which the breadth of territorial waters is measured(1), extending where appropriate up to the outer limit of transitional waters.

“Ecological status” is an expression of the quality of the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems associated with surface waters, classified in accordance with Annex V.

“Groundwater” means all water which is below the surface of the ground in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the ground or subsoil.

“Groundwater status” is the general expression of the status of a body of groundwater, determined by the poorer of its quantitative status and its chemical status.

“Inland water” means all standing and flowing water on the surface of the land, and all groundwater on the landward side of the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

“Lake” means a body of standing inland surface water.

“Quantitative status” is an expression of the degree to which a body of groundwater is affected by direct and indirect abstractions.

“River” means a body of inland water flowing for the most part on the surface of the land but which may flow underground for part of its course.

“River basin” means the area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta.

“Surface water” means inland waters, except groundwater; transitional waters and coastal waters except in respect of chemical status for which it shall also include territorial waters.

“Transitional waters” are bodies of surface water in the vicinity of river mouths which are partly saline in character as a result of their proximity to coastal waters but which are substantially influenced by freshwater flows.

“Water services” means all services which provide, for households, public institutions or any economic activity:

(a)

abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment and distribution of surface water or groundwater,

(b)

waste-water collection and treatment facilities which subsequently discharge into surface water.

“Water use” means water services together with any other activity identified under Article 5 and Annex II having a significant impact on the status of water.

(1)

The relevant baseline, for the purposes of this definition and the definition of “inland water”, is that from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured and is established by section 1 of the Territorial Sea Act 1987 (c. 49) and the Territorial Waters Order in Council (1965 III, p. 6452A).