The Water (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

The Groundwater Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 N.I.

7.—(1) The Groundwater Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 M1 are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 2(1), after the definition of “river basin district and international river basin districts”, insert—

““river basin management plan” has the same meaning as in the 2017 Regulations.”.

(3) After regulation 2(4), insert—

“(5) For the purposes of these Regulations, references to the Water Framework Directive and the Directive, or to a provision of one of those Directives, are to be read in accordance with Schedule 2 (Modifications of Directives) M2 .”.

(4) In regulation 8(5), for “Schedule” substitute “ Schedule 1 ”.

(5) In regulation 10(5), for the words before sub-paragraph (a) substitute—

“Where necessary to assess the impact of existing plumes of pollution in bodies of groundwater that may threaten the achievement of the objectives in regulation 13(5) of the 2017 Regulations, the Department shall carry out an additional trend assessment in order to verify that a plume of pollution from a contaminated site does not—”.

(6) For regulation 11(1)(d), substitute—

“(d) a summary of the way in which the trend assessment from individual monitoring points within a body or a group of bodies of groundwater has contributed to identifying that those bodies are subject to a significant and sustained upward trend in concentration of any pollutant or a reversal of that trend;”.

(7) For regulation 12, substitute—

“12.   The Department shall, for the purpose of the duty in regulation 3 of the 2017 Regulations, comply with these Regulations in exercising its functions in relation to authorisations.”.

(8) In regulation 16—

(a) in the words before sub-paragraph (a), for “in Article 4 of the Water Framework Directive and without prejudice to any more stringent requirement in EU legislation” substitute “ set out in the relevant river basin management plan and without prejudice to any more stringent requirement in retained EU law ”;

(b) in sub-paragraph (i) for the words from “Directive” to the end there were substituted “ Chapter 3 of Part 1 of the Energy Act 2008 M3 and other retained EU law which transposed Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide M4 ”.

(9) The Schedule is renumbered as Schedule 1.

(10) After Schedule 1, insert—

Regulation 2(5)

“SCHEDULE 2 N.I. Modifications of Directives

PART 1 N.I. Modifications of the Water Framework Directive

1.   A reference to the Water Framework Directive or to any provision of it, is to be read in accordance with this Part.

2.   When interpreting the Water Framework Directive for the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the Department;

(b) a reference to Article 13 of the Water Framework Directive is to be read as if it were a reference to Article 13 except in so far as it gives rise to any obligation under Article 15 of that Directive;

(c) any reference to “Community legislation” (other than a reference to existing Community legislation) is to be read as if it were a reference to retained EU law;

(d) any reference to “existing Community legislation” or “existing legislation” is to be read as if it were a reference to Community legislation which was in force immediately before 23rd October 2000;

(e) the Water Framework Directive is to be read as if the following modifications were made to it.

3.   Article 2(24) is to be read as if, for the words from “in Annex IX” to the end, there were substituted “ by the table of priority substances, and under relevant retained EU law which sets environmental quality standards ”.

4.   Article 3 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 3—

(i) “the territory of more than one Member State” were a reference to “Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”;

(ii) the second sentence was omitted;

(iii) for “Each” substitute “ A ”;

(b) in paragraph 4—

(i) “the Member States concerned” were a reference to “Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”;

(ii) the third sentence was omitted;

(c) omit paragraphs 5,8 and 9.

5.   Article 4 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) in point (a)(iv), for “Article 16(1) and (8)” there were substituted “ Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy M5 ”;

(ii) in point (b)(iii), for “paragraphs 2, 4 and 5 of Article 17” there were substituted “ the Directive ”;

(b) in paragraph 8 the reference to “other Community environmental legislation” were a reference to retained EU law relating to the environment.

6.   Article 7(2) is to be read as if—

(a) for “at Community level under Article 16” there were substituted “ by retained EU law implementing Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy ”;

(b) for “Directive 80/778/EEC as amended by Directive 98/83/EC” there were substituted “ retained EU law implementing Directive 98/83/EC ”.

7.   Article 11(3) is to be read as if—

(a) in subparagraph (a), for “required to implement” to the end, substitute “ under retained EU law for the protection of water ”;

(b) in subparagraph (j), in the fourth indent, for the words from “Directive” to the end there were substituted “ Chapter 3 of Part 1 of the Energy Act 2008 and other retained EU law which transposed Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide ”;

(c) in subparagraph (k)—

(i) the words “in accordance with action taken pursuant to Article 16” were omitted;

(ii) for “agreed pursuant to Article 16(2)” there were substituted “ in Annex 10 ”.

8.   In Article 13—

(a) paragraph 2 is to be read as if for “the Community” and “their territory” there were substituted “ Northern Ireland ”;

(b) paragraph 3 is to be read as if for “the Community” and “the territory of the Member State concerned” there were substituted “ Northern Ireland ”.

9.   Annex 2 is to be read as if—

(a) in section 1.1, paragraph (vi) were omitted;

(b) in section 1.4—

(i) in the second paragraph—

(aa) after “gathered under” there were inserted “ the retained EU law which implemented ”;

(bb) in subparagraph (ii), the reference to Articles 9 and 15 of Directive 96/61/EC were a reference to Articles 5(3), 14 and 24 of Directive 2010/75/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions M6 ;

(ii) in the third paragraph—

(aa) after “gathered under” there were inserted “ the retained EU law which implemented ”;

(bb) in subparagraph (iii) the reference to Directive 98/8/EC were a reference to Regulation (EC) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products;

(c) in section 2.3, the reference to “two or more Member States” were a reference to “Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”.

10.   Annex 5 is to be read as if—

(a) references in tables 1.2.1 to 1.2.5 to Directive 91/414/EC, in each place they occur, were references to Regulation (EC) 1107/2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market;

(b) references in tables 1.2.1 to 1.2.5 to Directive 98/8/EC, in each place they occur, were references to Regulation (EC) 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products;

(c) in section 1.3.1, in the unnumbered paragraph headed “Selection of monitoring points”, the fourth indent (referring to “the Information Exchange Decision 77/795/EEC”) were omitted;

(d) in section 1.3.5, the reference to “the Drinking Water Directive” were a reference to retained EU law which transposed Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption M7 ;

(e) in section 1.4.1—

(i) in point (iii), for the words from “shall be established” to the end there were substituted “is as set out in Commission Decision 2018/229 establishing, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the Parliament and of the Council, the values of the Member State monitoring system classifications as a result of the intercalibration exercise;

(ii) points (iv) to (ix) were omitted;

(f) in section 1.4.3, for the words “Annex IX, Article 16 and under other relevant Community legislation” there were substituted “ Annex 1 to Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy and under other relevant retained EU law ”;

(g) in the table in section 2.3.2, in the column for “good status”, for “other relevant Community legislation in accordance with Article 17” there were substituted “ the Groundwater Directive ”;

(h) in section 2.4.5, the words “Without prejudice to the Directives concerned” were omitted.

11.   Annex 7 is to be read as if, in Part A—

(a) in point 7.1, for “to implement Community legislation” there were substituted “ under retained EU law ”;

(b) point 10 were omitted.

PART 2 N.I. Modifications of the Directive

1.   A reference to the Directive, or to any provision of it, is to be read in accordance with this Part.

2.   When interpreting the Directive for the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the Department;

(b) any reference to “Community legislation” is to be read as if it were a reference to retained EU law;

(c) the Directive is to be read as if the following modifications were made to it.

3.   Article 3 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraphs 1(b) and 2 for “the territory of a Member State” there were substituted “ Northern Ireland ”;

(b) in paragraph 3, the references to “two or more Member States” and “the Member States concerned” are to be read as a reference to “Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”;

(c) paragraph 4 were omitted;

(d) in paragraph 5, for “submitted” there were substituted “ produced ”.

4.   Article 5 is to be read as if in each of paragraphs 4 and 5, for “submitted” there were substituted “ produced ”.

5.   Annex 1 is to be read as if—

(a) in point 1 the words “and established in accordance with Article 17 of that Directive” were omitted;

(b) in footnote 1 to the table in point 1, for “Article 2 of Directive 91/414/EEC and Article 2 of Directive 98/8/EC” there were substituted “ Article 2 of Regulation(EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products ”;

(c) in point 2, for “Directive 91/414/EEC or Directive 98/8/EC” there were substituted “ Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market or Regulation (EC) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products ”.

6.   Annex 2 is to be read as if, in Part C—

(a) for “submitted” there were substituted “ produced ”;

(b) in point (b) for “the territory of the Member State” there were substituted “ Northern Ireland ”;

(c) in point (c)(iii) for “at national, Union or” there were substituted “ in retained EU law or other applicable legislation or at ”.”.

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 7 in force on IP completion day, see reg. 1(1) and 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1), see reg. 1(1)

Marginal Citations

M1 S.R. 2009 No.254, amended by S.R. 2009 No. 359, S.R. 2011 No. 211, S.R. 2014 No. 208, S.R. 2016 No. 119 and S.R. 2017 No. 81.

M2 Regulation 7(10) of these Regulations inserts Schedule 2.

M3 2008 c.32.

M4 OJ No L 140, 5.6.2009, p. 114, as last amended by Decision (EU) 2018/853 (OJ No L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 155).

M5 OJ No L 348, 16.12.2008, p. 84, as last amended by Directive 2013/39/EU (OJ No L 226, 24.08.2013, p. 1).

M6 OJ No L 334, 17.12.2010, p. 17, as last corrected by a corrigendum (OJ No L 158, 19.6.2012, p. 25).

M7 OJ No L 350, 5.12.1998, p. 32, as last amended by Commission Directive (EU) 2015/1787 (OJ No L 260, 7.10.2015, p. 6).