The Quality of Bathing Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 No. 231

Regulation 12

SCHEDULE 4 STANDARDS

1.  The Department shall use the following standards for classification—

Standards for inland waters

Parameter	“Excellent”	“Good”	“Sufficient”
(1) Colony forming units per 100 millilitres (“cfu/100ml”)
(2) Based upon a 95-percentlie evaluation
(3) Based upon a 90-percentile evaluation
Intestinal enterococci (1)	200 (2)	400 (2)	330 (3)
Escherichia coli (1)	500 (2)	1,000 (2)	900 (3)

Standards for coastal and transitional waters

Parameter	“Excellent”	“Good”	“Sufficient”
(1) Colony forming units per 100 millilitres (“cfu/100ml”)
(2) Based upon a 95-percentlie evaluation
(3) Based upon a 90-percentile evaluation
Intestinal enterococci (1)	100 (2)	200 (2)	185 (3)
Escherichia coli (1)	250 (2)	500 (2)	500 (3)

Methodology

2.  In this Schedule the Department shall base the “percentile values” and calculate same in compliance with the provisions set out in Annex II of the Directive.

Classification

3.—(1) At the end of every bathing season, the Department shall classify a bathing water as “poor” if, in the set of bathing water quality data used, the percentile values for microbiological enumerations are higher than the “sufficient” standards set out in paragraph 1.

(2) At the end of every bathing season, the Department shall classify a bathing water as “sufficient” if —

(a) in the set of bathing water quality data, the percentile values for microbiological enumerations are equal to or lower than the “sufficient” standards set out in paragraph 1; and

(b) the bathing water is not classifiable as “good” or “excellent”.

(3) At the end of every bathing season, the Department shall classify a bathing water as “good” if—

(a) in the set of bathing water quality data, the percentile values for microbiological enumerations are equal to or lower than the “good” standards set out in paragraph 1; and

(b) the bathing water is not classifiable as “excellent”.

(4) At the end of every bathing season, the Department shall classify a bathing water as “excellent” if, in the set of bathing water quality data used, the percentile values for microbiological enumerations are equal to or lower than the “excellent” standards set out in paragraph