Commission Decision of 29 May 2009 granting a derogation requested by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with regard to England, Scotland and Wales pursuant to Council Directive 91/676/EEC concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (notified under document number C(2009) 3853) (Only the English version is authentic) (2009/431/EC)

Article 8 U.K. Monitoring

1. Maps showing the percentage of grassland farms, percentage of livestock and percentage of agricultural land covered by an individual derogation in each district, shall be drawn by the competent authority and shall be updated every year. Those maps shall be submitted to the Commission annually, attached to the report referred to in Article 10 of this Decision.

2. Monitoring of the farms covered by the action programme and the derogation shall be carried out at farm field scale and in agricultural monitoring catchments. The reference monitoring catchments shall be representative of the different soil types, levels of intensity and fertilisation practices.

3. Survey and nutrient analysis as referred to in Article 5 of this Decision shall provide data on local land use, crop rotations and agricultural practices on farms benefiting from individual derogations. Those data can be used for model-based calculations of the magnitude of nitrate leaching and phosphorus losses from fields where up to 250 kg nitrogen per hectare per year in manure from grazing livestock is applied.

4. Monitoring of shallow groundwater, soil water, drainage water and streams in farms belonging to the agricultural catchment monitoring sites shall provide data on nitrate and phosphorus concentration in water leaving the root zone and entering groundwater and surface water.

5. A reinforced water monitoring shall be conducted for agricultural catchments located in proximity to most vulnerable water bodies.

6. A study shall be conducted in order to collect, by the end of the derogation period, detailed scientific information on intensive grassland systems in order to improve nutrient management. This study will focus on nutrient losses, including nitrates leaching, denitrification losses and phosphate losses, under intensive dairy production systems in representative areas.