Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

1.2.6. Procedure for the setting of chemical quality standards by Member States U.K.

In deriving environmental quality standards for pollutants listed in points 1 to 9 of Annex VIII for the protection of aquatic biota, Member States shall act in accordance with the following provisions. Standards may be set for water, sediment or biota.

Where possible, both acute and chronic data shall be obtained for the taxa set out below which are relevant for the water body type concerned as well as any other aquatic taxa for which data are available. The ‘base set’ of taxa are:

• algae and/or macrophytes

• daphnia or representative organisms for saline waters

• fish.

Setting the environmental quality standard U.K.

The following procedure applies to the setting of a maximum annual average concentration:

(i)

Member States shall set appropriate safety factors in each case consistent with the nature and quality of the available data and the guidance given in section 3.3.1 of Part II of

‘Technical guidance document in support of Commission Directive 93/67/EEC on risk assessment for new notified substances and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 on risk assessment for existing substances’

and the safety factors set out in the table below:

	Safety factor
At least one acute L(E)C50 from each of three trophic levels of the base set	1 000
One chronic NOEC (either fish or daphnia or a representative organism for saline waters)	100
Two chronic NOECs from species representing two trophic levels (fish and/or daphnia or a representative organism for saline waters and/or algae)	50
Chronic NOECs from at least three species (normally fish, daphnia or a representative organism for saline waters and algae) representing three trophic levels	10
Other cases, including field data or model ecosystems, which allow more precise safety factors to be calculated and applied	Case-by-case assessment

(ii)

where data on persistence and bioaccumulation are available, these shall be taken into account in deriving the final value of the environmental quality standard;

(iii)

the standard thus derived should be compared with any evidence from field studies. Where anomalies appear, the derivation shall be reviewed to allow a more precise safety factor to be calculated;

(iv)

the standard derived shall be subject to peer review and public consultation including to allow a more precise safety factor to be calculated.