Dutch Law Pollution Surface Water LPSW

1
Dutch Law Pollution Surface Water(LPSW)

• Since 1960 the quality of surface water in The
  Netherlands (Holland) deteriorated rapidly
• In next slides 4 examples are given
• To improve the situation the LPSW was created.
• The law went into operation in 1971

2
Example 1 of water pollution

• Before 1960 people could swim in the river Rhine
  and families had picnics along the shore
• After 1960 swimming as forbidden due to bad
  quality
• After 1970 there were no more fish in the river!

3
Example 2 of water pollution

• The city of Rotterdam gets its drinking water
  from the river Meuse
• After 1960 the water had to be treated so
  strongly before it could be used y the households
  that the taste was not nice
• People were used to drink water from the tap but
  now they bought bottled mineral water

4
Example 3 of water pollution

• Horticulture in glasshouses uses river water for
  sprinkler irrigation
• After 1960 the leaves of the plants got damaged
  by the bad quality water
• The farmers suffered great economic losses

5
Example 4 of water pollution

• Holland has many rivers, canals, watercourses,
  drains and lakes
• After 1960 the waters got choked with algae due
  to excess nitrogen and phosphorus and oxygen
  levels were low
• The waters smelled badly and aquatic life
  disappeared. Cattle could not drink from the
  ditches
• People could no more swim in the lakes

6
General features of LPSW

• No one is allowed to discharge used water into
  surface water without permission
• Permission can be obtained from Water
  Administration Authorities (WAA)
• The polluter pays!
• There are WAA at different levels of government
• WAA must adhere to the law when issuing
  permissions
• Permissions contain conditions about the water
  quality of the effluent that the permission
  holder must obey

7
Government levels

• 1. State government with popularly elected
  parliament, which has the supreme power
• 2. Provinces with popularly elected council,
  which has the highest authority within the
  province. Provinces are supervised by the state
• 3. Municipalities and water-boards, each having
  its own popularly elected council. They are
  supervised by the province
• 4. Civilians and enterprises pay taxes at all
  levels.

8
Water Administrative Authorities (WAA)

• WAA at state level controls the large
  inter-provincial rivers and lakes. Task have been
  delegated to ministry of public works and
  waterways
• WAA at provincial level (PROV) control the
  smaller waterways and lakes within the province.
  Tasks are delegated to water-boards (WB).
  Sometimes there are inter-provincial WB.
• PROV controls groundwater under another law (Law
  Environmental Management)
• Municipalities (MUN) control the sewage and
  municipal drainage in the built up areas only.
• Drainage within in MUN but outside the built up
  areas (agricultural land) is controlled by WB

9
Interdependent WAA (1)

• MUN must collect water from households (HH).
  Households are free to discharge normal HH waste
  water but they pay sewage charges to MUN. It is
  forbidden to put unusual chemicals in the water
  (medicines, paint residues, car oil).
• MUN also collects water from industries. They
  need permission from MUN.
• MUN delivers sewage water to WB, therefore MUN
  needs permission from WB.
• WB discharges into state waters and need ok from
  state WAA. Condition treatment plant. Norms are
  BOD, COD, Nitrate, Phosphate, solid matter

10
Inspection

• At each WAA level inspection officers check
  whether water disposers fulfill their obligations
• If not, WAA can impose administrative sanctions
  (e.g. fine, take action and send bill, withdraw
  permission)
• Also WAA can prosecute infractions in court
• If disposers disagree with WAA they can also got
  to court.
• Some times WAA at different level sue each other
  in court

11
Industries (IND)

• IND can discharge in the sewage but also directly
  in surface water. They need gt1 permission.
• There is a list of all different kinds of IND
  with standard financial charges for pollution
• IND pay extra charges for dangerous matter and
  heavy metals, but only when there are no
  economical means to prevent their discharge
• To reduce the cost of the permission IND can have
  their own purification and recycling systems
• Infractions against the permission can be
  punished up to 1 million Euro or 6 years jail.

12
Industrial associations (IAS)

• The government can discuss norms of permissions
  with IAS.
• When agreements are reached, the norms will be
  applied to the all the permissions given to
  industries in the same group.
• In the agreements, law requirements (black list
  of dangerous matter, gray list) must be adhered
  to
• The agreements can be contested in court by any
  person or organization who feels that they harm
  their interest or are against the law.

13
Results of LPSW

• Not all problems have been solved, but fish is
  back in the Rhine, the drinking water of
  Rotterdam is tasty again, the horticultural crops
  in glasshouses can be sprinkled and the
  watercourses in the country side have come to
  live again.
• However the work must go on. Still we can not
  swim in the Rhine and still there are cancerous
  fish from heavy metals in the sea that we cannot
  eat.

14
Conclusions

• Because of the hurry to improve water quality the
  LPSW is only effluent oriented
• New European directives have come that the
  quality of the recipient waters must be targeted.
  Hence governments must classify the waters and
  prescribe quality standards.
• This will bring about a new phase in the
  protection of environmental quality.