Ground water directive
28 April 2005
Today, Jim Allister made the following speech in the European Parliament
James Hugh Allister (NI). – Mr President, the Nitrates Directive deals expressly with nitrates in groundwater. Why, therefore, is it necessary for this groundwater directive also to deal with nitrates? It is wholly unsatisfactory to have two directives addressing the same issue with different approaches and mechanisms and, for the hapless farming community, dual enforcement. Either the Nitrates Directive should be repealed or compliance with one should remove the other from the equation. The combined effects of this directive and the Water Framework Directive will make the Nitrates Directive wholly superfluous. Under this directive there is a requirement to put in place trend reversal measures once pollution levels reach 75 per cent of the decreed quality standard. This is more demanding than the standards required under the Nitrates Directive in the nitrate-vulnerable zones. Again, we have conflict, contradiction and dual standards. We need cogent, slimmed-down regulation, not costly duplication
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