EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES (GROUNDWATER) REGULATIONS, 2010
Source: Iris Oifigiúl 2010-01-22

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paragraphs: These Regulations are made to give effect to the measures needed to achieve the environmental objectives established for groundwater by Article 4(1)(b) of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter known as the Water Framework Directive) and to give effect to the requirements of Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter known as the Groundwater Directive), and include the following:
(i) measures to prevent or limit the input of pollutants into groundwater and to prevent the deterioration of the status of all bodies of groundwater, in accordance with the requirements of Article 4(1)(b)(i) of Directive 2000/60/EC and Article 6 of Directive 2006/118/EC,
(ii) measures to protect, enhance and restore all bodies of groundwater and to ensure a balance between abstraction and recharge of groundwater, with the aim of achieving good groundwater status by not later than 22 December 2015 in accordance with Article 4(1)(b)(ii) of Directive 2000/60/EC,
(iii) measures requiring the reversal of any significant and sustained upward trend in the concentration of any pollutant resulting from the impact of human activity in order to progressively reduce pollution of groundwater in accordance with Article 4(1)(b)(iii) of Directive 2000/60/EC,
(iv) measures for determining: groundwater quantitative status in accordance with section 2.1 of Annex V of Directive 2000/60/EC and groundwater chemical status in accordance with section 2.3 of Annex V of Directive 2000/60/EC,
(v) measures establishing criteria and procedures for assessing groundwater chemical status in accordance with the requirements of Article 3 and Article 4 of Directive 2006/118/EC,
(vi) measures establishing procedures for the identification of significant and sustained upward trends and the definition of the starting point for trend reversal in accordance with the requirements of Article 5 of Directive 2006/118/EC,
(vii) the laying down of rules for the presentation and reporting of groundwater monitoring results, trend assessments and the classification of quantitative status and chemical status of groundwater bodies in accordance with the requirements of Article 15, Annex V and Annex VII of Directive 2000/60/EC and Articles 4 and 5 of Directive 2006/118/EC.
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paragraphs: (1) In these Regulations, save where the context otherwise requires,—
(a) a site (until the adoption, in respect of the site, of a decision by the European Commission under Article 21 of Council Directive 92/43/EEC for the purposes of the third paragraph of Article 4(2) of that Directive)—
(i) notified for the purposes of Regulation 4 of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations ( S.I. No. 94 of 1997 ), subject to any amendments made to it by virtue of Regulation 5 of those Regulations,
(ii) details of which have been transmitted to the Commission in accordance with Regulation 5(4) of the said Regulations, or
(iii) added by virtue of Regulation 6 of the said Regulations to the list transmitted to the Commission in accordance with Regulation 5(4) of those Regulations,
(b) a site adopted by the European Commission as a site of Community importance for the purposes of Article 4(2) of Council Directive 92/43/EEC in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 21 of that Directive,
(c) a special area of conservation within the meaning of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations, ( S.I. No. 94 of 1997 ), or
(d) an area classified pursuant to Article 4(1) or 4(2) of Council Directive 79/409/EEC;