WRITTEN QUESTION E-0862/02

by Karl-Heinz Florenz (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 April 2002)

Subject: Transposition of Article 7 of Directive 91/271/EEC banning the discharge of domestic sewage into slurry and liquid manure tanks for agricultural use

The Federal Land of North-Rhine Westphalia is banning the discharge of domestic sewage into slurry and liquid manure tanks for agricultural use from 31 December 2005, referring in particular to Article 7 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC(1). The present arrangement tolerates a proportion of 10 % domestic waste water in the mixture of slurry or manure and sewage from retired farmers' homes.

As transposition to comply with this ban will involve considerable investment by local authorities as well as private investment, it would seem appropriate to review the European law on which it is based. The decree explaining the ban does not include any assessment of possible health risks from the slurry of large animal units.

Can the Commission confirm that the decree banning the discharge of domestic sewage from agricultural holdings into slurry and liquid manure tanks for agricultural use from 31 December 2005, is correct in referring to Article 7 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC? If so, does this action by the Federal Land of North-Rhine Westphalia, as part of its required transposition of the Directive, reflect the intention of Article 7? Can the Commission also confirm that the tolerance limit of 10 % domestic sewage in the slurry and manure mixture, which has since been abolished, already adequately transposed the requirements of Article 7 of Directive 91/271/EEC?

Does the Commission have information on the state of progress in transposing this directive in the other Member States? Can it confirm that the directive, with the high costs involved in its transposition, will continue to apply in future?

(1) OJ L 135, 30.5.1991, p. 40.

Answer by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(23 May 2002)

Article 7 of Directive 91/271/EEC(1) refers exclusively to the treatment of waste water from areas of less than 2 000 p.e. and 10 000 p.e. respectively (p.e. = population equivalent) that is discharged into a collecting system and subsequently into a water body (fresh waters, estuaries and/or coastal waters). It thus cannot be inferred from Article 7 of Directive 91/271/EEC that the collection from farms of domestic waste in liquid manure and slurry tanks for subsequent agricultural use is prohibited in principle.

Furthermore, Article 7 of the Directive does not lay down any requirements regarding the addition of domestic waste to mixtures of slurry or liquid manure, but simply requires appropriate treatment of waste water that is subject to the abovementioned conditions. Consequently, national requirements/tolerance limits governing the addition of domestic waste to liquid manure or slurry should not be regarded as constituting transposition of Article 7 of the Directive.

Information on the transposition of Directive 91/271/EEC in the Member States was published in the 1998 Commission report: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/water-urbanwaste/index_en.html.

The next Commission report on the transposition of the Directive is due to be published in Spring 2002.

Lastly, it can be confirmed that Directive 91/271/EC will continue to apply in the future. While the Water Policy Framework Directive(2) does indeed incorporate urban waste water treatment in the overall context of river basin management, it in no way encroaches on the Urban Waste Water Directive (91/271/EEC) itself, or its emission-oriented targets and time-limits.

(1) Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment, as amended by Commission Directive 98/15/EC of 27. February 1998 (OJ L 67, 3.7.1998).

(2) Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (OJ L 327, 22.12.2000).