CELEX: 51974PC2256(01)
Language: en
Date: 1975-01-14
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE REDUCTION OF WATER POLLUTION CAUSED BY WOOD-PULP MILLS IN THE MEMBER STATES

No C 99/2                        Official Journal of the European Communities                               2. 5. 75
                Proposal for a Council Directive on the reduction of water pollution caused by wood
                                           pulp mills in the Member States
                         (Submitted to the Council by the Commission on 20 January 1975)
  THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                    Whereas it should be possible to allow derogations
                                                              from the standards laid down in the Annex hereto
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                 where      the    discharges     effected by   existing
 European Economic Community, and in particular               establishments into coastal waters or into tidal parts
 Article 100 thereof;                                         of estuaries do not cause an appreciable
                                                              deterioration in the quality of such waters;
  Having regard to the proposal from the Commission;
                                                              Whereas the technical requirements set out in the
 Having regard to the Opinion of the European                 Annex to this Directive will have to be adapted
 Parliament;                                                  rapidly to technical progress; whereas, in order to
                                                               facilitate implementation of the measures required
 Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and             for this purpose, a procedure should be laid down to
 Social Committee;                                            ensure close cooperation between the Member States
                                                              and the Commission within a Committee for the
 Whereas, motivated by the concern constantly to               adaptation of this Directive to technical progress,
 protect and improve the environment, some
 Member States have already taken and others are
 about to take measures to cleanse their water;               HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
 whereas      these    measures     include      technical
 requirements with regard to the discharge of
 pollutants, with which wood pulp mills must                                            Article 1
 comply;
                                                              1.     This Directive concerns the reduction of water
 Whereas national laws concerning the reduction of            pollution caused by both new and existing wood
 water pollution caused by wood pulp mills vary               pulp mills.
 from one Member State to another; whereas these
 differences affect the conditions of competition             2.     For the purposes of this Directive:
 within the Community and therefore have a direct
 effect on the operation of the common market;                — 'water' means all fresh water, whether running
                                                                  or stagnant, underground water, brackish water,
Whereas the programme of action of the European                   estuaries and coastal waters;
 Communities on the environment (*) provides for
 specific action in certain industrial sectors, including     — 'wood pulp mill' means any establishment
the wood pulp industry, with a view to reducing at                producing, whether exclusively or not, wood
source the various forms of pollution caused by the               pulp;
sector under consideration;
                                                             — 'existing establishment' means a wood pulp mill
Whereas, in order to protect the water of the                     which is in operation on the date of entry into
 Community, it is necessary to provide for discharges             force of this Directive;
of pollutants to be reduced to certain levels; whereas
these levels must be reached by existing                     — 'new establishment' means a wood pulp mill
establishments within a maximum of 10 years from                  which starts operation after the entry into force
the entry into force of the Directive;                            of this Directive.
Whereas new establishments and new capacity added
to existing establishments must use anti-pollution
techniques in such a way as to reach the                                               Article 2
abovementioned levels within not more than 12
months following their entry into service; whereas           1.     The pollution caused by existing establishments
such action is in the interest of the protection of the      shall be reduced to the levels shown in the table
environment;                                                  contained in the Annex to this Directive, which
                                                             forms an integral part thereof. Such reduction must
                                                             be achieved within not more than 10 years from the
(!) OJ N o C 112, 20. 12. 1973.                              entry into force of this Directive.
 ---pagebreak--- 2 . 5 . 75                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             N o C 99/3
2.       The reduction shall be so phased as to take                                   Article 7
account of its effects on the competitive position of
the undertakings concerned, which could have                 1.     Where the procedure laid down in this Article
undesirable economic or social repercussions.                is to be followed, matters shall be referred to the
                                                             Committee by the Chairman, either on his own
                                                             initiative or at the request of the representative of a
                         Article 3                           Member State.
In the case of new establishments and new capacity           2.     The representative of the Commission shall
added to existing establishments, not later than 12          submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to
months following their entry into service the                be adopted. The Committee shall deliver its Opinion
permitted level of pollution in the effluents shall not      on such draft within a time limit to be set by the
exceed the standards laid down in the Annex.                 Chairman according to the urgency of the matter.
                                                             Opinions shall be delivered by a majority of 41
                                                             votes, the votes of the Member States being weighted
                         Article 4                           as provided in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty. The
                                                             Chairman shall not vote.
1.       Member States may permit derogations from
                                                             3. (a) The Commission shall adopt the measures
the standards laid down in the Annex hereto where
                                                                      envisaged where they are in accordance with
discharges effected by existing establishments under
                                                                      the Opinion of the Committee.
present discharge circumstances into tidal parts of
 coastal water or into tidal estuaries do not cause an            (b) Where the measures envisaged are not in
appreciable deterioration in the quality of the                       accordance with the           Opinion   of the
receiving water, taking account in particular of the                  Committee, or if no opinion is delivered, the
quality objectives for the environment and the                        Commission shall without delay propose to
permitted use of the said water.                                      the Council the measures to be adopted.
2.       The derogations referred to above may be                     The Council shall act by a qualified majority.
granted for a limited period which shall expire
automatically within not more than five years.                    (c) If, within three months of the proposal being
Further derogations for a maximum of five years                       submitted to it, the Council has not acted, the
may be granted subsequently in the light of the trend                 proposed measures shall be adopted by the
in the quality of the environment, environmental                      Commission.
consequences, the discharge effected during the
previous five years and technical progress achieved
in the fight against pollution in the wood pulp                                        Article 8
industry.
                                                              1.     Member States shall bring into force the laws,
3.       Before granting or extending a derogation,          regulations and administrative provisions necessary
Member States shall forward the relevant documents           to comply with this Directive within two years of the
to the Commission so that it can give its Opinion            date of its notification.
thereon.
                                                             They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
                         Article 5                            2.    Member States shall ensure that the texts of the
                                                             main provisions of national law which they adopt in
Any amendments which may prove necessary in                  the     field   governed     by     this  Directive   are
order to adapt the Annex to this Directive to                communicated to the Commission.
technical progress shall be adopted in accordance
with the procedure laid down in Article 7.                    3.     Member States shall communicate regularly to
                                                             the Commission their technical knowledge, as well as
                                                             the experience gained and the results obtained in
                         Article 6                           applying the provisions adopted pursuant to this
                                                             Directive.
1.       A Committee for the adaptation of this
Directive to technical progress (hereinafter called the      The Commission shall forward a summary of such
'Committee') is hereby set up and shall consist of           information to the other Member States.
representatives of the Member States with a
representative of the Commission as chairman.
                                                                                       Article 9
2.       The Committee shall adopt its own rules of
procedure.                                                   This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 99/4                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                                           2. 5. 75
                                                                         ANNEX
                                  REDUCTION OF POLLUTION F R O M EXISTING W O O D PULP MILLS
                     1. A mill is defined by its type (kraft, bisulphite, semichemical, mechanical) and the size of its
                          output (in metric tons per year).
                     2. The primary aim of the reduction of pollution is to decrease the suspended solids (SS) and
                          the oxidizable substances discharged, measured by their five-day biological oxygen demand
                           (BOD), which are present in the effluents. This flow, expressed in kilogrammes and related
                          to the daily output in metric tons (for 90 °/o dry material), is derived from the following
                          table:
                                                                          TABLE
                                                                                                                        A              B
                                                                 Production type
                                                                                                        BOD            SS             SS
                                                     unbleached                                           5              2-5          10
                          Kraft
                                                     bleached                                             9            10             20
                                                     with removal or utilization
                                                     of waste liquors                                    45            12-5           50
                          Bisulphite
                                                     without removal or utilization
                                                     of waste liquors                                    80            15             85
                                                     capacity exceeding                                                 5              5
                                                                                                          8
                                                     150 metric tons/day
                          Semichemical
                                                     capacity not exceeding                                            13
                                                                                                         60                           60
                                                     150 metric tons/day
                         Mechanical                                                                       5             5              5
                    3. If the reduction of oxidizable substances is carried out by treatment in aeration tanks,
                         the upper limit for the discharge of suspended solids (SS) according to the production type,
                         shall be that defined for phase B in the table. If the reduction of the oxidizable substances
                         is carried out by any other means, particularly by means of activated sludges, the values
                         shown under phase A must be observed.
                       Proposal for a Council resolution o n technological problems of nuclear safety
                                    (Submitted     to the Council     by the Commission           on 3 March         1975)
T H E COUNCIL OF T H E EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                                     H a v i n g regard         to   the   Opinion       of   the     European
                                                                                 Parliament;
H a v i n g r e g a r d t o the T r e a t y establishing             the         H a v i n g r e g a r d t o t h e O p i n i o n of t h e E c o n o m i c a n d
E u r o p e a n A t o m i c Energy C o m m u n i t y ;                           Social C o m m i t t e e ;