CELEX: 51982PC0838
Language: en
Date: 1982-12-15
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON LIMIT VALUES AND QUALITY OBJECTIVES FOR MERCURY DISCHARGES BY SECTORS OTHER THAN THE CHLOR-ALKALI ELECTROLYSIS INDUSTRY

25. 1.83                           Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 20/5
                                                            II
                                                    (Preparatory Acts)
                                               COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Directive on limit values and quality objectives for mercury
                          discharges by sectors other than the chlor-alkali electrolysis industry
                           (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 22 December 1982)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                     List I and, by way of exception, the emission
COMMUNITIES,                                                    standards may be determined on the basis of these
                                                                quality objectives;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community, and in particular                  Whereas a monitoring procedure should be instituted
Articles 100 and 235 thereof,                                   to enable the Member States to demonstrate that the
                                                                quality objectives are complied with;
Having regard to Council Directive 76/464/EEC of
                                                                Whereas, in the case of discharges from certain types
4 May 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous
                                                                of plant for which emission standards cannot be
substances discharged into the aquatic environment of
                                                                established or regularly monitored by reason of the
the Community ('), and in particular Article 6
                                                                scattered nature of the sources, specific programmes
thereof,
                                                                must be devised to eliminate mercury pollution from
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              these plants; whereas, since the necessary powers
                                                                have not been provided either by Article 6 of
Having regard to the opinion of the European                    Directive 76/464/EEC or by the Treaty, Article 235
Parliament,                                                     of the Treaty should be invoked;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                Whereas Council Directive 82/176/EEC (2) lays
Social Committee,                                               down limit values for mercury discharges into the
                                                                aquatic environment by the chlor-alkali electrolysis
Whereas, in order to protect the aquatic environment
                                                                industry and also sets quality objectives for the
of the Community against pollution caused by certain
                                                                aquatic environment into which mercury is
dangerous substances, Article 3 of Directive
                                                                discharged;
76/464/EEC provides for a system of prior author-
ization laying down emission standards for discharges          Whereas groundwater is covered by Council
of the substances in List I in the Annex thereto;               Directive 80/68/EEC (3) and is excluded from the
                                                                scope of this Directive,
Whereas mercury and its compounds are included in
that list;                                                      HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Whereas Article 6 of Directive 76/464/EEC provides
that limit values shall be laid down for emission                                        Article 1
standards and that time limits shall be laid down for           1.    This Directive:
their implementation;                                           — in pursuance of Article 6 (1) of Directive 76/464/
                                                                    EEC, lays down limit values for emission
Whereas, in view of the fact that pollution from
                                                                    standards for mercury in discharges from
effluents containing mercury or its compounds is
                                                                    industrial plants as defined in Article 2 (d) of this
caused by a large number of industrial activities,
specific limit values should be established according               Directive,
to the type of industry concerned;                              — in pursuance of Article 6 (2) of Directive 76/464/
                                                                    EEC, lays down quality objectives for mercury in
Whereas, in order to protect the aquatic environment,               the aquatic environment,
discharges into sewer systems should be subject to              — in pursuance of Article 6 (4) of Directive 76/464/
prior authorization in accordance with the provisions               EEC, lays down the time limits for compliance
of Article 3 of Directive 76/464/EEC;                               with the conditions of the authorizations granted
                                                                    by the competent authorities of Member States in
Whereas Article 6 of Directive 76/464/EEC provides
                                                                    the case of existing discharges,
for the setting of quality objectives for substances on
                                                               O OJNoL81,27. 3. 1982, p. 29.
(•) OJ No L 129, 18. 5. 1976, p. 23.                           (3) OJ No L 20, 26. 1. 1980, p. 43.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 20/6                            Official Journal of the European Communities                              25. 1.83
— in pursuance of Article 12 (1) of Directive                 3.    The authorizations referred to in Article 3 of
    76/464/EEC, lays down the reference methods of            Directive 76/464/EEC must contain provisions as
    measurement enabling the mercury content in               stringent as those in Annex I to this Directive, except
    discharges and in the aquatic environment to be           in cases where a Member State is complying with
    determined,                                               Article 6 (3) of Directive 76/464/EEC on the basis of
— in pursuance of Article 6 (3) of Directive 76/464/          Annex II to the present Directive and Annex IV to
    EEC, establishes a monitoring procedure,                  Directive 82/176/EEC.
— requires Member States to cooperate with one                The authorizations shall be reviewed at least every
    another in the case of discharges affecting the           four years.
    waters of more than one Member State,
— requires the Member States to draw up                       4.    Without prejudice to their obligations arising
    programmes for the gradual elimination of                 out of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 and the provisions of
    pollution caused by discharges within the meaning         Directive 76/464/EEC, Member States may grant
    of Article 4 (1).                                         authorizations for new plants only if such author-
                                                              izations contain a reference to the standards
2.     This Directive applies to the waters referred to       corresponding to the best technical means available
in Article 1 of Directive 76/464/EEC, with the                for preventing discharges of mercury.
exception of groundwater.
                                                              Whatever the method it adopts, any Member State
                                                              where for technical reasons the intended measures do
                                                              not eonform to the best technical means available
                          Article 2                           shall provide the Commission, before any author-
For the purpose of this Directive:                            ization, with the justifications for these reasons.
(a) 'mercury' means:                                          Within three months, the Commission shall send a
     — the chemical element mercury,                          report to the Member States stating its opinion on the
     — the mercury contained in              any  of  its     derogation covered by the second subparagraph.
         compounds;
(b) 'limit values'means:                                      5.    The reference        method      of   analysis  for
                                                              determining the presence of mercury is given in
     the values specified in Annex II;                        Annex III. 1 to Directive 82/176/EEC. Other methods
(c) 'quality objectives' means:                               may be used provided that the limits of detection,
     the requirements specified in Annex III;                 precision and accuracy of such methods are at least as
                                                              good as those laid down in Annex III. 1 to Directive
(d) 'industrial plant' means:                                 82/176/EEC. The accuracy required in the
     any plant active in one of the sectors listed in         measurement of effluent flow is given in Annex III.2
     Annex I which is likely to discharge mercury into        to that Directive.
     the waters referred to in Article 1 (2);
(e) 'existing plant' means:
     an industrial plant which        is operational  on
      1 January 1983;
                                                                                        Article 4
(f) 'new plant' means:
                                                               1.    The Member States shall draw up specific
     — an industrial plant which has become oper-
                                                               programmes for the gradual elimination of certain
          ational since 1 January 1983,
                                                               discharges of mercury into the public sewerage system
     — an existing plant whose capacity for the                by the sources mentioned in the second subparagraph.
          treatment of mercury has been significantly
          increased since 1 January 1983.                      The specific programmes shall apply to effluents
                                                               containing mercury which emanate from dental
                                                               health establishments and analytical laboratories using
                                                               mercury which are not covered by emission standards.
                           Article 3
                                                               These programmes shall include the appropriate
 1.    The limit values, the time limits by which they
                                                               measures to ensure that effluents containing mercury
 must be complied with and the monitoring procedure
                                                               are separated from other types of effluent and
 for discharges are laid down in Annex I.
                                                               purified in suitable treatment plants.
 2.    The limit values shall apply at the point
 immediately before the discharge enters any of the            2.    The measures called for by the programmes
 waters referred to in Article 1 (2) or a public sewer         referred to in paragraph 1 must be implemented with
 system.                                                       effect from 1 January 1988.
 ---pagebreak--- 25. 1.83                          Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 20/7
                        Article 5                            2.     Every five years the Commission shall forward
                                                             to the Council the comparative assessment referred to
The Member States concerned shall be responsible for          in paragraph 1.
monitoring the aquatic environment affected by
industrial discharges.                                        3.    In the event of a change in scientific knowledge
In the case of discharges affecting the waters of            relating principally to the toxicity, persistence and
several Member States, the Member States concerned            accumulation of mercury in living organisms and
shall cooperate with a view to harmonizing                    sediments or in the event of an improvement in the
monitoring procedures.                                       best technical means available, the Commission shall
                                                              submit appropriate proposals to the Council with the
                        Article 6                             aim of reinforcing, if necessary, the limit values and
                                                              the quality objectives.
1.    From the information supplied to it by the
Member States pursuant to Article 13 of Directive
                                                                                      Article 7
76/464/EEC, on receipt of a request which it must
submit in each case, in particular concerning:                1.    Member States shall bring into force the
— details of authorizations laying down emission              measures necessary to comply with this Directive
    standards with regard to discharges of mercury,           before 1 January 1985. They shall forthwith inform
                                                              the Commission thereof.
— results of measurements made by the national
    network set up to determine concentrations of             2.    Member States shall communicate to the
    mercury,                                                  Commission the text of the provisions of national law
— the specific elimination programmes referred to in          which they adopt in the field governed by this
    Article 4 (1),                                            Directive.
the Commission shall make a comparative assessment                                    Article 8
of the implementation of the present Directive by the
Member States.                                                This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 20/8                           Official Journal of the European Communities                               25. 1.83
                                                          ANNEX I
          Limit values, time limits by which they must be complied with, and monitoring procedure for
                                                          discharges
          1. The limit values and the time limits for compliance for the sectors concerned are set out below:
                                                       Limit value which must be
                              Sector                    respected by stated date       Unit of measurement
                                                    1 January 1985 1 January 1988
                                1                          2                3                   4
              1. Chemical industries using                 10               5     g/kg mercury used
                 mercury catalysts
                                                          0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
             2. Manufacture of industrial                  8                5     g/kg mercury processed
                 catalysts which contain
                 mercury
                                                          0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
              3. Manufacture of organic and               0-2              0-1    g/kg mercury processed
                 non-organic mercury com-
                 pounds (excepting products
                 in Group 2 aSove)
                                                          0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
              4. Manufacture of mercury                   0-1             0-05    g/kg mercury processed
                 batteries
                                                          0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
              5. Non-ferrous metal industries
                 5.1. Mercury recovery plants             0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
                 5.2. Extraction and refining of          0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
                      non-ferrous metals
              6. Plants for the treatment of              0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
                 toxic wastes
              7. Analytical laboratories using            0-1             0-05    mg/1 effluent
                 mercury reagents where the
                 monthly rate of discharge of
                 mercury is greater than 100 g
              The limit values given in the table correspond to a monthly average concentration or to a
              maximum monthly load.
              The amounts of mercury discharged are expressed as a function of the amount of mercury used
              or processed by the industrial establishment over the same period.
          2. The limit values expressed as maximum concentrations may not be greater than those expressed
              as maximum quantities divided by the water requirements per kg of mercury used or processed.
              However, because the concentration of mercury in effluents depends upon the volume of water
              involved — which is different for different processes and plants — the limit values expressed in
              terms of the quantity of mercury discharged in relation to the quantity of mercury used or
              processed given in the Table must be observed in all cases.
          3. The daily average limit values are twice the corresponding monthly average limit values given in
             the Table.
 ---pagebreak--- 25.1.83                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                   No C 20/9
        4. In order to check whether the discharges comply with the emission standards which have been
           fixed in accordance with the limit values laid down in this Annex, a monitoring procedure must
           be instituted. This procedure must provide for:
           — the taking each day of a sample representative of the discharge over a period of 24 hours and
               the measurement of the mercury concentration in that sample, and
           — the measurement of the total flow of the discharges over that period.
           The quantity of mercury discharged during a month must be calculated by adding together the
           quantities of mercury discharged each day during that month. This total must then be divided by
           the weight of mercury processed during that month.
                                                       ANNEX     II
                                                   Quality objectives
        For those Member States which apply the exception provided for in Article 6 (3) of Directive
        76/464/EEC, the emission standards which Member States must establish and ensure are applied,
        pursuant to Article 5 of that Directive, shall be fixed so that the appropriate quality objective(s)
        from among those listed in Annex II to Directive 82/176/EEC is (are) complied with in the area
        affected by discharges of mercury emanating from the industries listed in Annex I to the present
        Directive. The competent authority shall determine the area affected in each case and shall select
        from among the quality objectives listed in Annex II. 1 to Directive 82/176/EEC the objective(s)
        that it deems appropriate having regard to the intended use of the area affected, taking account of
        the fact that the purpose of this Directive is to eliminate all pollution.
        The numerical values of the quality objectives specified in 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 of Annex II to Directive
        82/176/EEC may, as an exception and where this is necessary for technical reasons, be multiplied
        by 1 -5 until 30 June 1988, provided that the Commission has been notified beforehand.