Water Regulations

As all INCOPA members produce inorganic coagulants which are used in the treatment of water, they are affected by a number of different regulations governing water quality. Current issues of concern to INCOPA members include:

The current Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) has proven to be a good tool to manage and improve the quality of wastewater discharges, but we welcome the European Commission’s decision to review the directive and we believe that the new UWWTD should focus on following issues:

• There is still the need of addressing eutrophication caused by phosphorus discharges throughout the EU and we believe there is a possibility to further tighten phosphorus discharge limits from wastewater to protect the environment.

• Implementation of further treatment to avoid that substances of emerging concern, micro pollutants, micro plastics are released in the environment

• Circular economy by recovery of nutrients and other substances from wastewater and sewage sludge. Coagulants, which are themselves already part of the circular economy, play an important role in achieving the goals.

• Wastewater treatment plants have a potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. by optimizing the process or through the extraction of biogas from the wastewater) and can thus make an important contribution to climate protection.

You can read more here.

INCOPA is monitoring future plans by the European Commission to review the directive which governs the use of sewage sludge in agriculture. Sewage sludge is a by-product of wastewater treatment and is also known as bio-solids. It is possible that the directive will be revised to promote the use of sewage sludge on non-agricultural land.

The Commission launched on 23 June 2014 a public consultation on the quality of drinking water in the EU in order to assess the need for improvements on EU drinking water legislation. This consultation has led to the revision of the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC).

Also other water related directives and regulation do also have an impact: