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.

The current Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) has proven to be a good tool to manage and improve the quality of wastewater discharges, however it is now outdated, and the co-legislators decided to revise this 35 eyars old directive.

In the new text voted on April 10th 2024 by the European Parliament

  • Phosphorus discharge limits have been lowered. Inorganic coagulants play a pivotal role in removing phosphorus from wastewater
  • Energy neutrality is introduced at member state level for wastewater treatment plants. Here as well, using inorganic coagulants before the biological water treatment reduces oxygen demand in the aeration step (less energy consumption) and allows more biogas generation from digested sludge (more renewable energy creation)
  • Removal of micropollutants is introduced
  • The scope of the current Directive is enlarged to cover all agglomerations above 1,000 inhabitants.

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: