WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE

Discharges into surface waters are controlled by a “combined approach for point and diffuse sources” (Article 10(1)). The Water Framework Directive refers in this respect to other directives, both those in force at the time of its adoption and subsequent ones pertaining to water or impacted by water, including “any other relevant community legislation” (Article 10(2)). The WFD thus provides that Member States shall ensure the establishment and/or implementation of a diversity of instruments. This includes, on the one hand, emission limit values or controls based on available techniques for point sources. It refers, on the other hand, to diffuse impacts, to controls “including, as appropriate, best environmental practices” provided for by those other directives, a reference which thus appears to act as an implementation measure (Article 10(2)).
Special rules apply to a number of priority substances because of the “compartment of the aquatic environment (...) a substance is likely to be found in, and therefore where its concentration is most likely to be measurable.” Such a compartment is defined as the ensemble of water, sediment or biota, and denominated a “matrix” (Article 2(1) of the Directive 2008/105/EC, as modified by Directive 2013/39/EU . Indeed, for very hydrophobic substances which accumulate in biota and are hardly detectable in water, environmental quality standards should in principle apply to biota (Recital No. 17 and Article 3(2) and (3) of Directive 2008/105 as modified).