Application of the Water Framework Directive in practice

With the adoption of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) in 2000, the European Parliament created the central and binding legal basis for modern water policy within the EU. Since 2002, the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD) has been successively transposed into national law by the Federal Water Act (WHG) and supplementary directives for the protection of the groundwater and running water compartments via the Groundwater Ordinance (GrwV) and the Surface Water Ordinance (OGewV). With regard to natural waters, the EC Water Framework Directive prescribes a "good or very good ecological and chemical status" as a goal to be achieved and maintained for all surface waters in all Member States by 2027 at the latest. In addition, the EC WFD defines a prohibition of deterioration of the existing ecological and chemical status for all waters.

The discharge of water into a water body is a fundamental component of planning, conception and implementation, especially for projects in urban water management, watercourse management and construction water management. A prerequisite for the discharge into natural flowing waters such as streams, rivers or creeks is their compatibility with the ban on deterioration of the ecological and chemical status firmly anchored in the EC WFD. Within the framework of a technical contribution to the Water Framework Directive, an assessment of the compatibility of your planned project for discharge with the provisions of the prohibition of deterioration is carried out for short- to long-term periods using a multi-stage procedure - schematically visualised in Figure 1. For the future, it is foreseeable that numerous cities and municipalities will massively tighten their requirements and that even small discharge quantities in relation to the predicted total flow will be subject to the requirement of a technical report under water law.

As MuP, we accompany you in the water-legislative technical contribution and provide you with competent advice. With over 30 years of expertise in the fields of pollutant remediation, groundwater modelling and the preparation of hydrogeological and hydrological reports, M&P Ingenieurgesellschaft is looking forward to being your competent partner in this area in the future.