Lezing Hans Blokland slibcongres

vrijdag 27 december 2002 13:30

Contaminated sediments: can Europe solve the problem ?

A. Introduction: experiences with contaminated sediments

It is a great pleasure for me that I am invited here to replace my colleague Mrs. Ria Oomen-Ruijten. In this way you can see the good co-operation in the environment committee and the European Parliament. Rotterdam is my "home-port" and the problems with class-4 sludge are not rare for me. As local and regional politician I have dealt several times with this problem. As a former elderman of Capelle aan de IJssel, a neighbour-municipality of Rotterdam, I have done great efforts to avoid the dumping of contaminated sludge from the port. The first time on the East and the second time on the West side of the municipality, both with success. Nowadays you can see there a beautiful living area and a protected nature-side. As a former councillor of South Holland, I very well remember the sorrows as a result of building houses in Maassluis on contaminated sludge from the port. The lesson I have learned from the past is that partial solutions increase the problem on a longer term. Only integral approaches of problems have the future. With this lesson bearing in mind, I will say something about the European policy, mainly concentrated on the role of the European Parliament.

B. Environment policy in the European Union

European Union policy concerning the protection of the environment and natural resources has steadily grown in importance since the 1980s. The reason for this is that the threats of environmental damage and depletion of the natural resources are still far from being under control. As a result, the arsenal of measures at our disposal in order to conduct environmental policy, ranging from legislation to financial instruments, has been strengthened enormously. In particular, the Treaty of Amsterdam made the principle of sustainable development and a high level of environmental protection one of the top priorities (Article 2). The Union's environmental policy, as set out in the EC Treaty, aims to achieve sustainability by including environmental protection in EU sectoral policies, preventive measures, the "polluter pays" principle, combating environmental pollution at source, and shared responsibility. The acquis comprises of approximately 200 legal instruments covering a wide range of fields, including water and air pollution, the management of waste and chemicals, biotechnology, radiation protection and nature conservation. Member States must ensure that an environmental impact assessment is carried out before approving certain public and private sector development projects.

In earlier times, environment policy was more or less concentrated on recovering the pollution from the past. Afterwards environment policy has more developed in the direction of prevention of the pollution. This is a good development, in which we should go forward. If we want to handle with the creation as a steward, essential changes in our manner of producing and consuming is necessary. A vision for the long term, concentrated on thriftiness, should be applied. Economical use of the natural resources and production methods, producing as less as possible amounts of waste, are suitable in this policy. Essential with the environment impact assessments is to look after the alternatives, for example the zero-option or the most environmental friendly option. Closing part of this is the compensation for environmental damage. In this way the “polluter-pays principle” is applied.
Some topics are of particular concern to many citizens. For most people within the European Union it is self-evident to have access to clean water in quite abundant quantities. Global water consumption has increased seven-fold since the beginning of the 20th century. Nevertheless, in Europe, most people enjoy adequate supplies of fresh, clean water. But water resources are under threat from many human activities. Industry is using water in large quantities for cooling and cleaning. Agriculture uses water mainly for irrigation. These activities put a burden on our water resources. Therefore the European Union is conducting an extensive range of essentially legislative measures in order to ensure a sustainable management of water quantity and quality in Europe.
Fortunately in Europe extreme water problems, such as extensive floods and/or droughts, are rare. Engineered solutions deal with all but the most severe floods; but not always as we have seen recently in Germany, Hungary and the Czech republic. The continent faces no overall water shortage. And Europe does not suffer from outbreaks of deadly water-related diseases, all too common in other parts of the world. At first glance then the state of Europe ’s water appears good. But we cannot yet sit back and relax. Europe ’s water quality is, in fact, far from satisfactory. There are still threats to, and considerable pressures on, water in Europe.

C. Sediments

One of these problems becomes visable when rivers are dredged for soil in order to avoid silting up. This dredging of the ports has a very clear economic reason. There can also be environmental reasons for dredging. In the case of a very polluted lake, cleaning of the lake is necessary in the way of dredging the lake. That this can lead to high amounts of sludge we can see in the city where we are now: in Rotterdam a yearly amount of twenty million cubic meter sludge. The biggest part of the sludge can be dumped in the sea. But on a yearly basis, we also have to deal with high amounts of contaminated dredging-sludge. This can be stored in the so-called slufter. Another option is thermal treatment. We all know the disadvantages of thermal treatment. The pollution of the sludge will be transposed into the air. Mainly the volatile metals, such as mercury and cadmium are a big problem. Dredging-sludge can also be recovered by using it as raw material for building materials. An example for this is the co-incineration in cement-kilns. In this case the same disadvantages do apply regarding air-pollution. Above that, the emission limit values are less strict than the emission limit values of the specialised waste incineration plants. On the long term we have the risk of leaching of heavy metals out of the building material that is made from dredging sludge. But I will not discuss these problems any further. I make a big mistake, by first looking to a possible solution at the end of pipe. So, I have to step back. Later on we will see that I possibly can jump forwards.

Dredging sludge is not an isolated thing, but a part of the whole water system. Sediments in a river are coming from the upstream part or from the area next to a river. The conditions for the quality of sediment are therefore:
 Quality of the water upstream
 Quality of the soil next to the watercourse

Particularly in the case of inundations the aspect of the soil next to the watercourse is important. The conclusions are very simple. Avoid pollution of the water upstream, as well as soil-pollution near the watercourse. I cannot say that Europe has a complete solution in this. If I speak about the soil, a European approach is very complicated. For the main part has the quality of the soil no trans-boundary effects. Via the international rivers trans-boundary effects can occur. These effect are however indirect. We have to see the European approach more in the direction of the solution with the quality of the water in the rivers. In this lecture I like to explain what the European Union has done the last 25 years in order to solve the problem of the water quality. The main point will be the consequence of the most recent legislation: the European water framework directive. A very important element of this water framework directive is the obligation that the chemical and ecological quality of the water has to be good in the year 2015. When this objective is reached, the problem of contaminated sediments has been solved. Before the formulation of this objective we have had a long history in the field of the European water policy.

C. European water policy
Since the first European directive on water in 1975, much progress has been made in tackling point source pollution of Europe ’s waters, that is pollution coming from one particular source, for example waste water discharge from an industrial site or a leaking storage tank. Diffuse source pollution, for example fertiliser and pesticide run-off from agricultural land, has proven more difficult to tackle and is of increasing concern. Such nutrients and chemicals flowing into ground and surface water can make it unsuitable for drinking.
I have to be fair by saying that the pressure for a better water quality was not a result of the fact that the sediments were contaminated. But it became more and more the case that the Europe’s citizens are increasingly demanding cleaner water
 cleaner water for drinking
 cleaner water for bathing
 cleaner water as part of their environment, their local and regional heritage.
The increasing demand by citizens and environmental organisations for cleaner rivers and lakes, groundwater and coastal beaches is evident. This demand by citizens is one of the main reasons why the European Commission has made water protection one of the priorities of its work. A new European Water Policy will have to get polluted waters clean again, and ensure clean waters are kept clean. In achieving these objectives, the roles of citizens and citizens’ groups will be crucial. This is why a new European Water Policy has to get citizens more involved. Pressure for a fundamental rethink of Community water policy came to a head in 1995: The Commission, which had already been considering the need for a more global approach to water policy, accepted requests from the European Parliament’s environment committee and from the Council of environment ministers. Whilst EU actions such as the Drinking Water Directive and the Urban Waste Water Directive can duly be considered milestones, European Water Policy had to address the increasing awareness of citizens and other involved parties for their water. At the same time water policy and water management are to address problems in a coherent way. This is why the new European Water Policy was developed in an open consultation process involving all interested parties. The Communication was formally addressed to the Council and the European Parliament, but at the same time invited comment from all interested parties, such as local and regional authorities, water users and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). A score of organisations and individuals responded in writing, most of the comments welcoming the broad outline given by the European Commission.
Management of water in Europe is often complicated. The Member States of the EU have different, and sometimes opposing, views on environment and water quality protection. They must also defend their national economic development which is sometimes considered as being hampered by European environment protection legislation. And there is also the question of trans-boundary water resources and pollution —10 European countries receive more than half of their total water resources from neighbouring countries. This division of river basins into different administrative or regional units means that it can be easy to lose sight of the impacts of measures taken in one country on a neighbouring country. Remember the accident of the pollution of the Tisza in Hungary. In the Netherlands the quality of the rivers Rhine and Maas are largely dependent on the pollution in Germany and France. This all means that only national water policy is not sufficient. It is vital that upstream and downstream States co-operate to ensure the best possible water management. Discharge into the sea may not cause any environmental problems in the country of origin, but due to currents and winds, it could still give rise to decline in water quality elsewhere. Fortunately, the European Union is in the position to play a co-ordinating role in this field of different interests. And today, although the state of Europe ’s water is still not ideal, the situation has improved. Nowadays local emissions from diffuse sources as well as diffuse pollution upstream from a river. For example, the river Meuse the main cause of water contamination in the Rotterdam water system comes from diffuse sources. But yesterday I learned from the news in the Netherlands that the behaviour of the industry has to be improved. The Dutch Ministry of Justice has concluded that around 30 per cent of the companies do not comply with the rules for draining off in the surface water. Most of the transgressors drain off more or other waste than permitted. Many companies, mainly small ones, do even not know that they do not comply with the rules. Unless most infringements are explored, the maintenance is not sufficient. Surprisingly is that exact those companies who have a certified environment care system were the biggest transgressors.

From the facts just mentioned we can also learn that companies should be aware of their responsibility for the whole river basin. This is the best model for a single system of water management: the natural geographical and hydrological unit - instead of according to administrative or political boundaries. Initiatives taken forward by the States concerned for the Maas, Schelde or Rhine river basins have served as positive examples of this approach, with their co-operation and joint objective-setting across Member State borders, or in the case of the Rhine even beyond the EU territory. While several Member States already take a river basin approach, this is at present not the case everywhere. For each river basin district - some of which will traverse national frontiers - a “river basin management plan” will need to be established and updated every six years, and this will provide the context for the co-ordination requirements identified above. All the elements of this analysis must be set out in a plan for the river basin. The plan is a detailed account of how the objectives set for the river basin (ecological status, quantitative status, chemical status and protected area objectives) are to be reached within the time-scale required.

D. European water framework directive

The EU water framework directive has an ecological and chemical base. I agree with SEDNET that the importance of the sediments is under-estimated. But on one hand is the objective very clear and challenging. On the other hand we have of course to be aware that the sediments are mobile as well. The water framework directive, adopted in 2000, will reflect the ‘combined approach’ of the third phase of European efforts to improve our water. This water framework directive is now the basis of the water strategy of the European Union. It should bring a major improvement in the sustainable and integrated management of our water resources as, for the first time, all types and uses of water will be covered. A detailed description of key elements is included in the directive to reach this goal.

The water framework directive will lead to new partnerships, structures and responsibilities and more efficient water management. This shall not be possible without efforts on administration level. More focus on the project approach in stead of focus on legislation, will have consequences for the whole procedure. Working groups should be started which are very close to the execution of the policy. It is very important that the executive bodies are involved in the formulation of the policy on the European level. We should avoid that much energy is spend in making rules, which will not work in practice or which are not executed. Checking the implementation and execution of the rules is very important as well. In many cases international co-operation from the different management bodies will be necessary.

The first addition to the Water Framework Directive is a list of priority substances set for the reduction of emission controls at Community level. This list ranks in order of priority the substances for which quality standards and measurements are to be established.
On the list, 32 highest priority substances are identified. The list will be reviewed at least every four years by the European Commission, which will take account of any information which comes to its attention, particularly from the Member States, scientific and various organisations.

After inundations big areas are covered by the sediments of the river. We do not always know which components are in these sediments. So, we do not know which risks there are for the environment and public health. In the EU methods and procedures will be investigated to achieve that we speak the same language in the world of sediments. In other words, in the member states of a particular streaming-area we have to use the same standards for pollution.

Not only the new pollution upstream will be a problem, also the existing sediment can be polluted in the future. At a time these sediments will be threat for the water-quality downstream as well. Also the initiatives of SEDNET are very welcome. I understand that much work will be done in order to spend then EU-subsidy in a good way. I hope that with their expertise, SEDNET will achieve a good example for the whole European Union. Very important in this way is that all countries of the European Union will be involved, as well as the accession-countries. I am very glad that seven European countries are involved in this conference, But where are the other eight? And where are the representatives of the accession countries? In 2004 it is expected that 10 new countries will be members of the European Union and have also to comply with the European water legislation. The negotiations with the accession countries on the environment chapter are closed. All ten new member states have a transition period for the treatment of the urban waste water until 2010 or 2015. So it will take a lot of time before our present goals are reached in whole Europe.

Thank you for your attention

Hans Blokland
Member of the European Parliament

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