Title: Implementing the Nitrates Directive in England 
Resource Type: web links 
Producers or distributor Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs 
Author / Producer Type: Agency, regulator or other governmental or inter-governmental body 
Web link for product information: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/quality/nitrate/di ...  
EUGRIS Keyword(s): Water and sanitation-->Wastewater
Water and sanitation-->Water supply
Water resources and their management -->Stresses, quality and ecological status
 
Short description: In 1991 Europe adopted the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EC). It is an environmental measure designed to reduce water pollution by nitrate from agricultural sources and to prevent such pollution occurring in the future. The Directive requires Member States to: designate as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) all land draining to waters that are affected by nitrate pollution. establish a voluntary code of good agricultural practice to be followed by all farmers throughout the country. establish an Action Programme of measures for the purposes of tackling nitrate loss from agriculture. The Action Programme should be applied either within NVZs or throughout the whole country. review the extent of their NVZs and the effectiveness of their Action Programmes at least every four years and to make amendments if necessary. 66 Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, covering some 600,000 hectares (8%) of England, were designated in 1996 to protect drinking waters from nitrate pollution. An Action Programme of measures was applied in these NVZs from December 1998. In December 2000, the European Court of Justice ruled that the UK had failed to properly implement the Directive because we had only designated NVZs for the protection of drinking water sources, rather than for all surface and ground waters. As a result of this ruling, a further 47% of England was designated as an NVZ in October 2002. The same Action Programme of measures that applied in the original NVZs entered into force within these additional NVZs in December 2002. 
Link to Organisation(s): Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
 
Submitted By: Professor Paul Bardos WhoDoesWhat?      Last update: 21/09/2007

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