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he quality assurance of drinking water treatment equipment and materials remains an unsolved legislative issue. Article 10 of the Drinking Water Directive (98/83 EC) requires member states to ensure the hygienic safety of materials and products in contact with drinking water, but its implementation on a supra-national level also requires common agreements on market aspects for the free trading of drinking water products within the EU.In an attempt to address some of these issues, a meeting entitled ‘Materials and products in contact with drinking water’ was held in Brussels in May 2016, which Pan European Networks attended. This event was held on the premise that ‘the issue of safe, wholesome and clean drinking water is of outstanding importance for human health and therefore crucial for water services as well as producers of material and products coming in contact with drinking water’. Here, a group of European associations came together to discuss a new study launched by DG Environment on materials and products in contact with drinking water and various initiatives.
Meeting requirements
Speaking at the event, vice-president of EurEau (the European federation of national associations of drinking water suppliers and waste water services) Claudia Castell-Exner explained that drinking water is in contact with a wide range of materials and products from catchment to tap, and that since the current Drinking Water Directive entered into force in 2000, products and materials that come into contact with drinking water must meet the drinking water hygiene requirements stated in Article 10, with
The issue of safe, wholesome and clean drinking water is of outstanding importance for human health and therefore crucial for water services as well as producers of material and products coming into contact with drinking water
CONSERVATION & ECOLOGY
the standardisation of the testing procedures: the assessment of the test results”, and here there is a need to “decide on a set of limit values, on a set of acceptance criteria, and to decide whether the materials tested are safe or not”.
Challenges
Challenges nevertheless remain. The free movement of goods according to Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) “implies that member states must not impose obstacles to trade within the EU unless they have strong reasons to do so. Having this in mind, an EU-level setting of hygienic requirements for materials and products in contact with drinking water is the constructive approach since member states’ specific requirements would contradict this European principle and would lead again to a patchwork within the European Union,” Castell-Exner explained.
“From EurEau’s point of view, this is a task for the European Commission,” she added, before recommending that while evaluating and reviewing the directive the commission takes the opportunity to “be inspired by the legislation on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food to tackle this subject”.
Castell-Exner concluded her presentation by arguing that “all of this valuable work can be used to properly implement Article 10 of the Drinking Water Directive” and, moreover, by emphasising that protecting consumers’ health in a sustainable way by supplying safe and wholesome drinking water will remain at the core of EurEau’s vision. For this to be realised, it is clear that materials and products that come into contact with drinking water must be fit for purpose throughout their entire lifecycle.
“In the meantime,” she continued, “we have provided facts and figures to support DG Environment in their assessment, for example, with regard to the materials and products currently in use and their average life and service, and financial estimates for investments in new materials and products.”
Harmonisation
The harmonisation of standards on materials and products was also highlighted by the EurEau VP, who drew attention to one standard to determine hygienic requirements (which was published in 2014 as European Standard 16421) in particular. This, she said, looks at the influence of materials on water for human consumption and the ability of non-metallic materials to enhance microbial growth, describing three European testing procedures. The first of these, which was established in the Netherlands, analyses this ability by measuring adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an indicator for biomass production potential; the second, developed in Germany, measures the biofilm volume; and the third, developed in the UK, takes the mean dissolved oxygen depletion in water as an indicator for microbial growth. However, Castell-Exner continued, “one major gap at the moment concerns the next step after
Drinking water is in contact with a wide range of materials and products from catchment to tap Gov19 C C-Exner REP 5555_atl_Moved from ST19_Layout 1 21/07/2016 14:29 Page 2
for recognising high quality sludge-based materials and products as fertilisers instead of ending up in landfill.
Fertiliser Regulation
The details of the Fertiliser Regulation were published in March this year. The commission wants to significantly facilitate access to organic and waste-based fertilisers within the EU market, bringing them into line with traditional, non-organic fertilisers. This will create new market opportunities whilst reducing waste, energy consumption and environmental damage.
The regulation sets out common rules on converting biowaste into raw materials that can be used to manufacture fertilisers. It defines safety, quality and labelling requirements so that fertilisers can be traded across the EU. Producers will have to demonstrate that their products meet those requirements.
The key remaining issue is that some good quality products that can be obtained from sewage sludge in regards to the actual proposed criteria for compost and digestate will not be accepted by the present regulation. Indeed, the products are excluded from the regulation because they originate from sewage sludge. It is a discrimination made from the origin of the product which has no relevance considering the criteria imposed on the final product.
The Fertiliser Regulation, if the objective of creating a safe market for the recycling of nutrients is to be met, should focus on defining quality criteria for the end product that are safe for the end user and consumer, and without discriminating it from other fertilisers. It is not in line with the waste hierarchy, regardless of how good the product is, and it won’t be allowed on the market simply because it is coming from sewage sludge.
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his time last year we were eagerly looking forward to the European Commission’s announcement on the Circular Economy Package (CEP) to help European businesses and consumers use and recycle resources in a more sustainable way. The proposed actions, which were announced in December, will bring benefits to both the environment and the economy by extracting the maximum value and use from raw materials, products and waste, while promoting energy savings. Overall, the new CEP proposal was well aligned with our position as it recognises how water services will contribute to a more sustainable European economy. We support the recovery of nutrients through the revision of the Fertiliser Regulation and new resource management instruments through the measures regarding water reuse.Water and nutrients
As well as nutrient recovery, the circular economy has an important role to play in regards to water efficiency. Last year, we worked hard to advocate the possibilities offered by waste water and were successful in ensuring the European Commission included them in the package. Waste water services are at the heart of nutrient recovery through biosolids and sludge-based products derived from sludge coming from waste water treatment plants. The CEP will stimulate the development of an EU-wide market for fertilising products originating from organic and waste-based materials. This is a strong signal to the European water sector to invest in the recovery of nutrients from sewage sludge. However, it is a missed opportunity not to have clearly defined end-of-waste criteria
Pan European Networks: Government19 www.paneuropeannetworks.com
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