The Phase-Out of Hazardous Substances in Troubled Waters

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of 2000 is the EU's first law establishing legal obligations to move towards eliminating the emission of hazardous substances into EU's waters within 20 years. This recognises that the safe way to deal with substances which can cause long-term or irreversible damage is to aim at zero or background concentrations rather than setting tolerable limits as favoured by conventional chemical risk assessment methods. There is a long way to go from the WFD's respective legal obligations to ultimately achieving zero emissions for selected hazardous substances. In 2010 Greenpeace undertook a first spot check of the quality of implementing those obligations for the pollutant nonylphenol (NP), a hazardous water pollutant which has been severely restricted in the EU since 2003. Based on these findings this paper analyses the repercussions from a broader perspective of the legal situation, including whether and when legal breaches are likely to occur and what the consequences are for the political objectives of chemical safety management. To this end, the paper examines the shared obligations between the EU and its Member States and the links to the new EU chemical safety management rules under REACh.