How will the standards for specific pollutants be used under the Water Framework Directive?

Specific pollutant standards form one component of the physico-chemical parameters used to classify ecological status for a water body, which will be reported in River Basin Management Plans. However, the development of new standards is both time consuming and costly. Therefore, it is possible that the environment agencies may have identified in the Article 5 characterisation report, a substance that could put a water body at risk of failing its objectives, but where no standard has yet been developed under WFD. In any such case, the agencies would consider management of the effects of that substance as part of the programme of measures and draw on the relevant standard from existing legislation such as the Dangerous Substance Directive as an interim measure, until a new standard can be derived. This will ensure that the UK meets its obligations under existing legislation to prevent deterioration of the ecosystem concerned. Additional work will then be commissioned to enable a new standard to be developed.