EU Agrees On Bathing Directive

Negotiations between the European Parliament and the European Council have resulted in a successful agreement on a new Bathing Water Directive for the European Union (1). The new Directive will define four categories of water quality; "excellent", "good", "sufficient" and "poor". The final agreement reflects a compromise over the setting of microbiological standards for the "sufficient" category where the European Parliament had been pushing for a more stringent standard than that favoured by the Council. The "sufficient" category was in itself a compromise element which was introduced because many beaches which are in compliance with the current EU Directive would not qualify for the "good" category under the new regulations. The "sufficient" category will become the new mandatory standard for compliance in the EU. Waters classified as "poor" are considered to have a level of health risk which makes them unsuitable for bathing.

Under the new Directive, monitoring will be required only for E. coli and intestinal enterococci, rather than the 19 parameters required under the current regulations. The new water quality categories are shown below:
 

Category	Excellent	Good	Sufficient
Inland waters
enterococci	200	400	330 *
E. coli	500	1000	900 *
Coastal waters
enterococci	100	200	185 *
E. coli	250	500	500 *
* Numbers are the 95th percentile for 100ml water samples except for the “Sufficient” category where the 90th percentile is used.

The classification of bathing waters will be based on consideration of three years of monitoring data. Where water quality is consistently falls into the "good" or "excellent" categories, monitoring frequencies may be reduced. For beaches where water quality is classified as "sufficient", member states are required to develop plans to identify and assess pollution sources, and indicative timelines to implement measures to improve water quality. All bathing waters will be required to at least meet the "sufficient" category by the end of the 2015 bathing season. It is estimated that bathing in water of this category carries with it a 7% to 8% risk of developing gastrointestinal or respiratory illness per bathing event, based on the dose-response relationship derived from British epidemiological studies. These studies have been used by the World Health Organisation to derive its Guidelines for Recreational Water Quality, upon which the new EU Directive is largely based. The mandatory compliance level under the current EU Directive equates to a risk of illness of about 12% to 15% per bathing event.

The new Directive is expected to be adopted by both the European parliament and the European Council early in 2006 and will come into force two years later. In addition to the new water quality classifications the Directive contains provisions for better and more timely communication with the public, including prompt posting of water testing results on the internet. Other measures include involvement of beach users in the development of management plans for bathing sites, and the adoption of uniform advisory signage.

During development of the Directive, some member states expressed doubts over the strength of the epidemiological evidence relating water quality to health risks. As a result of this, the European Commission has undertaken to carry out further epidemiological studies in collaboration with member states to strengthen the evidence base. There will be a particular focus on bathing in freshwaters, as the current body of evidence is very limited. The outcomes of these new studies as well as other scientific and analytical evidence will be reviewed and reported to the European Parliament by 2008. The review will specifically evaluate evidence relating to viral pathogens, which are believed to be the most important group of pathogens for bathing-related illness. The Bathing Water Directive itself will be reviewed by 2020 and it is anticipated that a decision may be made at this time to phase out the "sufficient" category.

(1) See Health Stream Issue 39 for a report on the development of the Bathing Water Directive.