FantasticSearch

1. Member States shall systematically promote the reuse of treated wastewater from all urban wastewater treatment plants where appropriate, especially in water-stressed areas, and for all appropriate purposes. The potential for the reuse of treated wastewater shall be assessed in a manner that takes into account the river basin management plans established under Directive 2000/60/EC (‘river basin management plans’) and Member States’ decisions under Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) 2020/741. Member States shall ensure that, when treated urban wastewater is reused or if the reuse is planned, it does not endanger the ecological flow of the receiving waters and there is no adverse effect for the environment or human health. Where treated wastewater is reused for agricultural irrigation, it shall comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2020/741. Where strategies on water resilience at Member State level are available, measures on promoting the reuse of treated wastewater and on the reuse itself shall be considered in those strategies.

Where treated urban wastewater is reused for agricultural irrigation, Member States may derogate from the requirements for tertiary treatment in Part B and Table 2 of Annex I, for the fraction of treated urban wastewater that is exclusively destined for reuse in agricultural irrigation, where all of the following can be demonstrated:

(a) the nutrient content in the fraction reused does not exceed the nutrient demand of the targeted crops;

(b) there are no risks for the environment, particularly in relation to eutrophication of the waters in the same catchment area;

(c) there are no risks to human health particularly in relation to pathogenic organisms;

(d) the urban wastewater treatment plant has enough capacity to treat or store urban wastewater, in order to avoid discharges into receiving waters of urban wastewater which do not meet the requirements set out in Part B and Table 2 of Annex I in accordance with the methods for monitoring and evaluation of results laid down in Part C of Annex I.

2. Member States shall ensure that at least all discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants of 1 000 p.e. and above are subject to prior regulations or specific authorisations, or both. Such regulations and specific authorisations shall ensure that the requirements set out in Part B of Annex I are fulfilled.

3. Prior regulations and specific authorisations as referred to in paragraph 2 shall be reviewed at least every ten years and, if necessary, adapted. The provisions of the specific authorisations shall be updated in the cases where the characteristics of incoming urban wastewater or the discharges from the urban wastewater treatment plant or of the receiving water body change significantly, to ensure that the requirements set out in Part B of Annex I remain fulfilled.

4. Member States shall take all measures necessary to adapt their urban wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure to address increased loads of domestic wastewater, including the construction of new infrastructure where necessary.

When taking measures as referred to in the first subparagraph, Member States shall be considered to comply with the environmental objectives set out in Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC if all the following conditions are met:

(a) the construction or expansion of an urban wastewater treatment plant to treat increased loads or otherwise untreated loads of domestic wastewater is subject to prior authorisation in accordance with this Directive;

(b) the benefits of the urban wastewater treatment plant in point (a) cannot for reasons of technical feasibility or disproportionate cost be achieved by other means, including the consideration of alternative points of discharge of urban wastewater plants, that would contribute to achieving the environmental objectives set out in Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC;

(c) all technically feasible mitigating measures are taken to minimise the negative impacts of the urban wastewater treatment plant on the water bodies affected and are set out in the specific authorisations referred to in Article 14 of this Directive and this Article; those measures shall include, where required, treatment requirements more stringent than those applied prior to the increase in the domestic wastewater load, in order to meet the requirements of the Directives referred to in Part B, point 6, of Annex I to this Directive;

(d) all technically feasible mitigating measures are implemented to minimise the negative impact of other activities causing similar pressures in the same water bodies. If failure to prevent deterioration or failure to achieve the environmental objectives set out in Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC in a body of surface water is the result of a prior authorisation in point (a), that authorisation shall be specifically set out and the conditions referred to in the second subparagraph explained in the river basin management plans.