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REQUIREMENTS FOR URBAN WASTEWATER Part A Collecting systems Collecting systems shall take into account urban wastewater treatment requirements. The design, construction and maintenance of collecting systems shall be undertaken in accordance with the best technical knowledge not entailing excessive costs, in particular regarding:

— volume and characteristics of urban wastewater,

— prevention of leaks of urban wastewater, infiltration and misconnected inflow into the collecting systems,

— limitation of pollution of receiving waters due to storm water overflows, considering the relevant requirements in Article 5 and Annex V. Part B Discharge from urban wastewater treatment plants to receiving waters 1. Urban wastewater treatment plants shall be designed or modified so that representative samples of the incoming wastewater and of treated effluent can be obtained before discharge to receiving waters.

2. Discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants and urban wastewater treatment plants serving agglomerations referred to in Articles 6, 7 and 8 shall meet the requirements in Table 1 of this Annex.

3. Discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants referred to in Article 7(1) or from urban wastewater treatment plants serving agglomerations referred to in Article 7(3) shall, in addition to the requirements referred to in point 2, meet the requirements in Table 2 of this Annex, except in cases where Article 7(8) is applied.

4. Discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants referred to in Article 8(1) or from urban wastewater treatment plants serving agglomerations referred to in Article 8(4) shall meet the requirements set out in Table 3 of this Annex.

5. Prior regulations and specific authorisations for discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants using biomedia shall include:

— a description of the technologies incorporating biomedia used in the treatment carried out by the urban wastewater treatment plant, including the type and volume of biomedia used in the plant and a description of the measures taken to avoid releases of biomedia into the environment;

— an obligation to permanently monitor and prevent all biomedia releases into the environment;

— an obligation to report without delay any significant releases of biomedia into receiving waters to competent authorities.

6. Requirements that are more stringent than those set out in Tables 1, 2 and 3 shall be applied where necessary to ensure that the receiving waters fulfil the requirements laid down in Directives 2000/60/EC, 2008/56/EC, 2008/105/EC and 2006/7/EC.

7. The points of discharge of urban wastewater shall be chosen, as far as possible, so as to minimise harmful effects on receiving waters. Part C Methods for monitoring and evaluation of results 1. Member States shall ensure that a monitoring method is applied which fulfils the requirements set out in points 2 to 5. Where relevant, all methods of analysis shall comply with the same minimum performance criteria as those defined in Directive 2009/90/EC and other relevant rules. Alternative methods to those referred to in points 2, 3 and 4 may be used provided that it can be demonstrated that equivalent results are obtained. Member States shall provide the Commission with all relevant information concerning the applied monitoring method.

2. Flow-proportional or time-based 24-hour samples shall be collected at the same well-defined point in the outlet and, if necessary, in the inlet of the urban wastewater treatment plant. However, any time-based samples used to monitor micropollutants shall be 48-hour samples. Good international laboratory practices aiming at minimising the degradation of samples between collection and analysis shall be applied.

3. The minimum annual number of samples shall be determined according to the size of the treatment plant and be collected at regular intervals during the year: Note 1: For agglomerations concerned by seasonal activity, intervals of a maximum of two months without sampling are accepted provided that additional samples are taken during the months of seasonal activity. A total of 12 samples shall be taken throughout the year.

4. The treated urban wastewater shall be assumed to conform to the relevant parameters if, for each relevant parameter considered individually, samples of the water show that it complies with the relevant parametric value in the following way:

(a) for the parameters specified in Tables 1 and 3, a maximum number of samples which are allowed to fail the requirements, expressed in concentrations or percentage reductions, or both, is specified in Table 4;

(b) for the parameters specified in Table 1 expressed in concentrations, the failing samples taken under normal operating conditions must not deviate from the parametric values by more than 100 %, except for the parameter total suspended solids, for which deviations from the parametric values of up to 150 % may be accepted;

(c) for the parameters specified in Table 2, the annual mean of the samples for each parameter conforms to the relevant parametric values set out in that table; the values for concentration or for the minimum percentage of reduction apply;

(d) for the parameters specified in Table 3, the frequency of sampling referred to in Part C, point 3, means that one sample is taken in the inlet and one sample is taken in the outlet of the urban wastewater treatment plant in order to verify compliance with the minimum percentage of removal of Table 3; the average percentage of removal of all substances used in the calculation is used in order to assess whether the required 80 % minimum percentage of removal has been reached.

5. The samples shall be taken so that they reflect the pollution during dry weather flow. Extreme values for the water quality in question shall not be taken into consideration when they are the result of unusual situations due to heavy rain.

6. Analyses concerning discharges from lagooning shall be carried out on filtered samples; however, the concentration of total suspended solids in unfiltered water samples of such discharges shall not exceed 150 mg/l. Note 1: The parameter can be replaced by another parameter: total organic carbon (TOC) or total oxygen demand (TOD) if a relationship can be established between BOD5 and the substitute parameter.

Note 2: Member States shall measure either the Chemical oxygen demand (COD) or the Total Organic Carbon. Note 3: This requirement is optional. Note 4: Reduction in relation to the load of the influent. Note 1: Reduction in relation to the load of the influent or to the load generated in an agglomeration if the same level of environmental protection can be ensured. Note 2: If a fraction of treated urban wastewater is used for agricultural irrigation, nutrients in that fraction may be included in the calculation of the influent load and be excluded from the discharged load.

Note 3: In exceptional situations due to specific local circumstances, natural nitrogen retention may be taken into account in the calculation of the minimum percentage reduction in Member States where natural nitrogen retention was taken into account in the calculation of the minimum percentage reduction of nitrogen referred to under Table 2 of Annex I to Directive 91/271/EEC and where it is demonstrated that part of the nitrogen originated from urban wastewater can be eliminated in the receiving waters until 31 December 2045 for the calculation of the minimum percentage reduction of nitrogen referred to in Table 2 of this Annex if all the following conditions are fulfilled:

(1) the average hydraulic retention time of the discharged effluent is at least 1,5 years before it reaches the area sensitive to nitrogen designated under Article 7(2);

(2) a continuous monitoring and assessment programme of the total nitrogen parameter is ensured:

(a) in the outlets of all urban wastewater treatment plants and where relevant in the urban runoff from agglomerations of 10 000 p.e. and above located in the catchment area of the area sensitive to nitrogen designated under Article 7(2);

(b) in the relevant inlets of the area designated under Article 7(2);

(c) at the representative sampling locations in the receiving waters and relevant water bodies in the catchment area of the area designated under Article 7(2);

(3) the minimum percentage reduction for nitrogen of Table 2 is met; that percentage shall be calculated on the basis of the data collected from continuous monitoring and assessment programme referred to in point (2);

(4) it can be demonstrated that nitrogen releases from urban wastewater treatment plants in the catchment area are not harmful for the environment, including for biodiversity, and human health and do not modify the ecosystem;

(5) the concentration of nutrients in the areas referred to in point (c) of condition (2) are compliant with the condition set under Annex V.1.2.1 to Directive 2000/60/EC to define good ecological status of those areas;

(6) the use of natural nitrogen retention is reported to the Commission in accordance with Article 22(1)(a), as well as to potentially affected neighbouring Member States, together with all the elements necessary to verify that conditions (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) are fulfilled. Note 4: This requirement shall apply on 1 January 2025 to existing urban wastewater treatment plants obliged to meet the deadlines established under Article 7(1) and to agglomerations under Article 7(3). Until those deadlines are met, the obligations of Article 32(3) shall apply to those urban wastewater treatment plants. Note 5: Where the temperature in the effluent of the biological reactor is below 12 oC, the results of the samples taken may be excluded from the calculation of the annual mean for nitrogen as referred to in point (4)(c) of Part C of this Annex where all the following can be demonstrated:

(1) no adverse effect on the environment is ensured;