Industry proposes improvements to new guidelines for groundwater protection

The draft recommendations guide was necessary to establish criteria, but has much room for improvement.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has published the draft of the Guidelines for the Protection of Groundwater against Point Contamination, a document that aims to standardize criteria and lay the foundations for the management of files by the different Water Administrations responsible for groundwater, particularly for the protection, prevention, defense, evaluation, management and restoration of contaminated aquifers.

Until now, reference standards from other countries and international entities or unofficial internal norms of the basin organizations were used for groundwater quality assessment, which generated a certain legal uncertainty. This document defines quality objectives for point pollution in groundwater in Spain, so it is considered a good starting point, although it is important to specify how it will be implemented for its application because, for now, it seems that it is not planned to be included in the modification of the Public Hydraulic Domain Regulations, remaining as a Technical Instruction or Technical Guide. From the groundwater research and decontamination sector it is considered that the draft requires discussion of some points and that it has room for improvement to achieve the support of the different interested parties.

One of the points that should be better defined, as Jenny Nilsson, director of LITOCLEAN’s Soil Research Area, explains, is the Generic Reference Values for groundwater quality, since it is not specified how they have been calculated or how new ones can be calculated or existing ones updated based on changes or scientific advances, for example, in toxicological databases.

The draft defines how the procedure for the declaration of Punctual Groundwater Contamination should be carried out , which would be done by means of a Resolution and establishing the minimum contents of the same, which among other things establishes a Bond for the amount calculated in the valuation of damage due to punctual contamination, in accordance with the established criteria. It also introduces changes in the current management of the files, since it establishes the completion of the decontamination program when the decontamination objectives are achieved, whereas the current practice of some administrations is not to close the file until a subsequent control and follow-up plan is completed.

On the other hand, this document establishes the minimum contents that must be included in the studies to determine the type, scope, extent and possible evolution of subsoil contamination, as well as the methodology and scope of the risk analysis necessary to establish the possible consequences that may arise from events affecting groundwater quality. Jenny Nilsson emphasizes that it is necessary to evaluate the capacity of both the entities or consultants responsible for the development of the studies and decontamination programs, since a high level of detail and tight deadlines are required, and of the industry, which must contract these studies in short times, as well as of the hydraulic administration itself to evaluate the files, and adjust the times of action and the content of the studies.

The text establishes the possibility of requiring the performance of emergency actions, containment or immediate correction of the contamination in certain situations and indicates that whenever the presence of substances in free phase in the affected aquifer is detected, the owner of the activity or, as the case may be, the owner of the land must proceed in any case to their immediate extraction until their total removal from the subsoil.

Entities dedicated to the investigation and decontamination of these waters, such as LITOCLEAN, question the role given to the Quantitative Risk Analysis in this document and demand that it be taken into account when setting the remediation target values, taking into account the characteristics of each site.

Finally, these guidelines also state that studies may be required to be accredited by a Collaborating Entity of the Hydraulic Administration (ECAH). It should be noted that this type of studies are currently carried out by entities accredited by ENAC for inspection in the field of potentially contaminated soils and associated groundwater, so it would be necessary to evaluate which activities can be accredited by an ECAH.

In short, a guide well received by the agents involved in the study and decontamination of groundwater which, however, should be revised to adapt it to the practical reality of each case and to make real progress in the quality control of these waters.