Litoclean has submitted to MITERD a series of allegations and suggestions to the text.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD) has published the Draft Royal Decree amending the Regulation of the Public Hydraulic Domain in order to promote sustainable use and ensure greater protection of groundwater, incorporating amendments associated with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in reference to knowledge on hydrogeology and changes in agricultural and industrial activity for the protection of water that modifies the existing regulation in order to achieve the best regulation of its protection, use and management.
This update responds to the adaptation to European regulations and to changes and trends in pollution of aquatic and associated terrestrial ecosystems, with the aim of achieving the best regulation. It includes the revision of the RDPH in five blocks: protection measures for groundwater bodies declared at risk of not reaching good status, criteria and administrative procedure for the establishment of protection perimeters, specific provisions for authorizing the discharge of wastewater, measures for action against episodes of point pollution and criteria for assessing the damage caused by pollution and its link with the sanctioning procedure.
One of the most relevant elements of this amendment is the incorporation, for the first time, of a chapter dedicated to the protection of groundwater against point source pollution. Until now, there were no Spanish regulations to evaluate the deterioration caused and determine the remediation measures. Nor was there any uniformity in assessing damage to the public water domain (DPH). Consequently, the technicians of the Water Administration or the Public Prosecutor’s Office resorted to guides or recommendations from other countries or international organizations, which lacked the necessary legal support to be effective.
Litoclean, as an interested party in this royal decree and an expert and accredited entity in the field, has presented a series of allegations and comments to the text that have been submitted to MITERD during the public information period.
The provisions determine the studies that must be carried out to assess the damage caused, such as the preliminary characterization study and the environmental characterization and diagnosis study; the generic values of groundwater quality (Generic Values of No Risk, or VGNR, and Generic Values of Intervention, or VGI); the Quantitative Risk Analysis (ACR) and the scope of the decontamination project that must be submitted by the polluter.
The Litoclean expert team suggests modifying the title of the article “contaminated aquifers” to reflect that it refers to “point source groundwater contamination”. It is proposed to include an additional provision that reflects the need for the reference values (NGVs and IGVs) included in the standard to be revised periodically due to the progress in the study as the scientific community’s knowledge of the toxicological data of certain substances progresses. Currently, some of them have already undergone significant advances, so the values defined in the Royal Decree should be revised, since they are based on old studies. In addition, it is requested that a transitory provision be included in the Royal Decree so that the entities accredited by ENAC according to ISO 17020 as inspection entities for potentially contaminated soils and associated groundwater are automatically recognized as Collaborating Entities of the Hydraulic Administration (ECAH) in the studies of punctual contamination of groundwater. The publication of a Ministerial Order defining the conditions required to obtain the title of collaborating entity is currently pending.
On the other hand, Litoclean reflects on the need to assess whether the technical teams and administrative bodies of the Basin Organizations are sized to meet the responsibilities arising from the publication of the RD, in order to avoid that this burden does not delay the processing of cases.
The public information period for the project has ended and the resulting text must be submitted for processing.
