21 November 2006
NORTHERN IRELAND HOSTS MAJOR CONFERENCE FOR FIRST TIME
The 2006 Joint UK Agencies Bathing Water Conference is taking place in Newcastle, Co Down over the next two days.
Mr Richard Rogers, Chief Executive of Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) welcomed the 140 delegates and said: "I am delighted that Helmut Bloech, the Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission's Unit for Water and Marine Protection joins us at the 2006 Joint Agencies Bathing Water Conference.
This is the first year that EHS has hosted the Conference and it is the first time that a member of the European Commission has attended. Among Helmut Bloech's responsibilities within the European Commission is development and implementation of European water policy, including the revised directive on bathing water quality. I am also delighted to welcome our neighbouring colleagues from the Republic of Ireland."
Mr Rogers said that the conference was particularly timely because DOE Minister, David Cairns, had recently announced that 2006 had been our best ever year for bathing water compliance in Northern Ireland. In addition, a further seven bathing water sites had been identified, bringing the total number to 23.
This conference aims to cover all aspects of implementation of the revised European Directive which was formally agreed in February 2006. It is aimed primarily at staff from the UK environment agencies and will cover both practical and policy issues.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. Delegates are drawn mainly from those involved in bathing water quality science and policy in EHS, the Environmental Policy Division (EPD) of the Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland the Environment Agency England & Wales (EA), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA UK), and Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD). Agency delegates are joined by 5 scientists and bathing water quality managers from the Republic of Ireland.
2. The aim of the conference is to promote discussion and the sharing of good practice between the agencies involved with application of the revised Bathing Water Directive (BWD), with particular emphasis on: interpreting legislation, scientific innovations and effective communication with the public.
3. The revised EC BWD 2006/7/EC was adopted on 15 February 2006 and the first classification in accordance with the revised Directive must be carried out by 2015. Regarding the implementation of the Directive, Member States are required to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive by 24th March 2008. Compliance will be assessed and reported using the existing Directive 76/160/EEC until 2014 but will run in parallel with the revised Directive from 2012.
4. The revised BWD lays down provisions for the monitoring and classification, the management of sites and the provision of information to the public on bathing water quality and factors affecting it. The main differences between the old and revised Directive are the new bacteriological standards and indicator species and the information provision requirements.
5. In Northern Ireland 16 sites were formally identified under the old Directive in 1994 and a monitoring programme has been in place since 1988. A further 11 sites have been monitored as potential candidate sites. All of our currently identified bathing waters are coastal.
6. In Northern Ireland EHS, carries out the monitoring of bathing water quality. The 16 identified sites comprise Benone (Limavady District Council), Castlerock, Portstewart, Portrush East and West (Coleraine Borough Council), Ballycastle (Moyle District Council), Brown's Bay (Larne District Council), Helen's Bay, Crawfordsburn, Ballyholme, Groomsport (North Down Borough Council), Millisle (Ards Borough Council), Tyrella, Newcastle (Down District Council), Cranfield Bay, Nicholson's Strand (Newry and Mourne District Council). This year all 16 of the bathing waters sites complied with the mandatory standards of the Directive with a further 14 of the 16 sites meeting the more stringent guideline standards of Directive. In addition, all 11 of the candidate bathing waters achieved compliance with the mandatory standards with 8 of the 11 sites meeting guideline standards.
7. The Directive aims to afford a certain level of health protection to bathers in waters where bathing is traditionally practised by a large number of people. This requires each Member State to identify its most popular bathing waters for regular testing. These sites are defined as areas where "bathing is explicitly authorised by the competent authorities of each Member State, or bathing is not prohibited and is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers".
8. The identification and review of our bathing waters is the responsibility of the DOE's Environmental Policy Division (EPD). The consultation paper entitled "Review of Identification of Northern Ireland Bathing Waters 2006" was issued on 25th April 2006 and closed on 28 July 2006. Twenty responses were received from a variety of sources namely local Councils, public and environmental interests.
9. The outcome of this consultation exercise has resulted in a further seven sites being identified as bathing waters effective from 27 October 2006. The new identifications are Ballygally, Carnlough, Waterfoot and Whiterocks, Co Antrim; Ballywalter & Murlough, Co Down and Downhill, Co Londonderry.
10. The revised BWD is available on http://europa.eu.int/eur-ex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_064/l_06420060304en00370051.pdf
11. Details of all the identifications are on http://www.doeni.gov.uk/epd/consultation_docs/default.asp
12. Further news media information contact DOE Press Office, tel. 028 9054 0003.
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