The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017

Monitoring programmes

11.—(1) The appropriate agency must establish and keep under review programmes for monitoring water status in order to establish a coherent and comprehensive overview of water status within each river basin district.

(2) In relation to surface water, the monitoring programme must cover—

(a) the volume and level or rate of flow to the extent relevant to ecological and chemical status and ecological potential, and

(b) ecological and chemical status and ecological potential.

(3) In relation to groundwater, the monitoring programme must cover chemical and quantitative status.

(4) In relation to protected areas, the monitoring programme must—

(a) cover any supplementary monitoring required by the EU legislation under which the area is protected;

(b) provide for the monitoring of each drinking water protected area which provides on average more than 100m³ per day of drinking water intended for human consumption;

(c) for each shellfish water protected area, enable a reliable assessment to be made of whether the objectives in regulation 13(4) have been or will be achieved.

(5) The monitoring programme must comply with the following provisions of Annex V to the WFD—

(a) points 1.3 to 1.3.4 and 1.3.6 (monitoring of ecological status, chemical status and ecological potential for surface waters);

(b) point 1.3.5 (monitoring of drinking water abstraction points and habitats and species protection areas);

(c) points 1.4 to 1.4.3 (classification and presentation of ecological status, chemical status and ecological potential);

(d) points 2.2 to 2.2.4 (monitoring of groundwater quantitative status);

(e) points 2.4 to 2.4.4 (monitoring of groundwater chemical status);

(f) points 2.4.5 and 2.5 (interpretation and presentation of groundwater status).

(6) By 22nd December 2018, the appropriate agency must establish, for each river basin district, a monitoring programme in respect of substances 34 to 45 in the table of priority substances.