The Groundwater (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

Amendment of regulation 2

4.  In regulation 2 (interpretation)—

(a) in paragraph (1)—

(i) after the definition of “authorisation” insert—

““background level” means the concentration of a substance or the value of an indicator in a body of groundwater corresponding to no, or only very minor, anthropogenic alterations to undisturbed conditions;

“baseline level” means the average value measured at least during the reference years 2007 and 2008 on the basis of monitoring in accordance with a programme prepared under regulation 9 of The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003;”;

(ii) after the definition of “groundwater” insert—

““groundwater quality standard” means an environmental quality standard expressed as the concentration of a particular pollutant, group of pollutants or indicator of pollution in groundwater, which should not be exceeded in order to protect human health and the environment;”;

(iii) after the definition of “river basin district and international river basin districts” insert—

““significant and sustained upward trend” means any statistically and environmentally significant increase of concentration of a pollutant, group of pollutants, or indicator of pollution in groundwater for which trend reversal is identified as being necessary in accordance with regulation 10;”;

(iv) after the definition of “starting point” insert—

““threshold value” means a groundwater quality standard established under regulation 8;”.

(b) delete paragraph 3.