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| 151. | In the context of the Water Framework Directive, the five reference concepts relate to delineated water bodies and are used, in that framework, to determine whether the water bodies are in good status (or potential), or, for those not in good status, to assess the gap to good status and identify the appropriate measures to fill that gap. Under the Water Framework Directive, the status of water bodies is assessed on the basis of monitoring programmes, and revised every six years. In the context of the Environmental Liability Directive, it is important to take into account the specific content of the latter, and the need to enable a more short-term identification of a significant adverse effect on the status of the water bodies, as defined in the Water Framework Directive. In this regard, the expression ‘that significantly adversely affects … the status’ is not to be conflated with a deterioration of status or change of status under the Water Framework Directive (although it can include these). The expression must be read in the light of the objective of the Environmental Liability Directive, and of the concept of ‘damage’, i.e. it is necessary to take into account the notions of (measurable) adverse changes to the waters and impairment of the services which the waters provide. Thus the specificities of the Environmental Liability Directive must be taken into account when interpreting and using the five reference concepts to assess and determine the significance of actual water damage: — As noted above, the text of Article 2(1)(b) of the Environmental Liability Directive defines ‘waters’ to mean all waters covered by Directive 2000/60/EC; — The impairment of the natural resource services provided by water may relate to areas of water that are more limited than those comprised in the water bodies delineated under the Water Framework Directive. For example, there may be impairment of the provision of water for human consumption as a result of the contamination of a single abstraction point; — As for adverse changes to the natural resource (as distinct from impairment of natural resource services), the actual area where adverse changes are experienced may not neatly fit within the boundaries of a single delineated water body, but may straddle several, or concern only part of a water body; — In the context of the Water Framework Directive, effects on part of a water body were considered by the Court in Case C-535/18, IL and Others v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, which concerned the risk of chemical pollution of groundwater caused by the construction of a highway. The Court noted that exceedance in only one monitoring point would imply deterioration of chemical status of a significant part of the water body, even though it would be possible to classify the groundwater body as a whole as having good chemical status on the basis of Art 4(2)(c) of Directive 2006/118/EC, i.e. taking into account, [inter alia] where appropriate, the extent of the body of groundwater which is affected. Further, the Court underlined that exceedance of any one threshold at any monitoring point would in any case constitute a deterioration of its chemical status in the sense of Article 4(1)(b)(i) of the Water Framework Directive (152), requiring action pursuant to the Groundwater Directive and the Water Framework Directive. This demonstrates that applying the Environmental Liability Directive at levels other than the entirety of a water body would not be at variance with the approach taken to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and Groundwater Directive themselves.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.