Press Notice 0079
4 February 2000Drinking Water Inspectorate:
New EC Directive will make drinking water quality even betterThe new EC Drinking Water Directive will make the country's drinking water quality even better when it becomes law, said the Deputy Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Owen Hydes. Also, new regulations made last year offer even greater protection against Cryptosporidum.
Addressing the Institution of Water Officers Weekend School on Regulation Changes within the Water Industry, Mr. Hydes praised the dramatic improvement to drinking water quality since the industry was privatised in 1990. He predicted that the coming decade would see the industry achieving even higher standards.
The new EC Directive is just one of the new measures to improve drinking water quality:
- New Regulations to make the new EC Directive law in this country will see most of the new standards in force and complied with by the end of 2003. A new monitoring regime will be in place as soon as January 2001. This will allow DWI to enforce improvement programmes to meet the new standards.
- New regulations in 1999, brought about following a failed prosecution concerning an outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis, require water companies to sample continuously for Cryptosporidium at significant-risk treatment works. Sampling will start in April this year and water companies will be required to report failures of the treatment standard to DWI immediately.
- Guidance will be issued this month by DWI to address the quality issues concerned with The Competition Act, which will be coming in on 1 March 2000.
Owen Hydes said:
"I believe that there is always room for improvement. This is reflected in the fact that regulations are constantly evolving, providing further safeguards to public health. The implementation of the EC Directive is another important landmark for water quality.""Regulation has brought many benefits to the consumer. The industry is constantly monitored, is required to implement enforceable improvement programmes and keeps the consumer informed of progress and events. All this culminates in a better quality of water being provided to the public."
Notes for editors
1. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) commenced operation on 2 January 1990. Its main role is to check that the water companies in England and Wales supply wholesome water and comply with the requirements of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations. The overall quality of drinking water has improved tremendously in the intervening period.
2. Every year, the DWI assesses the results of about 3 million drinking water tests carried out by water companies. The number of tests failing the required standard has dropped dramatically from 32,322 in 1990 to only 6,245 in 1998.
3. In 1991, 30.6% of water supply zones did not comply with the standard for pesticides. By 1998 this figure had dropped to 1.9%.
4. The cryptosporidium standard is an average of less than one oocyst in 10 litres of water. It is at a level, which is significantly below that at which infection would occur in the normal immunity population. It therefore provides a high factor of safety. The process of monitoring the effectiveness of water treatment in retaining oocysts also provides an indication of the removal of other organisms.
5. The new European Directive is to be transposed into our national law by the end of year 2000. Most of the new standards have to be met by the end of 2003.
6. The more stringent lead standard will have the biggest influence. The current standard is 50µg/l per litre. The new standard is 25µg/l per litre to be achieved by the end of 2003 and 10µg/l per litre to be achieved by 2013. Water companies are providing DWI with their survey data, which will assist in determining the extent to which the 25µg/l and 10µg/l standards can be achieved by treatment and in determining the criteria for priority action. The expectation is that pH control and phosphate dosing will be sufficient in most areas to achieve 25µg/l and in some areas to achieve 10µg/l. This will then leave the major lead pipe replacement programme, the extent of which will depend on the criteria for action, to be phased through until the end of year 2013.
7. The standard for nitrite at consumer's taps is to be relaxed from 0.1 mg/l per litre to 0.5 mg/l per litre. The effect of this is that the percentage of failures will decrease significantly from the current 3.4% of samples to approaching 0%.
8. The other area of change is with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). Although the overall standard for the PAH parameter will be tightened from 0.2 to 0.1µg/l per litre, fluoranthene has now been removed from the standard altogether following the evidence that there are no health effects at the low levels found in drinking water. The effect of this is that the coal tar lined pipes, which are often in excellent physical condition, do not need to be replaced.
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Drinking Water Inspectorate,
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Telephone : 020 7944 5956
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E-mail: dwi_enquiries@detr.gov.uk
Updated 11 July 2001
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