HC Deb 17 July 1984 vol 64 c133W
Mr. Gareth Wardell

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the individual items included in list I and list II of the European Commission directives (a) concerning pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community and (b) on the protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances.

Mr. Waldegrave

The families and groups of substances included in lists I and II of these European council directives are set out in the annexes to the directives. The directives were published in theOfficial Journal of the European Communities on 18 May 1976 (OJ No. L129) and 26 January 1980 (OJ No. L20) respectively. Copies of these were placed in the Library of the House.

As regards the directive on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community, substances belonging to the families and groups in list I are included in list II until limit values governing the discharge of those substances has been determined. Such limit values have been agreed for mercury and its compounds, cadmium and its compounds and for hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH). In respect of the directive on the protection of groundwater against pollution, those individual substances belonging to the families and groups included in list I which are considered inappropriate to list I on the basis of a low risk of toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation are to be classed in list II.