§ 73. Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many miles of British waterways fall below acceptable European Community standards for pollution.
§ Mr. MoynihanThere is no European Community legislation setting general quality standards for waterways. However, the United Kingdom has designated some 50,000 km of waterways for the purposes of the EEC directive on the "Quality of freshwater needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life" (78/659/EEC).
In 1984, a survey showed that over 90 per cent. of these waterways met all the directive's mandatory standards.