The European Commission announced that it would accuse Spain before the EU Court of Justice. “Complete non-compliance” with community regulations on wastewater collection and treatment urban.
“The information collected by the Commission shows that Widespread non-compliance with the Directive in SpainIn a note, the Community Manager reminded that the Directive aims to “protect people’s health and the environment by requiring urban wastewater to be collected and treated before being discharged into the environment.”
Brussels claims: “Spain’s 29 towns must be guaranteed to still have wastewater collection systems and where the use of individual or other suitable systems is justified, they have the same level of environmental protection as a collection system.”
Moreover, In the other 225 settlements, Spain “still cannot provide the full pollution load with the necessary level of purification” and/or does not measure post-treatment waste treatment performance.”
“This means there are some pockets where infrastructure needs to be built or improved and may require ‘significant efforts’.”
Spain didn’t care
The Commission sent a formal letter of formal notification to Spain in June 2012, followed by a reasoned opinion in February 2015 and a further reasoned opinion in June 2021.
“Despite some progress, complaints have not yet been fully addressed by Spanish authorities. “For this reason, the Commission is taking Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union.”
Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, Member States Collection systems must be available for all settlements with a population of at least 2,000.
The Commission recalled that where the establishment of a collection system cannot be justified, especially because it would require excessive costs, individual systems or other suitable systems may be used, provided that they provide the same level of environmental protection.
Member States must also ensure that discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants serving settlements with at least 2,000 inhabitants comply with the standards. at least secondary level of treatment (consists in the treatment of organic matter in urban wastewater before it is discharged into the environment).
In any case, the Directive is in the process of legislative review to expand the scope of the regulations to cover more than 1,250 inhabitants, among other changes, whose negotiations are ongoing between the Council and the European Parliament.