Environment and health: incineration of hazardous waste, emissions, waste water

OBJECTIVE: the proposal for a directive seeks mainly to reduce pollutant emissions contained in waste water from hazardous waste incineration plants so as to improve and protect the environment. CONTENT: the proposed amendment to Directive 94/67/EC establishes limit values for emissions based on best available techniques to reduce polluted discharges into the aquatic environment (mercury, cadmium, thallium, antimony, arsenic, lead chrome cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, vanadium, tin and dioxins). The setting of Community emission standards for waste water discharges from the cleaning of flue gases is justified by the fact that these measures will set minimum requirements for the protection of the aquatic environment, especially from dioxin discharges. Practical implementation of the proposed directive, including the setting of emission limit values for those pollutants for which limitation depends on the quality of the receiving waters and the identification of the most suitable and cost-effective measures, is therefore left to a large extent in the hands of the Member States in line with the principle of subsidiarity. This also holds for many details concerning supervision of the implementation of the directive.�