Scottish Government has now issued a revision of the Environmental Quality Standards and Status Directions 2024. The directions update the environmental standards and ways of classifying status, which are both necessary to support the River Basin Management Planning process.
Scottish Government has published these directions on the Scottish Government’s website (Water environment: legislation) and they come into force on 1 February 2025.
In line with these new standards, SEPA has updated its guidance in relation to Assigning Groundwater Assessment Criteria for pollutant inputs (WAT-PS-10-02) and Land Contamination and Impacts on the Water Environment (formerly known as the ‘Brown booklet’). It has also published an associated List of groundwater standards. The revised SEPA guidance is based on the outputs of the 2021 Scottish Government & SEPA joint consultation on the directions. SEPA will be liaising with key stakeholders in January and February 2025. As with the directions – the SEPA revised guidance will apply from 1 February 2025. However, SEPA understands that risk assessments for activities impacting on groundwater may have just been completed or be in progress using the previous standards and methodology during this period. To take account of this, risk assessments undertaken using old or new standards and methodology will be accepted for a transition period after 1 February. Further guidance on the transition is available on the SEPA website.