Annex 1

(Art. 1)

Ecological Objectives for Waters

1 Surface waters

¹The communities of plants, animals and micro-organisms in surface waters and the surroundings influenced by them shall:

1. be close to nature and appropriate to the location as well as reproducing and regulating themselves;
2. show a diversity and frequency of species that are specific to unpolluted or slightly polluted waters of the type in question.

²The hydrodynamics (bed load transport rate, and flow regimes) and the morphology should be near-natural. In particular, they should guarantee unreservedly the self-cleaning processes, the natural exchange of substances between water and the channel bed as well as the interactions with the surroundings.

³The water quality shall be such that:

1. the temperature conditions are near-natural;
2. the water, suspended matter and sediments contain no persistent synthetic substances;
3. other potential water pollutants which could enter the water as a result of human activities:

– do not accumulate in the plants, animals, micro-organisms, suspended matter or sediments,

– do not have any harmful effects on the communities of plants, animals and micro-organisms and on the use of the water,

– do not cause an unnaturally high production of bio-mass,

– do not harm the biological processes that fulfil the basic physiological needs of plant and animal life, such as the metabolic processes, the reproductive processes and the olfactory orientation of animals,

– occur in the body of water in concentrations that are within the range of natural concentrations where they are already present naturally,

– occur in the body of water only in near-zero concentrations where they are not naturally present.

2 Underground waters

¹The biotic community of underground waters shall:

1. be close to nature and appropriate to the location;
2. be specific to unpolluted or only slightly polluted waters.

²The aquifer (flow section, permeability), the upper and lower confining beds and the hydro-dynamism of the groundwater (groundwater levels, flow regime) should correspond to near natural conditions. In particular, the self-cleaning processes and the interactions between water and its surroundings should be guaranteed unreservedly.

³The groundwater quality shall be such that:

1. the temperature conditions are near natural;
2. the water contains no persistent synthetic substances;
3. other potential water pollutants which could enter the water as a result of human activities:

– do not accumulate in the biotic community or in the inert matter of the aquifer,

– occur in concentrations that are within the range of natural concentrations where these are already present in natural state groundwater,

– do not occur in groundwater where they are not present naturally,

– have no harmful effects on the use of the groundwater.