ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the European Community (EC) policy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strategy towards pesticides pollution in drinking waters and groundwaters. The EC has had a policy on the quality of its waters since the early 1970s. This policy, like many developed at this time, was borne out of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment. Environmental directives have sometimes been similar to regulations by laying down precise limits; controls; or technical, testing or labelling requirements, particularly regarding industrial products. The EPA will adopt a new approach of differential management of pesticide use based on differences in groundwater use, value, and vulnerability to an extent that is administratively feasible. Decisions have been primarily used in environmental legislation to authorize the Community to become a party to international conventions, but also for other purposes, e.g., to set up a system of information exchange on water quality.
