ABSTRACT
The Directive on the Discharge of Dangerous Substances into Water 76/464 is a framework directive (see p 252, below) aimed at eliminating or reducing the pollution of all waters (inland, coastal and territorial waters) by particularly dangerous substances.12 The actual standard setting for particular substances is left to a series of daughter directives referred to below. Its origins are found partly in the need to implement several international conventions concerned with water pollution, notably the Paris Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources 1974 (now replaced by the 1992 Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic) and the Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against Chemical Pollution 1976. Reflecting these Conventions the Directive has a List I and a List II of various groups of substances. Substances deemed to be more dangerous (dangerousness is defined in terms of toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation) appear in List I. List II contains less dangerous substances, although the Directive provides that any substance appearing on List I is to be treated as a List II substance until a daughter directive has been made for it.
