Report on the law relating to the quality of freshwaters in Wales

the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales (IEPAW) has always intended to carry out its work on this report in 2 stages.  We issued a Call for Evidence on wastewater in August 2024.  At that time we did not invite evidence on pollution from land use, including agricultural practices because we wished to wait for the outcome of the Bolton review.

We have now completed our background research into the causes of pollution of freshwaters.  We are therefore issuing this second Call for Evidence.

The main purpose of this Call for Evidence is to give stakeholders the opportunity to provide evidence on agricultural pollution.  We would also welcome evidence on any other aspects of our report, the main topics of which will be wastewater treatment, CSOs and sewage, implementation of the Water Framework Directive, chemical pollution, monitoring, enforcement, the role of regulators.

We are particularly interested in hearing views on the following:

• is the legal framework for preventing and/or dealing with water pollution satisfactory?
• are the laws withing this framework being implemented so as to achieve their intended purpose?
• if not, what is preventing practical application of the law?
• are there gaps in the law?