Article 7 Monitoring

Two maps, showing the percentage of cattle farms and percentage of agricultural land encompassed by the derogation in each municipality of Denmark, shall be updated every year, and transmitted to the Commission. The first submission will take place in the last quarter of 2005.

Survey and continuous nutrient analysis shall be carried out in the agricultural catchment national monitoring programme covering approximately 4 500 ha. The reference sites shall be chosen on sandy and clay soils.

Survey and continuous nutrient analysis shall provide data on local land use, crop rotations and practices on cattle farms. These data can be used for model-based calculations of the magnitude of nitrate leaching from fields where up to 230 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year in livestock manure is applied based on scientific principles.

In order to prove that the derogation will not jeopardise the objective of the national action programme and the Directive, a network of sampling of soil water, streams and of shallow groundwater established as agricultural catchment monitoring sites under the national monitoring programme shall be maintained to provide data on state of nitrate content in water leaving the root zone and entering the groundwater system.