Article 8 Monitoring

Maps showing the percentage of grassland farms, percentage of livestock and percentage of agricultural land covered by individual derogation in each municipality, shall be drawn by the competent authority and shall be updated every year.

Those maps shall be submitted to the Commission annually and for the first time in the second quarter of 2006.

A monitoring network for sampling of soil water, streams and shallow groundwater shall be established and maintained as derogation monitoring sites.

The monitoring network, corresponding to at least 300 farms benefiting from individual derogations, shall be representative of each soil type (clay, peat, sandy and sandy loessial soils), fertilisation practices and crop rotation. The composition of the monitoring network shall not be modified during the period of applicability of this Decision.

Survey and continuous nutrient analysis shall provide data on local land use, crop rotations and agricultural practices on farms benefiting from individual derogations. Those data can be used for model-based calculations of the magnitude of nitrate leaching and phosphorus losses from fields where up to 250 kg nitrogen per hectare per year in manure from grazing livestock is applied.

Shallow groundwater, soil water, drainage water and streams in farms belonging to the monitoring network shall provide data on nitrate and phosphorus concentration in water leaving the root zone and entering the groundwater and surface water system.

A reinforced water monitoring shall address agricultural catchments in sandy soils.