Article 8 Monitoring of surface water status, groundwater status and protected areas

Member States shall ensure the establishment of programmes for the monitoring of water status in order to establish a coherent and comprehensive overview of water status within each river basin district:

• for surface waters such programmes shall cover:

  1. (i)

     the volume and level or rate of flow to the extent relevant for ecological and chemical status and ecological potential, and

  2. (ii)

     the ecological and chemical status and ecological potential;

• for groundwaters such programmes shall cover monitoring of the chemical and quantitative status,

• for protected areas the above programmes shall be supplemented by those specifications contained in Community legislation under which the individual protected areas have been established.

These programmes shall be operational at the latest six years after the date of entry into force of this Directive unless otherwise specified in the legislation concerned. Such monitoring shall be in accordance with the requirements of Annex V.

Technical specifications and standardised methods for analysis and monitoring of water status shall be laid down. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 21(3).