Dumping of Civil and Industrial Water

The Law Decree no. 79/1995 was finally made law with the Law no. 17/05/95 no. 172, the Decree being the last of a series of decrees which since July 1994 have reformed the important Merli Law no. 319 of 1976, which regulates the area of dumping of so-called civil and industrial water.

The reform is innovative in three main areas: the framework of sanctions, the relationship between the current system of checks on water discharges and the rules contained in the EC Directive no. 91/271; and finally the power of regional autonomy to fix limits on the acceptability of discharges which depart from the national parameters.

The reform, in respect of its relationship with the Directive 91/271, only establishes that the drafting of regional plans for cleaning-up water must be linked to the principles and criteria established by the Directive itself. As far as the power of the Regions to fix limits of acceptability different to the national ones is concerned, the reform has established