The New Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive: A Summary and Technical Update

The event will be a 75 minutes online only webinar featuring three subject matter experts to discuss the latest Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). In this webinar, we will highlight the latest additions to the UWWTD, and discuss the practical implications of these changes to utilities and relevant stakeholders. 

Enacted in 1991 the current Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive has created a unified directive on managing wastewater to reduce pollutants in waterways. The UWWTD creates the legal framework for the collection and treatment of wastewater in urban areas. It concerns the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater and the treatment and discharge of wastewater from certain industrial sectors.

The objective of the Directive is to protect the environment from the adverse effects of the above-mentioned wastewater discharges. In this webinar we will highlight the new microbiological and public health requirements  in a general overview as well as a technical summary. 

The UWWTD revision was presented as part of the Zero Pollution Package, which also included the proposal for a Directive on Integrated Water Management and the proposal for the Ambient Air Quality Revision. 

The revision of the UWWTD would address the remaining pollution of urban sources that were not in the scope of the previous Directive, allow for a better alignment of the Directive with the principles outlined in the European Green Deal and allow for a more transparent and harmonious level of governance on urban wastewater treatment while allowing better protection to public health.

The revised Directive includes wastewater collection systems and management plans, wastewater treatments, and extended producer responsibility (EPR). In line with EU Green Week’s goal of water sustainability, this directive also includes an energy neutrality target with implementation by 2045. Together, this new directive will create an opportunity for cleaner water, lower pollution outputs, and help reach water resiliency goals for the future. 

Featured speakers will include Michel Sponar working since December 2015 as Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, Directorate General for the Environment, dealing with the Marine Environment and Water Industry, and in charge of UWWTD, and Brett Brewin a PhD in molecular microbiology who has been with IDEXX Water for 26 years working in research and development and currently scientific affairs manager.