EU carbon rules / Regulations / Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive
In force Directive Industry & products
Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive
Urban wastewater collection and treatment, quaternary treatment and energy neutrality
- Reference
- Directive (EU) 2024/3019
- Key date
- 2024 (applies from 2027-01-01)
- Applies to
- Urban wastewater treatment plants, discharging companies and municipal operators
01
Who the regulation applies to
This regulation applies to:
- Member States (must ensure that urban wastewater is collected, treated and discharged in accordance with the requirements)
- Urban agglomerations and the operators of their urban wastewater collection systems and urban wastewater treatment plants
- Manufacturers, importers or distributors participating in extended producer responsibility and their producer responsibility organisations (in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors)
- The public (in relation to sanitation, transparency, monitoring of relevant public health parameters and implementation of the polluter pays principle)
Scope is based on the population equivalent (p.e.) threshold of urban agglomerations: agglomerations of 2 000 p.e. and above must meet the collection system requirements immediately; agglomerations of 1 000 p.e. to 2 000 p.e. must meet them by 31 December 2035 (Article 3). Applies from 1 January 2027.
The following provisions define its scope:
Article 1 — Subject matter
This Directive lays down rules on the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater, to protect the environment and human health, in line with the One Health approach, while progressively reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to sustainable levels, improving the energy balance of urban wastewater collection and treatment activities and contributing to the transition towards a circular economy. It also lays down rules on access to sanitation for all, on transparency of the urban wastewater sector, on the regular surveillance of relevant public health parameters in urban wastewater and on the implementation of the polluter-pays principle.
02
What the regulation requires
| Duty | Trigger | Evidence | Timing |
Ensure urban wastewater collection and secondary treatment
Build and operate collection and treatment facilities according to population equivalent size and the timetable. | Generating urban wastewater | Collection and treatment permit, effluent monitoring reports | Phased according to the timetable |
Apply quaternary treatment at treatment plants of ≥ 150 000 p.e.
Treatment plants with a load of 150 000 population equivalent or more must remove micropollutants. | Treatment load ≥ 150 000 p.e. | Quaternary treatment operation and monitoring data | 2033 / 2039 / 2045 |
Advance energy neutrality and GHG emission reductions
Improve the energy balance of collection and treatment activities and progressively reduce GHG emissions to sustainable levels. | Urban wastewater collection and treatment activities | Energy consumption and energy balance reports | By 2045 |
03
Key provisions
Article 1 — subject matter
This Directive lays down rules on the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater, to protect the environment and human health, in line with the One Health approach, while progressively reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to sustainable levels, improving the energy balance of urban wastewater collection and treatment activities and contributing to the transition towards a circular economy.
Article 8(1) — quaternary treatment deadlines
Member States shall ensure that discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants treating urban wastewater with a load of 150 000 p.e. and above satisfy, before being discharged into receiving waters, the relevant requirements of quaternary treatment ... by: (a) 31 December 2033 for discharges from 20 % of those urban wastewater treatment plants; (b) 31 December 2039 for discharges from 60 % ...; (c) 31 December 2045 for all discharges ...
04
Industry dossiers covering this regulation