Legal features of the joint regulation of pollutants discharge

Abstract

The environmental and legal sub-institute for the regulation of pollutants discharge (RPD) from man- made point sources into the surface waters of Ukraine and its main tool - the Basin Principle for Calculating the Maximum Permissible Discharges (BPCMPD) is studied. The purpose of the article is to identify the legislative possibilities of the current Ukrainian RPD, the features of its possible use in river basin management plans (RBMP), and to assess of the legal consequences of such use. The relevance of the research is determined by documents of the state environmental policy, strategies of environmental security and of post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. BPCMPD is investigated by the method of environmental and legal analysis. It was determined that the main legal feature of the BPCMPD, which has remained unchanged for almost half a century, is the joint special water use (SWU) in the part of P discharges from economic entities within the estimated area of the water body. In modern water legislation, the category of SWU is not defined. A conceptual conflict between the object and the regulation method has been identified, which is eliminated by changing the scientifically erroneous definition of “basin” in the name BPCMPD to “cascade” name, i.e. KPCMPD. The use of the term BPCMPD is based on the division of the assimilation capacity (AC) of the cascade between the community of water users. Founded that in fact, the feature AC has an indivisible nature, which gives an ecological obstacle for the application of the BPRGDS. In addition, the current legal prohibition for the cascade use of AC is the requirement of territorial unity of regulatory limits of concentrations of AC in the receiving cascade water. Determined that the so-called “the right to AC quota”, on which the BPCMPD is based, is absent in the current legislation. Therefore, the SWU category is a legislative rudiment, and its use for the implementation of BPCMPD leaves for water users opportunities for deterioration of water quality. Concluded that the BPCMPD cannot be used as a legal instrument in the composition of Ukrainian RBMP under the conditions of SWU harmonization with EU legislation.