Quo vadis?

In October 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) found “that the Federal Republic of Germany violated the obligations arising from Directive 89/106/EEC” because it created additional requirements for the market access and use of construction products by providing Lists of Building Regulations. Large parts of Part B of the List of Building Regulations were withdrawn in response to this judgment. As a result, the legal basis was eliminated for the national technical approvals granted by the German Institute for Structural Engineering (Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik; DIBt) for products already governed by European harmonized standards.

Unlike several other sectors affected by the elimination of Part B of the List of Building Regulations, water resource management in Germany refers to national technical approvals in the Waste Water Ordinance, that is, in water legislation. According to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit; BMUB), the Waste Water Ordinance will only be amended in 2018.

At the end of 2017, a new proposal was on the table to amend the Waste Water Ordinance which had been agreed with the German states and was agreed with the EU Commission in December.

The proposal provides for a central body that will assess the eligibility for approval of small wastewater treatment plants with CE marking. The assessment is to be based on Worksheet A 221 drawn up by the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (Deutsche Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall; DWA) in collaboration with members of the Working Committee for small wastewater treatment plants of the German Institute forStandardization (Deutsches Institut für Normung; DIN). Worksheet A 221 is currently in the final agreement stage. Due to the large number of objections made, protracted arbitration and mediation proceedings are expected.

In this situation, the German Association of Small Wastewater Treatment Plant Manufacturers (deutsche Vereinigung der Hersteller von Kleinkläranlagen) has drafted an industry guideline that is limited to the basic regulations for installation, operation and maintenance. This guideline can be used as an alternative document to DWA A 221 for assessing the eligibility for approval of small wastewater treatment plants.

The speech summarizes the current situation regarding the redesign of the approval procedure.