R v Secretary of State for the Environment and Another, ex parte Standley and Others: National Farmers Union, intervener (29 April 1999) European Court of Justice C-293/97

Mr H.A. Standley and others and Mr D.G.D. Metson and others owned or farmed land. With the support of the National Farmer's Union they challenged decisions of the Secretary of State of the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to identify certain rivers as waters which are affected or could be affected by pollution within the meaning of Directive 91/676/EEC concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources and designating the areas of land draining into those waters as vulnerable zones. Article 2(j) of that Directive defined pollution as Òthe discharge, directly or indirectly, of nitrogen compounds from agricultural sources into the aquatic environment [with harmful effects]Ó. Article 3(1) provided that Òwaters affected by pollution and waters which could be affected by pollution if action pursuant to Article 5 is not taken shall be identified by the Member States ....Ó Article 5 provided for the establishment of action programmes involving monitoring and a variety of mandatory measures. Article 3(2) states that Member States Òshall ... designate as vulnerable zones all areas of land in their territories which drain into the waters identified in [Article 3(1)] The government's approach was stated to be to whether agricultural sources are making a significant contribution to the levels of pollution detected. Standley and Metson claimed that the action programmes restricting agricultural use which would apply following designation would be harmful as they would decrease land values and income from their farming businesses. Standley and Metson agreed that waters could only be designated waters which could be affected by pollution where agricultural sources were the only nitrate source. The European Court of Justice held that Member States are not required to identify what proportion of pollution is attributable to nitrates. On the contrary it would be incompatible with the Directive to restrict identification of waters affected by pollution to cases of pollution solely from agriculture when in establishing action programmes under Article 5 the Directive expressly requires other sources to be taken into account. The court stated further that this must logically be the case given the power of Member States to designate their whole territory a nitrate vulnerable zone without individually identifying water affected by pollution. The court therefore held that the Directive applies where nitrogen compounds from agriculture make a significant contribution to pollution. The European Court of Justice therefore held that Member States must identify waters as affected by pollution and designate the land draining into those waters as vulnerable zones if agriculture is a significant source of pollution. It is unnecessary for agriculture to be the only source of pollution.
(Times Law Reports, 10 May 1999).