The Application of Water‐Quality Standards to UK Bathing Waters

Abstract

ABSTRACT Data for 425 sampling locations in England and Wales, covering the 1987 bathing season, were analysed against a range of six water‐quality standards used by European and North American agencies. The following order of relative stringency was established: EEC guide level > US Environmental Protection Agency† > Toronto†> Canadian Federal† > Modified EEC standard > EEC imperative level†. All European Community (EC) countries, at present abiding by the‘imperative’bacteriological standards of the bathing waters Directive, would experience a significant increase in non‐compliance for the faecal coliform parameter if standards were altered from the current EEC imperative criteria to any of the existing alternative beach management standards.