The Groundwater Directive aims to protect groundwater from pollution. It seeks to harmonise methods for measuring potential pollutants, but leaves it up to Member States to lay down limit values for substances such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and sulphates. These thresholds and other aspects off the Directive should be established by January 2009 at the latest.
This directive (2006/118/EC) has been approved and was published in the Official Journal on 27 December 2006 (PDF Format).
The Directive Implementation in the UK is overseen by DEFRA.