Emamectin benzoate (EMBZ) - environmental quality standard implementation timescales: consultation analysis

Conclusion and Next Steps

The River Basin Management Planning process, underpinned by the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 (WEWS) and the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR), is the key mechanism that identifies and delivers improvements to the water environment that are technically feasible and proportionate to make. This allows us to strike the right balance between protecting the water environment and securing its sustainable use for the purposes of economic and social development.

CAR requires SEPA to control activities which can have adverse effects on the water environment, such as discharges, abstractions, impoundments and engineering works in the freshwater environment.

SEPA uses its regulatory powers to:

protect the water environment and prevent deterioration of status;

ensure improvements are made to status of the water environment;

safeguard an appropriate level of environmental capacity for future sustainable development; and

protect the social and economic interests of other users of the water environment.

The majority of environmental and non-industry interest has been broadly supportive of the immediate implementation of the new EQS with a few expressing concern that the EQS does not go far enough, asserting that Scottish Government and SEPA may take too long to take action.

Significant concerns were raised by the fish farm industry regarding sea lice treatment options particularly at the early stage of the salmon life cycle resulting from the implementation of the new EQS threshold for emamectin benzoate. The industry is also concerned about the limited alternative medicinal options for sea lice management, and the uncertainty around the socio-economic impacts that the introduction of the new threshold may bring.

Scottish Government acknowledges that the application of the new EQS is likely to reduce the number of sea lice treatments that can be made in a fish farm production cycle. We recognise concerns about maintaining fish health, whilst also recognising our obligation to protect the environment. For this reason, Scottish Government intends to direct SEPA to apply the new EQS in 48 months’ time, the maximum transition timeframe consulted upon.

This will also allow industry to gain information and better understand socio-economic impacts. It also allows SEPA’s to work with the fish farm industry to enable it to identify a timetable for making the improvements that are reasonable and proportionate. Among other things, this includes enabling operators to plan any necessary investments needed to make the improvements or mitigate the effects on their operations of doing so. Emamectin benzoate is persistent in the environment, breaking down slowly, therefore, to avoid exceeding the environmental standard, sufficient break down is necessary before more can be accommodated.

SEPA will work with the operators of fish farms to ensure they have the information they need on the reduction in their licenced discharge limits that will be required so that they can plan accordingly. As part of its adaptive approach, SEPA have been reviewing whether there might be an alternative simpler method to calculate the volume of emamectin benzoate available to a site dependant on the EQS applied.

On the basis that all sites with a license to use emamectin benzoate have been modelled and previously subjected to a detailed assessment as part of setting the original limits, SEPA are content that using direct scaling of the output from the model against the new recommended standard would be appropriate to amend the relevant authorised volumes.

Scottish Government intends to introduce the new EQS by means of a Direction to SEPA. The EQS will be used to support the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 licencing process. When the Direction is in place, SEPA will confirm emamectin benzoate (EmBz) volumes that will be authorised under the new EQS for each site and share them with the relevant permit holders.

Due to the persistence of emamectin benzoate in the environment, particularly in marine sediments, it is likely to take some time before concentrations resulting from previous discharges decline sufficiently to achieve the new EQS.

It is standard practice for SEPA to avoid short introduction periods for significant changes in standards and regulations. As individual fish farm sites will be at different stages of their production cycle, 48 months is likely to be the best fit with planning and investment horizons across multiple operators. Likewise, the 48 months’ timescale provides SEPA with sufficient time to implement the change in each fish farm license individually.

We expect SEPA to take this into account in planning how operators of marine fish farms demonstrate progress in delivering environmental improvement. The time of the implementation however, must not exceed the 48 months’ limit that SG will set by means of Directions to SEPA. Within the 48 months’ window, we expect SEPA to work with the sector to identify the most efficient method to vary permits to ensure they are varied by the date set out in any direction. Those variations will restrict operators to volumes based on the 272ng/kg dry weight standard and will be issued on a zero-base basis (e.g. not taking account of previous treatments carried out under the 763ng/kg framework).

The new variations will also include enhanced additional monitoring requirements (as introduced in SEPA’s 2019 framework) to allow for a more detailed understanding of the impact in the environment.