On March 4, the Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA) made public order AGM / 83/2021, of February 15, which designates and they modify areas vulnerable to water pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources. The V Action Program on Vulnerable Zones is also approved.
These tools allow the Government to intensify surveillance and control the balanced and sustainable development of livestock that, In addition to being a key element for maintaining the population in rural areas, this activity contributes 61 percent of final agricultural production.
In compliance with the Nitrates Directive 91/676 / EEC, and its legislation transposing the Spanish regulatory framework, RD 261/1996, it is necessary to declare all the territory vulnerable that, through its leachate or runoff, may negatively affect to underground or surface water bodies, producing contamination by nitrates or eutrophication of the waters.
The revision of the vulnerable zones implies a greater demand and an intensification of the control that, among other things, is linked to the conditionality of the CAP. All farms included in these areas are subject to compliance with the current Action Program.
Likewise, it is necessary to update the action programs that must be applied in these areas to reduce the impact on the waters affected by pollution.
Action programs in vulnerable areas regulate good nitrogen fertilization and manure management practices, which are mandatory, along with restrictions on the applications of mineral and organic fertilizers.
Designate the territory
The Government of Aragon has the competence to designate the territory that affects the waters designated as contaminated by the Ebro and Júcar Hydrographic Confederations, which carry out the necessary sampling and controls to monitor the good condition of the surface and underground waters of the Autonomous Community, each one in its corresponding part of the basin.
Due to the evolution of the quality of the waters of the territory, and by express indication of the European Commission, a new declaration of Vulnerable Zones of Aragon has been made. Said declaration contains four new vulnerable areas and expands on existing ones with respect to the declaration made by Order DRS / 882/2019, of July 8.
The designation form is simplified, and is published together with the action program, with the list of municipalities whose territory is affected as a vulnerable area in Annex XIV of the Order, the previous declarations of vulnerable areas being repealed.
Application limitations
The V Action Program presents, among the novelties, limitations on the application of nitrogen, organic and mineral fertilizers, in the different crops they become per hectare instead of estimated production, The application of liquid organic fertilizers is prohibited on plots with slopes greater than 15 percent.
The application of type II fertilizers – pig slurry, for example – is also prevented, in the period prior to three months before sowing, in any case the appearance of runoff that could reach waterways, over all if they come from land that has been fertilized with nitrogen compounds, or from the environment of farms or places of storage of manure and slurry. The order is effective from the following to its publication.
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