Judgment Of 30 November 2020 - BVerwG 9 A 5.20

Headnotes

1. Section 4 (3) second sentence UmwRG is not applicable to relative procedural errors pursuant to section 4 (1a) UmwRG (change of jurisprudence following the CJEU judgment of 28 May 2020 - C-535/18 -).

2. Under article 4 (1) (a) (i) WFD, the competent authority has the obligation to verify prior to the authorisation decision whether the project complies with the obligations to prevent deterioration and to enhance the status of bodies of water. The project developer must submit the relevant information to the planning approval authority; this information must be of a nature that ensures that the effects of the project on water can be assessed in the light of the criteria and requirements laid down in particular in article 4 (1) WFD. The information must be made available to the public concerned (following CJEU, judgment of 28 May 2020 - C-535/18 - para. 76 and 80 et seqq.).

3. A project-related deterioration of the chemical status of a body of groundwater exists, first, if at least one quality standard or one of the threshold values pursuant to article 3 (1) of the Drinking Water Directive is exceeded and, secondly, if the concentration of a pollutant the relevant threshold for which has already been exceeded foreseeably increases. The values measured at each monitoring point must be taken into account individually (following CJEU, judgment of 28 May 2020 - C-535/18 - para. 119).

4. Members of the public who maintain a domestic drinking water well in geographical proximity to the planned road are entitled to assert breaches of the ban on the deterioration of groundwater, whilst members of the public who merely use the public water supply network cannot assert such breaches (following CJEU, judgments of 28 May 2020 - C-535/18 - para. 132 et seq. and of 3 October 2019 - C-197/18 - para. 40 and 42).

• Sources of law

  Environmental Appeals Act	UmwRG, Umwelt-Rechtsbehelfsgesetz	section 4 (1a) and (1b), (3) second sentence
  Administrative Procedure Act	VwVfG, Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz	sections 46, 75 (1a)
  Water Framework Directive (WFD)	article 4 (1)
  Federal Water Act	WHG, Wasserhaushaltsgesetz	sections 27 (1), 47 (1)
  Federal Trunk Roads Act	FStrG, Bundesfernstraßengesetz	section 17c
  Environmental Impact Assessment Act	UVPG, Gesetz über die Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung	section 9 (1a) no.5