Part of the work for the update of the river basin management plans has been to agree common water quality targets for Natura 2000 Protected Area sites, that are also WFD water bodies, where such targets are relevant. (See part 2 of the RBMP consultation document for more details).
For N2KPA SAC Lake sites the only parameter where alignment of standards was reviewed was phosphorus and so this work was undertaken jointly at a national level between the Environment Agency and Natural England.
This document lists the proposed total phosphorus (TP) targets for these lake SACs.
These targets are in line with the Common Standard Monitoring (CSM) guidance for standing waters (JNCC, 2005) and the revised guidance for lakes (IAFG, in prep.). CSM guidance advocates using site-specific TP targets based on available evidence, where possible, and using lake type targets, where site-specific evidence is unavailable.
This document should also be read in conjunction with the relevant Natura 2000 Site Improvement Plans (SIPs) related to this document. For further information on SIPs see Natura 2000 Site Improvement Plans (SIP)