Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/urban-waste-water-treatment-directive

1. What is the legal instrument?
2. What is the adoption date?
3. Why does the directive require more treatment for places with more than 10,000 people?
4. How does the directive help protect fish and plants in rivers and lakes?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the legal instrument?Council Directive 91/271/EEC
2. What is the adoption date?May 21, 1991
3. Why does the directive require more treatment for places with more than 10,000 people?It asks for extra cleaning in places with more than 10,000 people because those areas can put more pollution into the water, and some places are especially sensitive to pollution.
4. How does the directive help protect fish and plants in rivers and lakes?By making sure wastewater is cleaned, the directive stops harmful chemicals and extra nutrients from making too many algae grow, which keeps fish, plants, and other water life healthy.

Population Equivalent (PE): A measure of pollution load equivalent to the organic pollution produced by 1 person.
Eutrophication: Excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from agriculture or sewage, causing a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life.
Effluent: Liquid waste or sewage discharged into a river or the sea.