The file contaminants_water.csv contains the data on contaminants in water used in 'Status and Trends of Chemicals (excluding metals, PAHs, PCBs and PBDEs) in Water, Biota and Sediment' a Descriptor 8 Indicator in the UK's 2025 Marine Strategy Assessment.
The data are 2021 classifications of coastal water bodies under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Regulations for:
* England: provided by the Environment Agency (EA) on 6 March 2023
* Wales: collected by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and downloaded from Water Watch Wales on 15 January 2022
* Northern Ireland: provided by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) on 6 March 2023
* Scotland: collected by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and downloaded from the Water Classification Hub on 17 April 2023
The file is UTF-8-BOM encoded so can be read directly into Excel, or into R using the function read.csv with the argument fileEncoding = “UTF-8-BOM”.
The variables in the file are described below. Throughout, a missing value means that no classification was available for any water body for that contaminant.
contaminant
Description: the contaminant (or group of contaminants) being assessed. For information on how these (groups of) contaminants are defined under the WFD see DIRECTIVE 2008/105/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2008 on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy.
England fail
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in England that failed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 0, maximum = 61
England pass
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in England that passed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 3, maximum = 61
Wales fail
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Wales that failed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 0, maximum = 9
Wales pass
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Wales that passed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 3, maximum = 14
Northern Ireland fail
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Northern Ireland that failed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 0, maximum = 19
Northern Ireland pass
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Northern Ireland that passed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 7, maximum = 19
Scotland fail
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Scotland that failed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 0, maximum = 0
Scotland pass
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in Scotland that passed
Summary: minimum = 1, median = 6, maximum = 8
Total fail
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in total that failed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 0, maximum = 89
Total pass
Description: the number of coastal waterbodies in total that passed
Summary: minimum = 0, median = 10, maximum = 75