p. 46415. Water Pollution
- Elizabeth Fisher, Elizabeth FisherProfessor of Environmental Law, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
- Bettina LangeBettina LangeAssociate Professor of Law and Regulation, University of Oxford
- and Eloise ScotfordEloise ScotfordProfessor of Environmental Law, UCL
Abstract
This chapter critically examines English, as well as selected European Union, laws that regulate the interlinked environmental challenges of protecting the quality and quantity of water courses. It deals with legal rules seeking to prevent and limit the pollution of rivers and other inland surface waters, such as lakes, as well as coastal areas and groundwater. One of the key challenges for water pollution law is to evolve into a more holistic, coherent, and integrated pollution control regime. In discussing this challenge, the chapter refers to and critiques recent interesting attempts to develop environmental policy discourses of bioregionalism and ecofederalism, that is, attempts to map regulatory space onto ‘natural’ spaces.