Tynwald has approved new river and bathing water qualities standards.

But a former government environmental protection officer has claimed they may lead to the island breaking international law.

Our bathing waters have only had to comply with 1976 European standards.

But Tynwald this month voted through water pollution legislation described by DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot as a ’stepping stone’ to the island adopting a more recent EU directive.

Bathing waters will need to comply with a 2006 directive from May next year.

But the new environmental quality standards have been criticised by Dr Calum MacNeil, who was a freshwater biologist and environmental protection officer with the DEFA until September 2017.

He says the quality standards for the island are more lax than the EU and include one for the deliberate discharge of banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

And he insisted there is no safe level for PCBs to be deliberately discharged in effluent to rivers or marine waters.

Dr MacNeil said: ’I regard it as legally and morally perverse if DEFA/IoM government attempts to depart from EU environmental quality standards which have already defined safe levels to protect the environment and human health.’

He claims leachate from the former Raggatt tip contains highly toxic PCBs and said it was his view that its deliberate discharge into Peel Bay is illegal.

Dredged silt from Peel marina also contains PCBs and other potentially toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the mining industry.

Under international law, PCBs are banned and their deliberate release into the environment is outlawed at any concentration.

But the Water Pollution (Standards and Objectives) Scheme 2020 set out an EQS for these substances of 15nanograms/litre.

Dr MacNeil said: ’The written advice I have received from the Environment Agency of England and Wales is you cannot licence the discharge of a banned substance such as PCBs.

’PCBs are banned as they are persistent and have a direct long-term negative impact on ecosystems and human health. They also bio-accumulate in long-lived organisms such as man.

’PCBs are not banned because of technical issues, they are banned because they are proven to be highly carcinogenic and to cause birth defects at minute levels.

’People doing the Peel Dip this year take note.’

Dr MacNeil says the water quality standards are putting in jeopardy the island’s Biosphere status and he has raised his concerns with UNESCO.

In Tynwald, Mr Boot was asked why we were using Manx standards in this area but international standards in others.

The Minister replied: ’The standards we are setting here are international standards that have been consulted on and not just picked out of the air by my department.’

Mr Boot said our standards were based on UK and EU equivalents and were ’correct’, ’appropriate’ and ’tailored to the island’.

The scheme was approved in Tynwald by 21 votes to two in the House of Keys and nine votes for and none against in the Legislative Council.