Dokumentation der Selbsteinstufung von Stoffen hinsichtlich ihrer Wassergefährdung Entgegennahme

If you, or your company, operate a facility in which chemical substances hazardous to water are handled, you must independently classify the substances used into a water hazard class (WGK) and notify the Federal Environment Agency.

If you or your company operate a facility in which chemical substances hazardous to water are handled, you are obliged to independently assess all chemical substances that you use in your facilities and

• into one of the water hazard classes (WGK)
• or as not hazardous to water.

You must then document this classification and submit it to the Federal Environment Agency.

Chemical substances can be a hazard to water bodies. They must therefore be classified in water hazard classes according to their hazardousness:

• WGK 1: slightly hazardous to water (for example acetic acid, caustic soda, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide)
• WGK 2: clearly hazardous to water (e.g. heating oil, sodium hypochlorite, iodine)
• WGK 3: highly hazardous to water (e.g. waste oil, chlorinated hydrocarbons, benzene)

In addition, substances can also be classified as

• nwg: not hazardous to water, and
• awg: generally hazardous to water (e.g. liquid manure, fermentation substrates or certain solid mixtures such as waste)

classified.

You are exempt from this obligation if

• you use chemical substances whose hazardousness has already been assessed and the corresponding classification has been published in the Federal Gazette or
• you consider the chemical substances to be highly hazardous to water (WGK 3) regardless of their hazardousness or
• you use chemical substances whose classification as not hazardous to water or as generally hazardous to water is already specified by the Ordinance on Installations for Handling Substances Hazardous to Water (e.g. foodstuffs or liquid manure, slurry and silage).

If you later become aware of scientific findings that lead to a change in the published classification, you are obliged to document this immediately in writing to the Federal Environment Agency.

• Chemically unique substance name
• International CAS number or European EC number for chemical substances
• Hazard statements
• Documentation of test results
  

Your company operates a facility in which chemical substances or groups of substances are used or stored.

You can submit the classification in water hazard classes by e-mail or in writing by post.

Note: Before you classify and document a new chemical substance, please check the Rigoletto substance database of the Federal Environment Agency to see whether the substance has already been published with a classification (individually or through a group classification).

Submit the classification by e-mail or in writing:

• Go to the website of the Federal Environment Agency or call up the online database Rigoletto. Download the "Documentation form 1":
• You can fill out the documentation form directly on your computer or print it out and edit it by hand.
• Sign the documentation form and send it to the Federal Environment Agency either by post or by e-mail.
• The Federal Environment Agency will check whether your classification documentation is complete and plausible. Freely available substance information is also used for this purpose. In addition, the Federal Environment Agency may take random samples from the documentation, for which you must submit the classification bases and test reports.
• If questions arise during the assessment that cannot be answered from the documents, the Federal Environment Agency will contact you.
• The Federal Environment Agency will make the final classification decision. It will send you the decision in writing by post and by e-mail.
• The Federal Environment Agency publishes the legally binding classification in the Federal Gazette and in the online database Rigoletto.
  

• Appeal. Detailed information on how to lodge an objection can be found in the notification.
• Administrative court action

• Documentation of the self-classification of substances with regard to their water hazard Acceptance
• Companies that handle chemical substances hazardous to water must independently classify the substances used into a water hazard class (WGK).
  • class,
  • document
  • and notify the Federal Environment Agency
• Affects mainly companies in the chemical industry and plant operators
• Submission of documentation is free of charge
• Submission by e-mail or in writing by post
• Processing of the classification documentation until the decision is issued: 3 months
• Responsible: Federal Environment Agency (UBA)