Відповідність регулювання скидання забруднювальних речовин у поверхневі води вимогам українського законодавства

The article examines the compliance of the Ukrainian legal mechanism for regulating the discharge of pollutants (RDP) into surface waters with the legislation, which is caused by the accelerated approximation to European law requirements. Ukraine’s transition in 2024-2025 to European legislative methods of combating environmental pollution, namely the adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution», the approval of Ukrainian river basin management plans and the creation of a system for classifying the ecological and the chemical states of surface water bodies, necessitates a final assessment of the quality of individual links and the entire regulatory mechanism as a whole. The aim of the article is to identify inconsistencies in the Ukrainian legal mechanism of RDP into surface water that hinder the implementation of the European environmental paradigm and the parallel temporary (but long-term) use of the current regulatory mechanism together with the mechanism defined in the EU Water Framework Directive and with the Ukrainian analogue of Directive 2010/75/EC. The study identified the presence of the following systemic inconsistencies and conflicts in Ukrainian legislation that require urgent elimination. Distortion of the target direction and the purpose of the main regulatory instruments – standards for maximum permissible discharges of pollutants. Incorrect attitude in the subordinate regulatory legal and normative methodical acts (SRLNMA) to the basic term «pollutant» as an absolute concentration, instead of its legally defined relative understanding as «concentration increment». Inaccuracy of the requirements of SRLNMA regarding the regulation of some biological (toxicity) and physical (radioactivity) indicators of return water properties instead of the legally established discharge standards based on water composition indicators. Scientifically erroneous combination of the properties of «assimilative capacity» and «self-purification possibility» of water bodies. Inclusion of an additional kind of standard «maximum permissible concentrations» for substances in return water, not defined by law, in the documentation of special water use. The revealed systemic non-compliance with the requirements of the legislation of the Ukrainian mechanism for standard regulation of pollutant discharges prevents its use in parallel with the European analogue in the transitional period before their harmonization.