Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia must do more to reduce nitrate levels in the groundwater along the River Ems. This is the result of a judgement by the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) (Ref.: 10 C 1.24 of 06.03.2025). The court thus confirms a judgement by the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court. It had already called on the two federal states to revise their catalogue of measures for water protection in 2023. Due to intensive farming and fertilisation with liquid manure, the maximum permitted levels for nitrate in the Ems area have been exceeded several times in recent decades. The German environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe had filed a lawsuit against this.

In the opinion of the Federal Administrative Court, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia have not sufficiently taken into account the European Union's requirement for the deterioration of water bodies in their previous programme of measures. The values from all monitoring sites should be used to assess the water situation. According to the Federal Administrative Court, action must be taken even if the values deteriorate at only one monitoring site.