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Archive:Agri-environmental indicator - pesticide pollution of water

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Data from September 2012. Most recent data: Further information, Main tables and Database.

This article provides a fact sheet of the European Union (EU) agri-environmental indicator water quality - pesticide pollution. It consists of an overview of recent data, complemented by all information on definitions, measurement methods and context needed to interpret them correctly. The water quality - pesticide pollution article is part of a set of similar fact sheets providing a complete picture of the state of the agri-environmental indicators in the EU.

Pesticides in water are indicated by current values and exceedances and trends in the concentrations (µg/l) of selected pesticides in rivers and groundwater.

Main indicators:

Main statistical findings

Key messages

Pesticides in groundwater

Elevated concentrations of selected pesticides above the quality standard (0.1 μg/l, except for the selected cyclodiene pesticides (Aldrin, Dieldrin) with quality standard of 0.03 μg/l) occurred at approximately 7% (517 stations) of the 7669 monitoring stations reported for the 2010-2011 period. At 60% (4596) of the stations none of the assessed pesticides had concentrations above the limit of quantification. At least one of the assessed pesticides was found, but not at concentrations above the quality standard at 33% (2556) of the stations. Concentrations exceeding the regulatory level are generally detected in groundwater underlying areas of intensive agriculture. Atrazine and its metabolites (Desethylatrazine, Desisopropylatrazine) were the pesticides most frequently detected above the regulatory value throughout Europe. In this factsheet, data for 2,4-D, Alachlor , Aldrin5, Alpha-Endosulfan6, Alpha-HCH, Atrazine1, Bentazone, Beta-HCH, Chlorfenvinphos7, Chlorpyrifos, DDD p,p', DDE p,p', DDT o,p', DDT p,p'9, Desethylatrazine, Desisopropylatrazine, Dieldrin5, Diuron, Endrin5, Gamma-HCH , Isodrin5, Isoproturon, Linuron, MCPA, Mecoprop, Prometryn, Propazine, Simazine , Terbuthylazine, Terbutryn and Trifluralin8 were reported.

Pesticides in rivers

Average annual concentrations of Alachlor and Atrazine were below the EQS at all stations in 2009. For the rest of the pesticides monitored, except the Cyclodiene-group and Endosulfan, EQS were exceeded at less than 5% of the stations. The EQS for the Cyclodiene-group measured as the sum of Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, and Isodrine was exceeded at 43% of the stations. The EQS for Endosulfan was exceeded in 35 % of monitored rivers. Since the monitoring of pesticide type and sampling frequencies were not harmonised, it is difficult to compare between countries. Few countries provided yearly measurements before 2006. Four years measurements of selected pesticides showed generally values below the EQS, and decreasing or rising trends were not evident. It should be noted that whilst the respective EQS’s arising from the Priority Substances Directive have been used in this assessment, the data analysed does not arise from Water Framework Directive reporting but the European Environment Agency's WISE-SoE reporting.

Assessment

Pesticides are used to control pests, weeds, and diseases in agriculture, and their use plays an essential role in maintaining or enhancing crop yields. Pesticides are rigorously risk assessed before being approved for marketing. However, their use, particularly if it doesn’t follow relevant guidance, can lead to harmful effects upon non-target organisms in the wider environment, including aquatic ecosystems. Risks to human health can also arise. Several pesticides are persistent (slowly degraded), bioaccumulated (concentration increases in biota), bioconcentrated (concentration in biota increases through the food chain), and mobile in the environment (high water solubility and low absorption to soil). In addition to acute and chronic toxic effects on non-target biota, a large range of pesticides have shown to possess potentially endocrine-disrupting properties, as well as causing impairment of the nervous system and cancer.

Pesticides used in agriculture are transported by diffuse pathways to surface and groundwater. Point discharges are also important, however, and occur through accidental spillage, sprayer loading and wash-down, and inappropriate storage and disposal. The contamination of surface and groundwater by pesticides impairs the quality and restricts use as drinking water. In aquatic ecosystems elevated concentrations of pesticides may result in a reduction in population density and loss of biodiversity. Today several European water bodies are at risk from diffuse pollution by pesticides.

In 2009 the Pesticides Framework Directive 2009/128/EC was implemented in the European Union, aiming to secure sustainable use and reduce the impact of pesticides on human health and environment. Harmonised risk indicators designed to identify and analyse trends of some substances of particular attention are under establishment. The new legislative framework was integrated with existing policies such as the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD). Today monitoring and environmental quality standards (EQS) of pesticides in surface and groundwater are accomplished through the Directive on Priority Substances (2008/195/EC), Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) and Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC), so called daughter directives of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), in addition to nationally initiated programs.

In parallel with the introduction of new legislation, work has been carried out on reassessing the pesticides and the risk they impose both on the environment and to humans. This work has led to several pesticides losing their authorisation and thus withdrawal from the market.

Properties like high persistence and mobility has made pesticides abandoned and banned decades ago still detectable in the environment, and today these obsolete pesticides are one of the major stressors for the aquatic environment. Monitoring and surveillance of these old pesticides are conducted along with modern pesticides.

Groundwater

Several countries in Europe report that groundwater has concentrations of pesticides that exceed the quality standards (Fig. 1, Fig.2). Across this European dataset, about 7 % of the groundwater stations reported exceeded levels for one or more pesticides. Atrazine and its metabolites is the pesticide most frequently detected above the quality standard throughout Europe. Groundwater at risk appears to be located in areas used intensively for agriculture.

Rivers

At all river monitoring stations average annual concentrations of Alachlor and Atrazine were below EQS (Fig. 4). Trend analyses of Atrazine showed that the annual average concentrations have been below EQS in several countries since 2006, even in countries like France and Belgium known for intensive agricultural production (Fig. 6). For the rest of the pesticides monitored, except the Cyclodiene-group and Endosulfan, the EQS was exceeded at less than 5% of the stations (Fig 5). The EQS for the Cyclodiene-group, measured as the sum of Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, and Isodrine, was exceeded in 43% of the rivers (Fig. 5). The Endosulfan EQS was exceeded in 35 % of the measured rivers. No countries had observations of exceedance for all six pesticides monitored (Fig. 5).

Main warnings

Agriculture is considered as the greatest contributor to pesticides in European surface and groundwater. Even though groundwater and surface water are used as a drinking water resource, there is limited information available on pesticide contamination, and a lack of reliable and comparable data. Monitoring of pesticides is a challenging task because of the high number of registered pesticides, cost of analyses, and the need for sampling to be performed during periods of application and use, and under various weather conditions. Extensive data sets of high quality are consequently often missing. The data used for this indicator were limited, both in time and space, and the need for harmonisation is apparent.

Data sources and availability

Indicator definition

Pesticides in water are indicated by current values and exceedances and trends in the concentrations (µg/l) of selected pesticides in rivers and groundwater.

Measurements

Main indicators:

  • Rivers with pesticide concentrations above annual average Environmental Quality Standards (EQS).
  • Groundwater with pesticide concentrations above 0.1µg/L for individual pesticides (or 0.03µg/l for Aldrin and Dieldrin).

Links with other indicators

The indicator water quality - pesticide pollution is linked with following other indicators:

Data used and methodology

All analyses are based on annual average concentrations for single river monitoring stations or on individual measurements for single groundwater stations. Occurrence in groundwater is indicated by at least one measurement above the limit of quantification and exceedance of the quality standard is indicated by at least one measurement exceeding the standard. The data are drawn from the WISE-SoE Rivers database (Version 11) and WISE-SoE Groundwater data. All data are analysed by the European Topic Centre on Inland, Costal and Marine Waters (ETC/ICM). For the time series analysis (Fig. 6), only river monitoring stations with data for all years have been included (altogether 263 stations for Atrazine). Starting earlier than 2006 would give too few stations with this criterion. The number of river monitoring stations for the analysis of the current situation (2009) ranges from 1346 to 1617 for the different pesticides presented in Fig. 4, with the exception of Endosulfan (measured at 243 stations only).

Context

Pesticides are applied to control pests, weeds and diseases in agriculture and the urban environment. Use of pesticides raises several environmental concerns, due to the possible harmful effects on human and biota. Potential for interference with the hormone system (endocrine disruptors), impairment of the nervous system, cancer, and acute/chronic toxicity are among the hazardous effects observed upon non-target organisms. Today pesticides are found throughout the environment, and aquatic environments are of particular concern with regard to contamination. Pesticides are widely detected in waters due to properties like high water solubility, persistence (long half-life), and low soil adsorption. In surface and groundwater elevated concentrations of pesticides impairs the quality of these resources for abstraction of drinking water, and detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems have been observed. Despite increased knowledge of ecotoxicological effects of pesticides on aquatic biota, information is limited on the impact of products formed by degradation and transformation of the parent pesticide or about the risk associated with synergic effects of several pesticides acting together. Another issue of concern is climate change, with more frequent and intense rainfall. Exacerbated leaching and run-off of pesticides to water bodies may be expected, due to both a need for repeated application and higher precipitation. This factsheet describes pesticide concentrations in rivers and groundwater across Europe, including current levels and trends from 2006. Assessment of current concentrations is made against legislative criteria – the EQS-values for surface waters given in the Priority Substances Directive (2008/105/EC) and for groundwater quality standards according to the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC) of 0.1µg/l for individual pesticides, with an exception for Aldrin and Dieldrin, where the respective drinking water standard of 0.03 ug/l pursuant to the Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption (the Drinking Water Directive) (98/83/EC), were used.

Policy relevance and context

Pesticides in surface water and groundwater are addressed by several directives, such as the Pesticide Directive (2009/128/EC), Directive on Priority Substances (2008/105/EC), Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) and Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC). The latter three are daughter directives of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). Some of the most hazardous pesticides in the Priority Substance Directive are listed in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in order to eliminate or restrict use and production. The following pesticides are currently listed and banned in Europe through the Stockholm convention: The Cyclodiene pesticides Aldrin, Dieldrin, and Endrin as well as DDT, Hexachlorobenzene, and Lindane (γ-hexachlorocyclohexane). Atrazine and Simazine are banned in Europe, but are not addressed under the Stockholm convention.

The Pesticide Directive (2009/128/EC) aims to reduce damage caused by pesticides, and the focus is on plant protection products. Instructions to adapt national action plans, develop obligatory systems for training and education, set up a framework for equipment inspections, examine alternative pest management methods, secure water protection, and apply harmonised risk indicators are fundamental.

Pesticide levels in water intended for human consumption are addressed in the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) and the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC). In both directives, concentrations of pesticides in drinking water may not exceed 0.1 µg/l for a single pesticide and 0.5 µg/l for total pesticides. In addition the Drinking Water Directive specifies that the threshold for aldrin and dieldrin should be 0.030 μg/l.Minimum obligatory frequencies on sampling and analyses are specified.

The list of substances in the Directive on Priority Substances (2008/105/EC) includes several pesticides. EQS for the individual substances, monitoring and sampling frequencies, and matrices are described. Pesticides included in this directive are to a large extent banned and not used in Europe. Due to that these pesticides are posing a threat to the aquatic life of Europe, monitoring and surveillance is still needed.

Other EU measures to control pesticides in the environment are established. The Thematic Strategy on pesticides (COM (2006)373l) includes a number of measures to encourage the sustainable use of pesticides that were later transformed into Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides and Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC. This Strategy is one of the seven thematic strategies outlined in the Sixth Environment Action Programme adopted in 2002.

Agri-environmental context

Research into pesticides has concentrated on the contamination of waters, impact on aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna, and impact on human health (Skinner et al., 1997). Direct and indirect negative effects of pesticide use on biodiversity have been shown by different studies (Campbell and Cooke, 1997; Young et al., 2001; Marrs et al., 1991). Akerblom (2004) provides a useful literature review of agricultural pesticide toxicity to aquatic organisms. This covers the mechanism of pesticide action and pesticide toxicity in aquatic micro-organisms, invertebrates and fish. The effects of pesticide run-off and leaching to water bodies can be quite severe, including even suspected fish mass deaths (eel in Lake Balaton). Overall, however, further knowledge needs to be gained of pesticide effects on the aquatic environment, in particular in mixture with other pesticides or chemicals.

Contamination of the environment with pesticides may result from spray drift, volatilisation, surface run-off, and subsurface loss via leaching/drainflow. Pesticide fate (and hence environmental risk) is primarily governed by vapour pressure, sorption characteristics, solubility in water, and environmental persistence (Binks et al., 2002). Vapour pressure governs the tendency for pesticides to volatilise and be lost to the atmosphere in gaseous form, while sorption properties govern bonding to organic and inorganic soil surfaces. Sorption properties limit the mobility of pesticides in the environment, and are influenced by factors including soil organic matter, clay content, and soil pH. Pesticides with greater water solubility often have lower sorption behaviour, which makes them more mobile in the environment and hence more prone to leaching to water bodies. The persistence of pesticides in the environment differs greatly and is dependent on factors such as their susceptibility to attack by micro-organisms and enzymes, soil temperature and water content.

See also

Further information

Publications

Dedicated section

Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)

Other information

Legislation: Commission Staff working document] accompanying COM(2006)508 final
Agricultural Production Systems, Corresponding IRENA Fact sheet 30.1

External links

  • Database:
  • Other external links:

Notes

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