Water protection
Use as instructed
Incorrect use of pesticides or accidental spills may harm fish, other aquatic creatures and plants. Moreover, other crops may be harmed if the water is used for irrigation. Furthermore, because contaminated water can travel quickly, it may be difficult to contain and could affect drinking water or groundwater quality.
A top priority
For the above reasons, ECPA aims to play a highly active role in helping to ensure continual improvement in the safety and quality of all European waters. Sustainable, high-yield agriculture must be fully compatible with the supply of safe, affordable, drinking water and a high level of environmental protection. High industry standards and stringent regulations ensure that this goal is met. Continual efforts in product research and development, with stringent user training and awareness raising, minimise the tendency of products to reach both surface and ground water.
Water protection takes a high priority in EU policy-making, and ECPA strongly supports policies which are transparent, scientific, proportionate, and risk-based. Water quality is judged according to a wide range of parameters, including biological measures of bacteria and microbes, levels of both naturally occurring and anthropogenic inorganic and organic substances, physical disruption to a water body through activities such as hydropower facilities or canalisation for water transport, and also by judging water bodies against the expected amount of plant and fish life which could be expected in other similar water bodies.
Occasionally crop protection products can be found in groundwater (especially when the water body is associated with sandy or porous soil or rock), or in surface water rivers or lakes (particularly when heavy rainfalls after product application wash the products off, causing temporary crop protection findings). Groundwater is used to supply drinking water, and surface water is also used as a drinking water source, with some Member States relying more heavily on this source than others. Surface water supports a wide variety of life and nature, and is also protected for this reason.
Safeguarding our water
The regulatory approach taken in legislation at both European and Member State level requires that each use of a particular product is shown to be safe by means of appropriate testing and evaluation before authorisation can be granted. These evaluations include elements ensuring that the aquatic environment is protected. This traditional approach, by both regulators and industry, is essentially aimed at the development and selection of new and improved products.
There is now an increasing realisation and acceptance that ever more stringent requirements relating to the authorisation of crop protection products is likely to yield very little further progress in water protection. In addition, the little progress there may be will be very expensive both in terms of product testing and evaluation, and also in terms of the productivity and competitiveness of farming in the EU. As fewer and fewer suitable products will be available for use by EU farmers this will lead to less effective crop protection, over-reliance on too few products with the associated pest and disease resistance problems, and consequently greater crop-loss (and therefore less efficient use of increasingly scarce water and energy resources).
In turn, the above thinking has led to a growing understanding that appropriate, practical and workable approaches in using the products are more likely to provide improvements to water quality in the future. Such “stewardship” work related to appropriate training, equipment, and awareness for crop protection product users is gaining more and more importance in the EU, both in the regulatory arena, and in the voluntary measures launched by Member State authorities and industry.
The Water Framework Directive provides a sound basis for protecting quality and quantity aspects of ground and surface water. This is the key umbrella legislation in the water policy field. Under this, national and regional authorities develop integrated and coherent water policies. The legislation provides a framework in which other water-related legislation operates, and is giving a new impetus to previous Community efforts to improve water quality, including the establishment of “Environmental Quality Standards” for so-called priority substances in the EU.
The recently adopted EU Thematic Strategy on the sustainable use of pesticides, together with the intended associated Directive seek to achieve more sustainable use of crop protection products, and to reduce risks associated with their use while maintaining the necessary protection against pests. This legislation is focused on the use of the products, and at the Member State level will include, amongst other things, the creation of appropriate training and certification systems for professional users, distributors and advisers, and measures to protect the aquatic environment such as appropriate buffer strips etc.
The Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) sets a range of quality parameters for drinking water as supplied to consumers from their taps in order to protect their health, the most important of which are biological (bacteria, coliforms etc). An extremely low politically established level for crop protection products has also been included in the EU, which is equivalent to 0.1 parts per billion (0.1 in 100,000,000), which can be envisaged as 0.4m on the entire length of the equator, or 1 second on 320 years, or 1 cent in 1 billion Euros, or 1 grain in 390 tonnes of wheat.
Managing water responsibly
Responsible farming and the careful management of water go hand in hand. Application of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), as supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), helps to minimise levels of crop protection products in ground and surface waters. GAP methods include the use of best available techniques to ensure the most accurate application of products, reduced spray drift, better container management and safer storage. Integrated Crop Management (ICM) enables farmers to identify precisely when and where pests, weeds and diseases are present and to control them using the lowest possible effective rate of the crop protection product. All this helps to eliminate the movement of crop protection products into water.
The TOPPS Project and other ongoing water protection activities
In October 2008, ECPA completed a 3 year multi-stakeholder project known as TOPPS (Train the Operators to Prevent Pollution from Point Sources), which was co-funded by the EU LIFE programme. The project was aimed at identifying and disseminating commonly agreed advice, training and information at a large co-ordinated scale in Europe with the intention of raising awareness, and ultimately changing the habits of operators, thereby reducing losses of crop protection products to water.
ECPA remains firmly committed to promoting practical measures to prevent water pollution. Following on from the successful conclusion of the TOPPS project, ECPA is now seeking to broaden and deepen the achievements of that project in new areas, such as turf and amenity use of crop protection products, losses to water from greenhouses, and it is intended to address certain aspects of agricultural diffuse losses to water as well. Work has already begun on the above issues, and in due course further projects will be put forward, and a proposal aimed at obtaining EU co-funding will be prepared.
For more information:
The TOPPS project: www.topps-life.org
Contact: Stuart Rutherford, Philippe Costrop or Manfred Roettele.
