Pesticides transport into surface waters in a small catchment in Belgium
1999
Beernaerts, S. | Debongnie, P. | Delvaux, A. | Pussemier, L. (Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Center, Tervuren (Belgium))
A pesticide monitoring study was started in 1998 to examine and quantify the losses of pesticides into stream waters in the Nil basin in the center of Belgium (Brabant Wallon). The total area of the catchment is 32 square km and the river is 14 km long. The two main crops are sugar beet and cereals (mainly winter wheat) representing 78/ of the cultivated area. The inhabited surface takes 7/ of the total catchment area. A water sample was taken nearly every day from end March to middle June. The pesticides analysed were atrazine, simazine, chloridazon, lenacil, isoproturon and diuron. During the investigation period all of the 6 pesticides were detected in water samples. The most important concentrations were detected during the treatment period. For each herbicide followed, the quantities transported daily were calculated and summed on the period studied, so that we obtain the total quantity transported by the river and the fraction of the total amount applied that these losses represent. Following daily the treatments and rain events allows us to estimate the relative importance of the different transport types (drift, runoff, drainage, direct losses) in the total amount leaving the treated area, and shows that point sources seems to be the main entry route.
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