Development
and evaluation
of a biological
system to
reduce
pesticide
contamination
of surface and
groundwater
bodies
March 26
2014
The current program proposes the development and
evaluation of an on-farm treatment to collect and
remediate agricultural wastes containing pesticides
occurring during mixing, filling and rinsing of tractor
sprayer`s tanks. The production of these wastes is
unavoidable under the best agricultural practices.
Dr. Zisis Vryzas
Assistant Professor
Lab of Agricultural Pharmacology & Ecotoxicology
Department of Agricultural Development
Democritus University of Thrace
193, Pantazidou str
68200, N. Orestiada
Greece
Biobeds
NorthEastern
Greece
DEVELOPMENT
REDUCE
AND EVALUATION OF A BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM TO
PESTICIDE
CONTAMINATION
OF
SURFACE
AND
GROUNDWATER BODIES
Summary
Point-source contamination of surface and ground water bodies by
pesticide residues has been repeatedly documented. Such pointsources identified so far are, among others, spillages occurring during
filling or rinsing of sprayers, incorrect disposal of pesticide waste and
accidents happening during transportation and storage of pesticides.
Clearly, reducing the concentrations of pesticide reaching water
supplies would be beneficial both in terms of protecting the aquatic
ecosystem and also reducing the level and the cost of required
treatment to remediate such water supplies. One cost-effective
bioremediation method to minimize pesticide releases is to install a
treatment system such as a biobed. In its simplest form a biobed is a
clayey lined hole in the ground filled with a mixture of topsoil, peat
and straw and covered with grass with the aim to create an
environment whereby maximum sorption of pesticides is achieved
while maintaining bioavailability and optimum conditions for microbial
decomposition. Biobeds have been used extensively in Sweden and
have been shown to effectively retain and degrade pesticide waste
arising from accidental spillages of concentrate and prepared
pesticides. While biobeds are being used extensively in northern
European countries for treating the spillages of pesticide that arise
during pesticide mixing, filling and rinsing sprayer tanks, it is evident
that in Greece research is required, in a number of areas, to test the
biobeds efficacy under the environmental conditions and agricultural
practices dominated in a Mediterranean country. The current program
proposes the development and evaluation of an on-farm treatment to
collect and remediate agricultural wastes containing pesticides
occurring during mixing, filling and rinsing of tractor sprayer`s tanks.
The production of these wastes is unavoidable under the best
agricultural practices. The degradation, adsorption and leaching
potential of pesticides and pesticide mixtures in different biobed
materials will be investigated in the laboratory and at the semi-field
scale. In parallel studies on the microbial community structures and
physicochemical composition of the different biobed mixtures will be
determined. Moreover, enrichments of the biobed mixtures with microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes) capable to degrade
pesticides and the influence of temperature and moisture content on
the dissipation of pesticide will also be assessed. The findings obtained
from previous studies of the same research group will be used as
starting point for the semi-field experiments which will be done during
the second year of the project. The optimum conditions and the most
appropriate biobed mixture which will have shown the higher sorption
and degradation capacity will be used as filling material for a pilotbiobed. The dissipation and leaching of selected pesticides, which will
be applied at the top of the pilot-biobed will be studied in semi-field
experiments. Measurements of the degradation rates and adsorption
and leaching parameters of pesticides will constitute the main criteria
for evaluating the performance of a selected biobed mixture. The
options for the safely disposal of the contaminated biobed mixture will
also be studied.
Detailed description of the proposed project
Pesticides play an important role in modern agriculture, and when
used according to the label instruction taking the appropriate
precautions present minimal risk to the environment. However,
considerable amount of monitoring studies in surface and
groundwaters have shown that contamination with pesticide does
occur (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Specifically studies conducted over the last 20
years in Canada (6), Netherlands, (7, 8), USA, (9), Denmark (10),
Greece (11, 12, 13) have documented the presence of high pesticide
concentrations in surface and groundwater aquifers.
Contamination by pesticides can be attributed to a number of diffuseand point-sources. Diffuse sources mainly originated by pesticide
applications involve an indirect entry route into water and include
releases from fields during and after the application process. In
contrast, in point-source the entry route to water is direct, for example
spillages occurring during filling or rinsing of sprayers, incorrect
disposal of pesticide waste, accidents happening during transportation
or storage and others.
The EU directive for drinking water allows a maximum residue of 0.1
μg L-1 for individual pesticide and of 0.5 μg L-1 for all pesticides
combined (98/83/EEC). Although environmental protection is well
guaranteed by the European registration process (91/414/EEC,
1107/2009/EEC) following the approved use of pesticides, no
legislation tools have been yet developed to prevent point source
contamination.
Research over previous years has focused on the diffuse inputs of
pesticide residues to water resulting from the application of approved
pesticides to land (9). Recently, the impact of point-source
contamination of both surface and ground water bodies (10) has been
acknowledged and some environmental protection measures are
recommended such as:
1.buffer zones;
2.delimitation of filling, washing and disposal activities in low risk
areas;
3. application of the waste to untreated field;
4. better stewardship in the farmyard;
5. storage of the waste pending collection by a licensed disposal
contractor;
6. improved farmyard design;
7. use of equipment to treat the waste
are implemented in Northern European countries (16).
However, reports from those countries indicate that the farmers
individually are unable to comply with these guidelines and although
treatment equipment is available, this is costly to buy and maintain.
Monitoring studies conducted in Greece in the area of the Ardas and
Axios River basins, revealed that the agricultural use of pesticides has
significantly contributed to a uniform distribution of significant
pesticide amounts in almost all the aquatic systems of the respective
basins.
Concentrations of atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor, prometryne,
carbofuran and propanil exceeding 0.1 and occasionally 10 μg L-1 were
measured in the soil water, the phreatic horizon and also in the
draining water of the intensively cultivated basins of the Ardas and
Axios rivers (11, 12, 13, 14, 15). In addition, the results of a large
scale monitoring program of groundwater aquifers from the Evros
region in North-east Greece showed that the concentrations of
atrazine, deethylatrazine and metolachlor in the drinking water of the
villages Rizia, Plati, Keramos, Fylakio (nearby Greek/Bulgarian/Turkish
borders) exceeded the limit of 0.1 μg L-1 in 40 sampling events
conducted during 1999-2003 (13, 14, 15).
Moreover, it was observed that once a groundwater aquifer is
contaminated the dissipation of pesticides is too slow and expensive
measures should be undertaken to remediate and use this water.
Further investigations in the areas revealed that the farmers
have been preparing or rinsing their spaying tank at the same specific
sites year after year due to the convenience of a clean water supply
and the location of the pesticide store. These sites are usually nearby
surface aquatic systems where the topsoil layer has been replaced by
a layer of gravel and sand, which offer little opportunity of sorption
and degradation. The design, management and operation of these
sites is, therefore, considered a crucial factor in preventing surface and
ground water contamination.
Clearly, reducing the concentrations of pesticide reaching water
supplies would be beneficial both in terms of protecting the aquatic
ecosystem and also reducing the level of treatment required. A
number of treatment systems are available for treating pesticide
contaminated waste from the filling/rinsing sites (Sentinel system,
(18) reedbeds, (19); sequencing batch biofilm reactors, (20)
evaporation beds (21) and oxidation systems, (22). Based on the
assumption that in the intensive agricultural areas of Northern Greece
a typical spray applicator can produce 10.000 to 20.000 litres of
pesticide contaminated waste water annually, the disposal costs could
range from 9.000 to 22.000€ depending on the volume of waste. Thus
the above mentioned treatments are unlikely to be a cost effective way
of treating agricultural wastes on the majority of farms in Greece. A
more cost effective approach to on-farm treatment is the use of
biobeds to collect the spillages of pesticide associated with filling of the
sprayer (23). The first biobed was constructed in 1993 according to
Torstensson & Castillo 1997 (23) and in its simplest form a biobed is a
clay lined hole in the ground filled with a mixture of topsoil/peat/straw
(1/1/2w/w) and covered with grass, with the aim of favoring soil
conditions whereby maximum sorption is achieved whilst maintaining
bioavailability, thus allowing the retained pesticides to be degraded.
Generally, the biobed is equipped with a ramp enabling the tractor and
sprayer to be driven over the bed for rinsing. Biobeds have
successfully been used in Sweden since 1993 with more than 1.000 in
use today (24). The biobed concept except from Sweden, has been
already evaluated in Denmark (25), Belgium (26), UK (16) and USA
(27). The materials and techniques used in construction of biobeds
vary from place to place. In most cases the materials which are used
as filling fixture in biobeds are inexpensive agricultural or industrial
wastes which can be easily found at high amounts within the areas
where the biobeds will be placed.
While biobeds are being used extensively in northern European
countries for treating the spillages of pesticide that arise during
pesticide mixing, it is evident that in Greece research is required, in a
number of areas, to test the biobeds efficacy under the environmental
conditions and agricultural practices dominated in a Mediterranean
country.
Particularly, clarifications on:
1.
the fate and behaviour of high concentrations of
relatively
complex mixtures of pesticides applied repeatedly in biobed
material.
2.
the effect of flooding of biobeds under heavy rainfall conditions
on
leaching potential and pesticide degradation,
3.
the effect of different topsoils and materials in biobed mixture on
the soil microbial community structure.
4)
recommendations on the environmental safe ways of disposing
of
the biobed material
are needed, such that the required level of effectiveness is achieved.
The overall aim of the proposed research program is to assess
the fate of pesticides in biobeds under Greek conditions in order to
form the scientific basis for the widespread application of biobed
technology on Greek farmyards.
The specific objectives of this project will be to:
1.
assess the degradation and adsorption of pesticides and
pesticide
mixtures in different biobed materials
2.
investigate the fate of pesticides in different biobed types under
laboratory and on farm conditions
3
identify and optimize conditions for maximizing the overall
pesticide dissipation
4.
5.
identify cost effective and environmentally friendly means of
disposing off the used biobed material and
provide recommendations on the construction and operation of
biobeds in Greece.
Methodologies
The above mentioned objectives of the submitted proposal will be
addressed with the collaboration of the Lab of Agricultural
Pharmacology & Ecotoxicology of Democritus University of Thrace with
other laboratories and infrastructures of the Region of East Macedonia
- Thrace. For the effective implementation of the project the
equipment
and
know-how
of
Agricultural
Pharmacology
&
Ecotoxicology laboratory was ensured.
The selection of the pesticides that will be studied will be based
on the frequency that they have been detected in surface and ground
water resources in previous studies conducted in Pesticide Science
Laboratory. Also, criteria such as extensive use in the intensively
cultivated agricultural areas of northern Greece, and inclusion in the
priority list of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC will be
considered during the selection of pesticides.
Once the pesticides will have been selected the degradation and
adsorption in different potential biobed materials will be evaluated.
DT50 and Kd values of each pesticide will be determined, by using
methods developed in previous works (17, 31), with parallel studies on
the microbial community structure and physicochemical composition
(pH, texture, organic carbon content, dissolved organic matter, cation
exchange capacity) of the biobed mixtures. Correlations of the above
mention properties with the DT50 and Kd values will be assessed with
principal component analysis. Enrichments of the biobed mixture with
micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes) capable to
degrade pesticide and the influence of temperature and moisture
content on the dissipation of pesticide will also be assessed (29, 30).
Pesticide residues in biobed mixtures will be determined according to
known methodologies (31, 32).
The findings obtained from the previous studies will be used as
starting point for the semi-field experiments which will be undertaken
during the following years of the project. The optimum conditions and
the biobed mixture which have demonstrated the higher sorption and
degradation capacity will be used as filling material for a pilot-biobed.
High concentrations of the selected pesticides will be applied at the top
of the pilot-biobed while irrigation with the water quantity commonly
spilled during the filling of spraying machines will be simulated.
Leachates from the pilot-biobed will be collected at regular intervals
and the breakthrough point for each pesticide will be determined. Then
the pilot-biobed filling material will be separated in different layers and
sub-samples will be analyzed immediately while the rest material will
be handled according to Torstensson & Castillo (1997) (23) and under
a range of disposal options
Storing as a covered heap.
Storing as an uncovered heap.
Storing as a covered heap with microbial inocula added
Storing as an uncovered heap with microbial inocula added
Actively composted using a range of methodologies
Direct application to soil at different application rates to promote rapid
remediation of the material.
The overall objective of the proposed project is to evaluate and
implement an environmental friendly way of disposal of agricultural
wastes in the Region of EMaTh.
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