No pesticide reduction in seas around UK

Attempts to stem the tide of pesticide residues ending up in the North Sea are faltering according the report Contaminants Entering the Sea produced by the UK National Rivers Authority's (NRA)(1).
    The NRA carried out a monitoring programme of toxic substances over the period 1990 to 1993, in line with international agreements and commitments. Under the Paris Convention and North Sea Declarations, the UK is required to reduce the quantities of hazardous substances entering the sea. At the Fourth International Meeting of the North Sea Conference on 8-9 June, Ministers from all participating countries presented their national monitoring programmes.
    The North Sea Declarations aimed at achieving significant reductions (around 50% of 1985 levels) of inputs of specified contaminants to the North Sea, including a number of pesticides. The UK has listed 34 dangerous contaminates-the Red List-of which 18 are pesticides. Levels of metal contaminants such as cadmium and mercury entering the seas around England and Wales have gone down by over 50%, but pesticides and nutrients have proved more difficult to control. They enter rivers and the sea over a much wider area-in surface run-off from land or leaching through soils. "Continued efforts will need to be put into a range of pollution prevention measures to achieve further reductions in the amounts of these substances entering the water environment", said John Seager, Head of Environmental Quality at the NRA. In order to attain these goals, the NRA is carrying out research on pesticide usage and risk to the aquatic environment.
    Environmentalists such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) consider these results maintain Britain's position as 'the Dirty Man of Europe'. "When ministers put their names to the North Sea Declaration 1990 we all expected something would be done towards meeting their promises. It seems many of the improvements recorded by the NRA were happening anyway due to recession or EU regulations," said Chris Tydeman of WWF UK.
    The NRA conclusions in respect of pesticides are in contrast to the assurance offered by the annual reports on Britain's environmental strategy. The 1994 report(2) blithely notes that, for reductions of Red List substances: "progress continues to be made in achieving reductions." This is clearly not so for pesticides. NRA is in effect at a loss to work out how to reduce pesticide inputs from diffuse sources. Without an effective reduction policy backed by the government there is little that sectoral monitoring agencies like NRA can achieve.
    The urgency for reductions in pesticide use is highlighted by further research revealing the danger of pesticides to water. The results of a recent MAFF study(3) show that the movement of pesticides to water is greater than anticipated by leaching calculations because of the rapid by-pass movement of chemicals through cracks and microfissures in clay soil. About one-third of UK soils show similar characteristics. Peak concentrations of some pesticides applied according to label directions exceeded EU drinking water maximum admissible concentrations, and could harm aquatic wildlife.
    The report concludes that "improved management of pesticide application, and not better molecule design, is the key to reducing undesirable pesticide contamination of headwater streams in many areas."

1. Contaminants Entering the Sea: A report on contaminant loads entering the seas around England and Wales 1990-1993, NRA, Water Quality Series No. 24, HMSO, PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT, UK.
2. This Common Inheritance, The Third Year Report, Cm 2459, HMSO 1994, £21.
3. Williams, R.J., et al., Journal of the Institute  of Water Management, 1995 9:1.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 28, June 1995, page 26]