Table of contents
2. Supporting Information
2.1. Indicator definition
The indicator ‘Pesticides in rivers, lakes and groundwater in Europe’ shows
- The percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticide substances causing exceedances against an effect threshold, for surface waters and groundwater in Europe, over the period 2013 to 2019;
- The percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticide substances causing exceedances compared with effects threshold in surface waters, different sized rivers, lakes and groundwater of European countries, over the period 2013 to 2019.
2.2. Units
The indicator is expressed as percentage of threshold exceedance for surface water and quality standard exceedances for groundwater in percent. To reduce the impact of uneven spatial and temporal data reporting, a country weighting factor has been used:
∑ Share of monitoring sites with exceedances per country [%] x country area [km²]
∑ Area of countries with reported monitoring sites per year [km²]
2.3. Rationale
1.3.1. Justification for indicator selection
Pesticides are a topic of considerable public and policy interest across environment, agriculture and human health domains. Until now, we have lacked an overview of pesticides in the aquatic environment across Europe, as well as a standardised methodology in form of an indicator to assess pesticide contamination in aquatic ecosystems over space and time.
2.3.2. Related scientific references
2.4. Policy context and targets
2.4.1. Context description
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) (EC, 2000) and its daughter directives on Environmental Quality Standards (EQSD) in water policy (EC, 2008), as amended in 2013 (EC, 2013b), and on groundwater (EC, 2006) set quality objectives and targets for pesticides in surface and groundwater and should protect water quality from pesticide pollution.
With the Green Deal (EC, 2019) and its associated strategies and actions, such as Farm to Fork Strategy (EC, 2020c), Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020b), Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (EC, 2020a) and Zero Pollution Action Plan (EC, 2021), there is renewed ambition to significantly reduce the use and risk of pesticides and promote the improvement of chemicals risk assessment.
European policies aimed at reducing the potential risk from pesticides are also supported by the Plants Protection Products Regulation (EC, 2009b), the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (EU, 2009) and the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU, 2012).
- The Plant Protection Products Regulation (EC, 2009b) set out rules for the authorisation of plant protection products and their marketing, use and control. Based on this Regulation, the Seventh Environment Action Programme (EC, 2013a) set the objective that, by 2020, the use of plant protection products should not have any harmful effects on human health or unacceptable influence on the environment, and that such products should be used sustainably.
- The Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (EC, 2009a)aims at reducing the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment, and promoting the use of integrated pest management and alternatives such as non-chemical approaches.
- The Biocidal Products Regulation (EC, 2012) focusses on the marketing and use of biocidal products.
2.4.2. Targets
Legislation concerning pesticides in environmental waters is primarily set by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC). For surface waters, environmental quality standards (EQS) are set in the EQS Directive (2008/105/EC), as updated by the Priority Substances Directive (2013/39/EU). EQS are based on toxicity to or via the aquatic environment. There are 33 priority substances (or groups of substances) rising to 45 in the next WFD reporting in 2022, of which there is a limited number of mostly older pesticides. Member States can also identify “River Basin Specific Pollutants” (RBSPs) for which they set the EQS. For groundwaters, the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC) as updated by 2014/80/EU, sets a common threshold of 0.1 ug/l for any individual pesticide substance.
Within actions of the Green Deal (EC, 2019), the EU set targets for the reduction of the use and risk of pesticides by 50% until 2030 in the Zero Pollution Action Plan (EC, 2021), the Farm to Fork Strategy (EC, 202c) as well as the new Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020a) with a focus to improve and protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
2.4.3. Related policy documents
EC, 2000, Directive (EC) 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy, OJ L 327, 22.12.2000, p. 1–73.
EC, 2006, Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration, OJ L 372, 27.12, 2006, p. 19-31., 32006L0118
EC, 2008, Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directives 82/176/EEC, 83/513/EEC, 84/156/EEC, 84/491/EEC, 86/280/EEC and amending Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 84-97.
EC, 2009a, Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides, OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 71-86.
EC, 2009b, Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC
EC, 2012, Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products
EC, 2013a, Decision No 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’
EC, 2013b, Directive 2013/39/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 August 2013 amending Directives 2000/60/EC and 2008/105/EC as regards priority substances in the field of water policy
EC, 2019, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — The European Green Deal, COM(2019) 640 final.
EC, 2020a, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment, COM(2020) 667 final
EC, 2020b, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Bringing nature back into our lives., COM(2020)380 final
EC, 2020c, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ‘A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system’, COM(2020) 381 final.
EC, 2021, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All – EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’, COM(2021) 400 final.
2.5. Methodology
A detailed description of the methodology on pesticides indicator development is provided in the methodology paper.
2.6. Uncertainties
2.6.1. Methodology uncertainty
For surface waters, effects thresholds could only be identified for 53 % of substances reported; 47 % of all reported pesticides could not be considered in the assessment.
The calculation method used to determine exceedance rates with country weighting reduces an imbalance in the reported data with respect to the number of monitoring sites as well as the reported pesticides. This reduces the impact of high levels of reporting by a few countries on the overall percentage of monitoring sites with exceedances.
This country weighting means that unusually high or low exceedance rates within a country may impact upon the overall indicator. This impact can also occur if only a few monitoring sites are reported, but a relatively high or low proportion of these are exceedances. A minimum number of reported monitoring sites per country and year would be necessary to reduce this imbalance.
There is a gap of a consistent time series of comparable data. Instead, the data for many monitoring sites were not reported for more than a few years, which disperses spatial and temporal coverage of the dataset.
2.6.2. Data sets uncertainty
Monitoring data are not evenly spread across Europe, with high variation between countries in the number of reported monitoring sites and in the number of measured substances. Results are mainly dominated by countries with the highest numbers of reported monitoring sites and substances, which was addressed by a weighting factor However, a minimum number of reported monitoring sites and substances should be reported to achieve a representative overview of pesticide concentration in European waters.
Reporting of LoQ and substance concentration: This increases uncertainty in determining measurements that are below LoQ needed for analyses of effect threshold exceedances. Many reported measurements were flagged as ‘below LoQ’, and the exact value of the measurement is unknown.
2.6.3. Rationale uncertainty
In surface waters, ecotoxicologically-based effect thresholds were determined to assess exceedance rates at monitoring sites. Those thresholds indicate a potential pollution by pesticide substances affecting communities in aquatic ecosystems.
In groundwater, exceedances were assessed against the 0.1ug/l quality standard set down in the Groundwater Directive. No regulated quality standards for non-relevant metabolites are available and thus excluded from the assessment.
2.7. Data sources
- Waterbase – Water Qualityeea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/waterbase-water-quality-icm-1 compiled and processed by European Environment Agency (EEA)