Measurement and modeling of bentazone in the river Main (Germany) originating from point and non-point sources

A Water Framework Directive pilot project combines measured data and model approaches to calculate fluxes and mass balance of the pesticide bentazone in an 81 km section of the river Main (Germany). During the study period (six weeks in spring 2004) the observed bentazone inflow and outflow in the river section amounted to 52.8 and 53.1 kg, respectively; the maximum concentrations reached 220 and 290 ng l⁻¹. Based on sampling of seven sewage treatment plants a specific loss of 0.87 g bentazone per farm was calculated. Extrapolation to the entire sub-basin results in 2.6 kg bentazone in total as point source contribution from farms. Diffuse input into the surface water network occurred after an intensive rainfall event on May 7th. Total bentazone load was simulated with the pesticide emission model DRIPS to be 23.2 kg. One third of this load was estimated to be degraded by photolysis before reaching the main waterway, the river Main. The ATV water quality model was applied to predict the concentration profile of bentazone in river Main between Schweinfurt and Würzburg with reasonable results. The difference between total measured and modeled fluxes amounted to 1.5 kg corresponding to 2% of the overall input. The combined approach of monitoring and modeling appears to be a valuable strategy to quantify the relevance of point and non-point sources and to focus effective mitigation measures to the most relevant origins within a river basin.