The significance of entry routes as point and non-point sources of pesticides in small streams

In an agricultural catchment area in Germany we analyzed water samples from five entry routes for 2 insecticides. 5 fungicides and 13 herbicides. The sewage plant outlet and the emergency overflow of a sewage sewer contained only herbicides. In each farmyard runoff we found on average 24 g pesticides during application period, presumably caused by cleaning the spraying equipment. In comparison, the field runoff and the rainwater sewer contained less load, but also insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. The sewage plant caused 65.9% of the total herbicide load, the sewage sewer 19.8% and the farmyard runoff 12.8%. The farmyards also caused 83.7% of total insecticide and 83.8% of fungicide load. The total load of all entry routes is correlated with the amount of pesticides applied in the catchment area and the Ko/w value for each pesticide (mult. regress. r2: 0.82; p<0.0001; n = 14). In stream A the sewage plant caused a slight but continuous contamination by herbicides with 82% of the total load found during low-water phases. In comparison, stream B had only farmyard runoff and non-point sources, which caused high peaks of herbicide and a contamination by insecticides. Consequently, high-water phases generated 70% of the total pesticide load.