Pesticides Research No. 104 2006 – Establishment of a basis for administrative use of PestSurf

Establishment of a basis for administrative use of PestSurf

Preface

The exposure of organisms in surface water is a part of the risk assessment of pesticides as part of the approval procedure. In 1998 the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) initiated a project to develop a model-based decision support system for exposure, to refine the pesticide exposure in surface water. The tool was build around the models MIKE SHE and MIKE 11 and included a user interface and a number of scenarios for sandy and sandy loam conditions. The system – called PestSurf – was available by the end of 2003, as a very flexible exposure modelling system.

The administrative use of PestSurf for national registration does, however, require experience with the use of PestSurf, development of criteria’s for deriving exposure values for surface water and assessment of the administrative consequences of using PestSurf.

The objective of this project is to clarify the possibilities and limitations of the PestSurf system through calculation and analysis of concentrations for 12 pesticides with different inherent properties and different use pattern. The reasons for pesticide occurrence in different parts of the scenarios and at different times are discussed. The PestSurf calculations are compared to similar calculations with the FOCUS Surface Water (FOCUS SW) tools, developed in an EU working group, and with the presently used practices.

The project was overseen by a steering committee. The committee consisted of:

Jørn Kirkegaard, Danish Environmental Protection Agency
Claus Hansen, Danish Environmental Protection Agency
Alf Aagaard, Danish Environmental Protection Agency