Comparison of pesticide leaching potential to groundwater under EU FOCUS and site specific conditions.

The EU FOCUS scenarios are a set of nine standard scenarios based on a combination of crop, soil and weather data used throughout Europe to evaluate the leaching potential of pesticides to groundwater. In Ireland, two predefined EU FOCUS scenarios (Okehampton and Hamburg) appear to be the most appropriate to Irish conditions. However, there is concern that these scenarios may not accurately represent Irish specific conditions, especially in terms of soil and climatic weather. Therefore, the objective of this study was to parameterise a number of site specific locations in Ireland (represented by Oakpark, Clonroche, Rathangan and Elton series soils) and to compare simulated leachate levels at these locations to EU FOCUS scenarios using the PELMO (Pesticide Leaching Model) simulation model. The hydrological processes were validated using observed data for soil tension and leachate. The appropriate EU FOCUS scenarios were then simulated for the given locations and compared to the parameterised scenario. All scenarios were run using the same version of PELMO, therefore eliminating any software impacts. The models were run for 26 years using appropriate meteorological data. The results showed significant difference between the parameterised model pesticide leaching and that resulting from the EU FOCUS scenarios, the latter overestimating site pesticide leaching from 42 to 99%. The results indicated a significant conservatism in using EU FOCUS scenarios to determine potential pesticide concentration in the leachate under Irish specific conditions and ensure the desired level of protection against pesticide contamination of national water resources.

Long-term persistence and leaching of Escherichia coli in temperate maritime soils.

Enteropathogen contamination of groundwater, including potable water sources, is a global concern. The spreading on land of animal slurries and manures, which can contain a broad range of pathogenic microorganisms, is considered a major contributor to this contamination. Some of the pathogenic microorganisms applied to soil have been observed to leach through the soil into groundwater, which poses a risk to public health. There is a critical need, therefore, for characterization of pathogen movement through the vadose zone for assessment of the risk to groundwater quality due to agricultural activities. A lysimeter experiment was performed to investigate the effect of soil type and condition on the fate and transport of potential bacterial pathogens, using Escherichia coli as a marker, in four Irish soils (n = 9). Cattle slurry (34 tonnes per ha) was spread on intact soil monoliths (depth, 1 m; diameter, 0.6 m) in the spring and summer. No effect of treatment or the initial soil moisture on the E. coli that leached from the soil was observed. Leaching of E. coli was observed predominantly from one soil type (average, 1.11 +/- 0.77 CFU ml(-1)), a poorly drained Luvic Stagnosol, under natural rainfall conditions, and preferential flow was an important transport mechanism. E. coli was found to have persisted in control soils for more than 9 years, indicating that autochthonous E. coli populations are capable of becoming naturalized in the low-temperature environments of temperate maritime soils and that they can move through soil. This may compromise the use of E. coli as an indicator of fecal pollution of waters in these regions.