Scenarios for exposure of aquatic organisms to plant protection products in the Netherlands : Part 2: Sideways and upward spraying in Dutch fruit crops (final report)

Abstract

The current Dutch authorisation procedure for calculating the exposure of aquatic organisms to plant protection products needs to be revised. For this reason, Wageningen UR, RIVM and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency were asked to develop a new exposure assessment methodology for various crops and application methods. This report describes the methodology for upward and sideways spraying in Dutch fruit crops. In contrast to the current procedure, the new procedure calculates the exposure concentration based on a statistical distribution of the exposure concentration in all relevant Dutch watercourses. The methodology results in a so-called 90 th percentile exposure concentration considering all watercourses alongside fields grown with fruit crops. The new methodology takes input of plant protection products by spray drift, drainage and atmospheric deposition into account. Agronomic practices in Dutch apple and pear orchards were considered representative for all (high) pome and stone fruit orchard crops in the Netherlands. An important part of the new methodology is the option to mitigate spray drift deposition by using drift-reducing technologies in a higher spray drift reducing class or by including a wider crop-free buffer zone.

Scenarios for exposure of aquatic organisms to plant protection products in the Netherlands. Part 3, Spray applications in avenue tree nurseries and downward spraying underneath fruit trees

“…Since fruit orchards and avenue tree nurseries are spread nonuniformly over the country and are treated at different timings, there is a mixture of spatial units (the ditches) and temporal conditions (weather conditions) that lead to a wide range of spray deposits. As with upward and sideways applications in fruit orchards (Boesten et al, 2021), the method involves the determination of the 90 th percentile exposure level of PPP concentrations (PEC 90 ) in the edge-of-field watercourses. One particular spatial configuration was selected, for which an exposure assessment was elaborated.…”

“…Dit leidt tot een groot aantal mogelijk combinaties van sloten en weersomstandigheden, waarvoor de emissieroutes berekend moeten worden. Net als bij opwaartse en zijwaartse toepassingen in fruitboomgaarden (Boesten et al, 2021), wordt het 90-percentiel blootstellingsniveau van concentraties (PEC 90 ) van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen in de randsloten bepaald. Eén ruimtelijke configuratie wordt geselecteerd om het landelijke blootstellingsrisico te beschrijven.…”

“…As described by EFSA (2010), regulatory exposure assessments for plant protection products have to be based on well-defined exposure assessment goals, that include seven elements (Boesten, 2017). The exposure assessment goal definition used is the same for all scenarios as described in Boesten et al (2021) and in this report. The definition of the exposure assessment goal is described in detail in Section 1.2 of Boesten et al (2021) and can be summarized as:…”

“…Between 2007 and 2012 an exposure assessment procedure for downward spraying in field crops was developed which resulted in a series of reports that include the drainpipes as exposure route as well as atmospheric deposition (Tiktak et al, 2012a(Tiktak et al, , 2012b; Van de Zande et al, 2012). Between 2013 and 2021, an exposure assessment procedure for upward and sideways spraying in fruit crops was developed (Boesten et al 2021), as well as scenarios for avenue trees and scenarios for downward spraying below fruit crops and avenue trees.…”

“…This report adds to the exposure scenarios described in Boesten et al (2021) and describes the approach and details for the scenarios:…”