Catchment pesticides guide: reducing pesticide contamination of water by targeting sources and pathways with effective mitigation measures

Pesticides from farming can be a significant environmental issue, especially where drinking water sources, both surface and groundwater are threatened. Pesticides can appear regularly at (usually) µg/l levels in environmental waters in agricultural areas, via a number of sources and pathways. Catchment work for pesticides needs to be flexible to the local situation but still, a general approach, identifying and tackling the different sources and pathways for pesticides, is important. Pesticides is often seen as a specialist area requiring expert knowledge. This sometimes leads to pesticides as an issue being considered separately to other environmental issues (nutrients and sediment for example), but really we need to integrate advice and mitigation work on pesticides with that of other contaminants, to maximise our outcomes. This project will create a handbook providing practical advice for land managers at the Envionment Agency.