USING BIOBED-CLEANSED water to refill sprayers is one suggested disposal route being proposed by the EA, but ADAS”s Paul Fogg has reservations.

“I don”t think it is really practical,” he says. Not all pesticides are dealt with as effectively as the six monitored at R&R, explains Dr Fogg.

“By controlling water inputs and maximising the residence time within the biobed matrix the amount of pesticide leaching through is generally less than 1%.

“However, under experimental conditions, Cranfield work showed that for certain highly mobile pesticides, such as sulfonylureas and mecoprop, biobeds were only about 85% effective.”