Pollution of Water by

Agriculture
• Vicki Chapman

• Vanina Guevel

• Anne Newson

• Tony
 Situation
• Before : organic waste as fertilizers
• environment not a priority
• Now : intensive agriculture
• improved techniques
• mineral fertilizers
• pesticides
• tests available
How serious is the problem?
 What factors pollute water?

• Nutrients • Silage effluents

• Slurry • Animal carcasses
• Pesticides • Heavy metals
• Chemicals • Erosion
• Milk effluents • Seeds
Causes of all farm pollution
incidents 1987-1991
 Nutrients

• Main nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus,

potassium
• Source - fertiliser, manure, rainfall, sewage,
silage, etc.
• EC Limit - rivers must not exceed the 50
mg N /litre of water
• Stimulate crop growth. A limit of 250 kg
total N/year/ha is recommended from
livestock manures

•  The loss of the nutrients through soil

percolation and land runoff, into the
waterways causes disruption to the balance
of the aquatic habitat.
Slurry
• Source – a mixture of
animal dung and urine,
Est. 200 million
tonnes undiluted
excreta produced
annually in UK, 50%
slurries.
• Most slurry stored in
earth bank lagoons
estimated total
volume is 15.5 million
m3
• Virtually all livestock waste is recycled to the
land causing 17% of water pollution from
agriculture to come from slurry.

• There is a restriction of 10m 'no spreading'

zone adjacent to all water courses, direct
spillage is highly prosecuted.

• Improvements in available grants have improved

slurry stores, decreasing incidence from 99
incidents in 1991 to 28 in 1996.
 Pesticides
• Herbicides
• Fungicides
• Insecticides
• Molluscicides
• Rodenticides
• Growth regulators
• Sheep dips
• … about 450 different
products
• Get into river by run-off into drains, leaching
from soil, spray drift into watercourse, washings
• High persistence and toxicity
• Kill fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants
• Accumulation in lipids
and sediments

• Trace concentrations hard to measure

• Long-term effects often unknown
Milk and chemicals
• Milking parlour
washing effluents
• Waste milk spread on
the fields
• Udder wash
• 400x more polluting
than untreated
domestic sewage
Silage effluent
• Very harmful and
concentrated pollutant
• BOD level = 30,000 –
80,000mg/l. Compare
to 20-60mg/l for
treated sewage.
• Very corrosive. Hard
to break down. Kills
fish.
 Erosion
• = the wearing away of
the soil by wind/water
• Soil clogs waterways
• Excludes light from
water
• Aquatic plants die
• No oxygen for fish
and other aquatic life
SUMMARY
Summary
 Conclusion:
How to reduce pollution
• Agricultural animals should have no direct
contact with running water courses.
• Silage and slurry containers should be
100% leak-proof.
• Organic wastes, fertilisers, etc. should not
be applied closer than 10m from the river
(buffer strip) or 50m from wells or bore
holes.
• No intensive
agriculture in “High
risk areas” e.g. frozen
ground, floodplain,
etc.
• Better use of
pesticides
• Plant new crops in
stubble to reduce
ploughing (see right)
 Laws controlling pollution
• Water Act 1989 – Farmers can be fined up
to £20,000 for causing pollution!
• Environmental Protection Act 1990 – an
integrated pollution control system for safe
disposal of wastes.
• Classification of pesticides –
– Class I : forbidden (HCH, DDT, etc.)
– Class II : to be reduced (PCSDs, etc.)
Hope for the future