Environment pollution and pesticides monitoring indicators

Several countries in Europe report that groundwater has concentrations of pesticides that exceed the quality standards. Across this European dataset, about 7 % of the groundwater stations reported exceeded levels for one or more pesticides. Atrazine and its metabolite Desethylatrazine are the pesticides most frequently detected above the quality standard throughout Europe. Groundwater at risk appears to be located in areas used intensively for agriculture. At all river monitoring stations the average annual concentrations of Alachlor and Atrazine were below EQS. For the rest of the pesticides monitored, except the Cyclodiene-group and Endosulfan, the EQS was exceeded at less than 5 % of the river monitoring stations. The EQS for the Cyclodiene-group was exceeded in 43 % of the measured rivers.