opportunities for clients to pre-empt problems before costly treatment solutions are required
Collaborating with seven water companies, WRc analyses opportunities to combat the biggest single threat to raw water quality in the UK: pesticides.
More on how we target water pollution at its sourceopportunities for clients to pre-empt problems before costly treatment solutions are required
in testing the adequacy of existing control measures to inform discussions with stakeholders
the fulfilment of regulatory reporting obligations to the drinking water quality regulator
the evidence base for business planning of future catchment management and treatment operations
To achieve compliance with the Drinking Water Standard, water companies need to understand future trends in pesticide use so that they can take proactive steps to reduce water pollution in their source catchments. Companies use a variety of models to assess the risk of pesticide contamination, but these tools rely upon historical land use and usage data, and so are unable to predict how changes in farming (e.g., altering the type, location and timing of pesticide use) may give rise to new issues in the future.
Working collaboratively with seven water companies and Reading Agricultural Consultants (RAC), WRc’s Catchment Management team looked at 15 possible future scenarios, including bans on selected pesticide products, climate change, shifts in cropping patterns, and changes in agricultural policy. This analysis revealed how the type, amount and timing of pesticide use on a variety of crops might change over the next 10 years.
The findings were used to develop a spreadsheet tool, covering multiple pesticide and land types, that allows companies to predict how the level of risk will change in each of their source catchments.
opportunities for clients to pre-empt problems before costly treatment solutions are required
in testing the adequacy of existing control measures to inform discussions with stakeholders
the fulfilment of regulatory reporting obligations to the drinking water quality regulator
the evidence base for business planning of future catchment management and treatment operations
Portsmouth Water