Pesticides in groundwater (Flanders)

When using some pesticides, there is a risk that they or their degradation products may end up in groundwater. There they can still cause pollution for a long time. Especially hard-to-degrade products with high mobility due to good water solubility and low soil particle adsorption capacity pose a potential danger to groundwater. Furthermore, the distribution of pesticides is determined by the characteristics of the aquifers present, such as permeability, hydraulic gradient and presence/absence of adsorbents. Pesticides and their metabolites are found almost exclusively in the phreatic (shallow) aquifers due to their environmentally foreign external origin and recent application.