Friday, March 29, 2024

NZ’s chemical monitoring slated in Commissioner’s report

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Compounds used extensively by the agricultural sector have been highlighted in a Knowing What’s Out There – Regulating The Environmental Fate of Chemicals report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PcE) that raises concerns over New Zealand’s poor reporting standards on chemicals’ environmental fate.
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Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton has highlighted NZ’s patchy and disjointed reporting and monitoring for chemical use, including some significant agrichemicals.

Compounds used extensively by the agricultural sector have been highlighted in a Knowing What’s Out There – Regulating The Environmental Fate of Chemicals report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PcE) that raises concerns over New Zealand’s poor reporting standards on chemicals’ environmental fate.

In the report, Simon Upton cites the reason for the report coming from his concern NZ is the only developed country globally to not have a register of pollution release and transfer (PRTR).

The register enables countries to join the dots between permitted discharges of potentially harmful substances to the environment and monitoring to detect those discharges.

The possibility of a register was explored back in 1998 and suggested by Upton again in 2018, but did not proceed.

Upton’s concern was also driven by NZ’s agricultural environment where chemicals’ entry to the environment is diffuse and varied.

He notes that while what is being used in agriculture is known, little is known about where and how it reaches the environment and in what quantities.

Upton highlighted NZ’s reporting and understanding shortfalls in four chemical types: tetracycline antibiotics; neonicotinoid insecticides; terbuthylazine herbicides; and zinc for facial eczema (FE) treatment.

At least 80% of neonicotinoids can be lost to the environment from the likes of treated seeds. Some studies found that after a year soils that have had treated maize seed can still have levels exceeding Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) exposure limits.

The report highlights continuing build ups of neonicotinoids at “chronic concentrations”, and raises concerns over their impact on non-target pollinators, like bees. 

Neonicotinoids have long been a centre of controversy in Europe, where they have been severely restricted in use.

Amid growing global concern over neonic levels in surface water, Upton found NZ only surveys ground water once in four years for pesticides, but not neonicotinoids.

Sampling in Waikato maize paddocks has found eight of nine samples exceeded the EPA’s environmental limit, with up to two years of residue.

He recommended further soil, groundwater and surface water monitoring in areas with neonicotinoid use to improve understanding of environmental contamination.

He noted seed coated with neonicotinoids was not currently regulated under the HSNO Act, as it was not a “manufactured article.”

Zinc used for FE management is estimated to be used in quantities of 5000-8000 tonnes a year in Waikato, significantly higher than industry use figures.

As a soluble chemical it can be spread through water, soils and plants, and the commissioner cites a NZ study that identified an accumulation of zinc in a wide area of Waikato over the past 30 years, with 12% of soils exceeding safe levels to microorganisms function.

He also cites accumulation of zinc in Waikato rural lakes, with 86% having at least double background levels, and three having values exceeding current guidelines.

A concern is higher zinc levels contribute to antimicrobial resistance in manure and in soils.

In the meantime, monitoring of zinc levels by regional councils is variable and doesn’t extend to lakes or groundwater in agricultural areas.

Reporting issues also exist with the herbicide terbuthylazine, used in forestry, agriculture and horticulture for general vegetation control.

As a chemical, terbuthylazine was prohibited from use on certified forests between 2007-2015 due to its ability to accumulate in the environment, but it was reinstated after 2015.

Despite its extensive use and known toxicity to non-target organisms, there remains a lack of chronic toxicity studies, with environmental impacts remaining unknown.

Similarly, tetracycline antibiotics often used in animal treatments and concentrations found overseas in the environment have been high enough to trigger antimicrobial resistance in parts of Europe, Asia, and the US.

Thirty-one tetracycline products are sold in NZ for animal treatment, with use monitored by MPI.

Upton identifies the general global lack of monitoring for tetracyclines as a concern for NZ, and the lack of guidance here on disposing of containers or of manure containing the compound. 

Overall, he summarises NZ’s approval system for chemicals as complex, with a “disjointed and patchy” system for asking and answering questions about the environmental fate of chemicals.

With 150,000 substances approved for use comprising 30,000 chemicals, only 3500 are subject to individual approach, with merely a few hundred fully assessed.

The commissioner’s overarching recommendation is that all agencies dealing with chemicals need to develop a common framework to prioritise their efforts in considering and managing those chemicals’ environmental impacts.

He wrote it needs to be based on the scale of the use, the chemical’s potential environmental harm and the extent to which its presence is being detected in the environment.

Upton has also called on the Ministry for the Environment to develop regulations to empower the EPA to collect and report on the quantity and use of chemicals in NZ. 

Chemical regs in NZ a complex web

The head of New Zealand’s agrichemical body agrees with Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s findings that the country’s chemical sector is governed under a patchy, disjointed and complex system.

This was one of several weaknesses identified by Simon Upton in his Knowing What’s Out There – Regulating the Environmental Fate of Chemicals report.

The commissioner also found NZ was the only developed country that does not have a register for chemicals, recording chemical pollution release and transfer.

But Agcarm chief executive Mark Ross was not convinced such a register would be as effective for recording agrichemical use as it could be for industrial chemicals.

“We are not totally convinced, due to the diffuse nature of agrichem use and the fact we have no less than four Acts governing the use of chemicals in NZ, which makes it complex,” Ross said.

Those four Acts are the HSNO, ACVM, Health and Safety, all with the RMA overarching.

Ross maintains a better first step for NZ may be to try and simplify the administration, recording and monitoring of chemicals.

“In Australia, they just have the one to cover all chemicals, the Agricultural Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines authority, which is far simpler,” he said.

In the meantime, he maintains the industry does a good job controlling agrichemicals and is also subject to tight council rules on their use in the environment.

He said it had been noted the report’s four case study chemicals were all used as agrichemicals, while industrial products had received little analysis.

Ross said Agcarm would support further monitoring of chemicals in the environment, possibly through regional councils.

“With antibiotics and antimicrobials, NZ is a low-level user of these products. Also, when it comes to neonicotinoids and terbuthylazine sprays, we are also quite low users of these too,” he said.

He pointed to neonicotinoid’s effectiveness in removing the need to use an array of other sprays once plants had germinated, and problems experienced in the EU when their use was limited.

“We will continue to have further dialogue with the commissioner and would be happy to discuss monitoring. I know the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has been talking about chemical mapping for a while,” he said.

However, he suspected regional councils and the EPA would face significant limitations on monitoring due to lack of resources.

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