A biobed to recover and detoxify polluted external washings of Ag equipment. An example at Castello Banfi’s vineyards – Montalcino (Central Italy)

While it is largely established the reuse of internal washing waters of sprayers’ tanks onto the same soil and crop, a given agrochemical is permitted for, much less frequently the same applies to the so-called “external washings”. They are generally a mixture of washing water, agrochemical contaminated soil particles which stick to the equipment, diesel and lubrificant oil residues. For the proper treatment of these “washings”, a project started at Castello Banfi, a leader vineyard in Tuscany, under the scientific reference of the Department of Agronomy and Agroecosystem Management of the University of Pisa. An off-set biobed was built where washing waters enter, after physical removing of oil residues. The surface area dimensions of the biobed had been determined on the basis of the annual water loading, which is controlled by the nature and frequency of agrochemical handling activities on the Farm. In this case, a biobed with a surface area of 60 m2 was prepared, to treat 100,000 litres of annual agrochemical contaminated washings. The agrochemicals used at the Banfi vineyards are selected among those permitted on vines, prune orchard and olive trees. The construction project of this biobed is presented.