Pesticide Contamination in Varied Pesticide-Use Settings

New pesticides are developed continually, and increasingly, degradation byproducts of legacy and current-use pesticides are discovered. Information on the environmental occurrence of these chemicals is needed to evaluate their potential environmental and human health significance. This project activity has two-fold objectives: (1) develop methods to measure new pesticides and their byproducts in samples of various environmental media at concentrations relevant to assessing their persistence, transport, and fate; and (2) gather information on the environmental occurrence of these chemicals in sensitive and/or susceptible ecosystems near areas of common use of the pesticide, such as areas of similar land use, crop types, and/or farming practices. Pesticide-use studies in selected settings include:

Herbicides and other Agricultural Chemicals -- Midwest Cornbelt

Cotton Agriculture -- Southern United States

Agricultural Chemicals in Ground Water -- Plains, Georgia [Completed]

Transport of Herbicides in Streams and Shallow Ground Water , Cedar River, Iowa [Completed]

Program Headlines Related to Pesticide Research

• Zinc and Phosphate Come Back to Haunt Aquifer
• Are Pyrethroid Insecticides in Our Streams?
• Pesticides are Detected in Vernal Pools in Parks and Wildlife Refuges
• Measuring Antidepressants, Fungicides, and Insecticides in the Environment
• Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams
• A Decade of Research on the Occurrence of Triazine Herbicides in the Environment Leads to a Unique Summary
• Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common
• Measuring New Pesticides and How they Transform in the Environment
• Management Practices a Factor in Herbicide Declines
• Tracking Atrazine and a Breakdown Product (deethylatrazine) through a Drinking-Water Reservoir
• Degradates: A Key to Assessing Herbicide Impacts in Streams
• Science of the Total Environment Special Issue on Agricultural Chemicals

Fact Sheets

• A Reconnaissance for Sulfonylurea Herbicides in Waters of the Midwestern USA: An Example of Collaboration Between the Public and Private Sectors: USGS Fact Sheet FS-046-98
• Agricultural Chemicals in Iowa's Ground Water, 1982-95 -- What are the Trends: USGS Fact Sheet FS-116-97
• Bioremediation--Nature's Way to a Cleaner Environment: USGS Fact Sheet FS-O54-95
• Diazinon Concentrations in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and San Francisco Bay, California, February 1993: USGS Open-File Report 93-440
• Discharge of Herbicides from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, 1991-97: USGS Fact Sheet FS-163-98
• Effects of Recharge on the Transport of Agricultural Chemicals at the Princeton, Minnesota Management Systems Evaluation Area, 1991-92: USGS Open-File Report 93-79
• Herbicides in Ground Water of the Midwest--A Regional Study of Shallow Aquifers, 1991-94: USGS Fact Sheet FS-076-98
• Herbicides in Midwestern Reservoir Outflows, 1992-93: USGS Fact Sheet FS-134-98
• Herbicides in Rainfall Across the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, 1990-91: USGS Fact Sheet FS-181-97
• Nitrogen in the Mississippi Basin--Estimating Sources and Predicting Flux to the Gulf of Mexico: USGS Fact Sheet FS-135-00
• Occurrence of Cotton Pesticides in Surface Water of the Mississippi Embayment: USGS Fact Sheet FS-022-98
• Vulnerability of Public Drinking Water Supplies in New Jersey to Pesticides USGS Fact Sheet FS-165-96

New Publications

Upcoming Publications

• Occurrence of boscalid and other selected fungicides in surface water and groundwater in three targeted use areas in the United States: Reilly, T.J., Smalling, K.L., Orlando, J.L., and Kuivila, K.M., Chemosphere, doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.04.023 (IN PRESS).
• Dissolved pesticides, dissolved organic carbon, and water-quality characteristics in selected Idaho streams, April-December 2010: Reilly, T.J., Smalling, K.L., Wilson, E.R., and Battaglin, W.A., U.S. Geological Survey Data Series (IN PRESS).

Newly Published

• Occurrence and potential sources of pyrethroid insecticides in stream sediments from seven U.S. metropolitan areas: Kuivila, K.M., Hladik, M.L., Ingersoll, C.G., Kemble, N.E., Moran, P.W., Calhoun, D.L., Nowell, L.H., and Gilliom, R.J., 2012, Environmental Science and Technology, v. 46, no. 8, p. 4297-4303, doi:10.1021/es2044882.
• Pyrethroid insecticides in bed sediments from urban and agricultural streams across the United States: Hladik, M.L., and Kuivila, K.M., 2012, Journal of Environmental Monitoring.
• Occurrence and potential sources of pyrethroid insecticides in stream sediments from seven U.S. metropolitan areas: Kuivila, K.M., Hladik, M.L., Ingersoll, C.G., Kemble, N.E., Moran, P.W., Calhoun, D.L., Nowell, L.H., and Gilliom, R.J., 2012, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es2044882.
• Contaminants in stream sediments from seven U.S. metropolitan areas--Data summary of a national pilot study: Moran, P.W., Calhoun, D.L., Nowell, L.H., Kemble, N.E., Ingersoll, C.G., Hladik, M.L., Kuivila, K.M., Falcone, J.A., and Gilliom, R.J., 2012, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5092, 66 p.

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