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Wyoming Department of Agriculture (WDA) | |
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ), Water Quality Division |
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In 1991, members of local, State, and Federal governments, as well as industry and interest groups, formed the Ground-water and Pesticide Strategy Committee to prepare the State of Wyoming's generic Management Plan for Pesticides in Ground Water. Part of this management plan is to sample and analyze Wyoming's ground water for pesticides. In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Ground-water and Pesticide Strategy Committee, began statewide implementation of the sampling component of the State of Wyoming's generic Management Plan for Pesticides in Ground Water. In 1998, baseline monitoring began in Fremont County.
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Synthetic organic pesticides are used to control weeds, insects, and
other organisms in a wide variety of agricultural and nonagricultural
settings. The use of pesticides has helped to make the United States the
world's largest producer of food (Barbash and Resek, 1996). Pesticide use,
however, has also been accompanied by concerns about potential adverse
effects on the environment and human health. A potential pathway for the
transport of pesticides is through hydrologic systems, which supply water
for both humans and natural ecosystems. Water is one of the primary ways
pesticides are transported from an application area to other locations in
the environment (fig. 1) (Barbash and Resek, 1996). |
Figure 1. Pathways of pesticide movement in the hydrologic cycle (modified from Barbash and Resek, 1996). |
Pesticide contamination of ground water is a national issue because of the widespread use of pesticides, the expense and difficulty of remediating ground water, and the fact that ground water is used for drinking water by about 50 percent of the Nation's population. Concern about pesticides in ground water is especially acute in rural agricultural areas where over 95 percent of the population relies upon ground water for their drinking water (Solley and others, 1998), although application rates and the variety of pesticides used may be greater in urban areas.
The Ground-water and Pesticide Strategy Committee (GPSC) has developed the
generic State Management Plan for Pesticides in Ground Water for the State of
Wyoming (SMP) (Wyoming Ground-water and Pesticides Strategy Committee, 1999).
The SMP is required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order
for organizations and individuals to continue using certain pesticides in
Wyoming. The SMP includes information relating to organizations and individuals
involved with the implementation of the SMP, methods of preventing ground-water
contamination, ground-water monitoring, and what the responses will be if
pesticides are detected in ground water.
One critical part of the SMP is
ground-water monitoring. The ground-water monitoring program has two phases. The
first phase involves baseline monitoring, which is an initial survey of
pesticides in a county's ground water. The second phase is problem
identification monitoring, which is used to gather more information about the
ground water near wells with significant pesticide detections.
Baseline
monitoring is prioritized by a county rank and the vulnerability of the county's
ground water to pesticides. During the development of the SMP, the GPSC
evaluated each county in Wyoming to determine the potential vulnerability of the
county's ground water to pesticides. Each county was ranked based on the extent
of cropland and urban areas in the county, as well as the amount of pesticides
sold within the county in 1991 (Wyoming Ground-water and Pesticides Strategy
Committee, 1999).
A ground-water vulnerability map was prepared for the
uppermost or shallowest aquifer by the University of Wyoming Spatial Data and
Visualization Center (SDVC). A Geographic Information System was used to overlay
seven coverages describing hydro- geology and land use. The map produced was
used to assist in the selection of monitoring sites in each county. The
monitoring focuses on areas where the ground water is most
vulnerable.
The GPSC selected 18 pesticides (focal pesticides) and 2
degradation products to be sampled as part of the SMP (table 1). An additional
66 pesticides and degradation products are included in the U.S. Geological
Survey analytical protocol, resulting in possible detections of non-focal
pesticides. Ground water from all wells in the baseline monitoring program was
analyzed for the pesticides listed in table 1, with the exception of difenzoquat
and metsulfuron because analytical methods were not available for their
analysis.
The goal of the sampling program is to collect ground-water
samples for pesticide analyses in all 23 Wyoming counties. The ground-water
sampling part of the SMP began in Goshen County in 1995. Sampling in Park and
Fremont Counties was conducted in 1997, and completed by 1998. In August 1998,
sampling began in Fremont, Lincoln, and Laramie Counties. The sampling for these
three counties was completed in May 1999.
Table 1. Baseline monitoring for pesticides in Fremont
County, 1998-99.
(Click on image for a larger version, 101kb jpg)
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The ground water in Fremont County was ranked the fourth most vulnerable to pesticide contamination in Wyoming. The vulnerability map for Fremont County (fig. 2) was created by the SDVC (Hammerlink and Arneson, 1998). Shallow alluvial and terrace deposits were identified as the most vulnerable areas in the county. Twenty sites were selected for baseline monitoring in Fremont County (fig. 3). All wells were located in the most vulnerable areas (shown as red or yellow in fig. 2). The wells were inspected and selected with the assistance of the Fremont County Weed and Pest District. All sites were sampled twice, late summer 1998 and spring 1999. These time periods were selected to correspond with the shallowest or deepest water-table conditions. |
Figure 2. Vulnerability of Fremont County
ground water to pesticide contamination (from Hammerlink and Arneson,
1998). |
| Six of the 18 focal pesticides and 1
non-focal pesticide were detected in Fremont County (table 1). At least
one pesticide was detected in 13 of the 20 wells sampled in Fremont
County. All detected concentrations of pesticides were less than the
drinking water standards (U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency, 1996;
WDEQ, 1993). The laboratory minimum reporting limit is the lowest
concentration at which the pesticide can be quantified. Forty-four percent
of the detections were trace quantities. A trace quantity indicates the
pesticide was detected, but at a concentration too small to
quantify. The most commonly detected pesticide in Fremont County was atrazine. Atrazine was also the most commonly detected pesticide in Goshen, Park, Fremont, and Laramie Counties. Atrazine is an agricultural herbicide typically used for weed control in corn and other crops (Farm Chemicals Handbook, 1996). |
Figure 3. Location of wells sampled in Lincoln County,
and notation of pesticide detection in each well. |
The second most commonly detected pesticide in Fremont County was prometon. Prometon is the active ingredient in Pramitol. Prometon is a general use pesticide and its detection is typically associated with urban land use (Barbash and others, 1999). Picloram was the pesticide detected at the highest concentration in Fremont County ground water at 2 micrograms per liter (parts per billion). Picloram is the active ingredient in Tordon, an herbicide, and is one of the most commonly used pesticides in Wyoming.
The sampling results have been given to local groups interested in pesticides in ground water in Fremont County. The information can be used by citizens and local governments to help understand current conditions. Results of the Fremont County sampling can be found in Mason and others, 1999, and Swanson and others, 2000. Results of all analyses, including sampling of all counties to date, are available from the U.S. Geological Survey in Cheyenne.
Barbash, J.E., and Resek, E.A., 1996, Pesticides in ground water--Distribution trends, and governing factors: Ann Arbor Press, Chelsea, Michigan, p. 3
Barbash, J.E., Thelin, G.P., Kolpin, D.W., and Gillom, R.J., 1999, Distribution of major herbicides in ground water of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 98-4245, 64 p.
Hammerlink, J.D., and Arneson, C.S., editors, 1998, Wyoming ground water vulnerability assessment handbook: Volume 2. Assessing ground water vulnerability to pesticides: Spatial Data and Visualization Center Publication SDVC 98-01-2, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, variable pagination.
Mason, J.P., Miller, D.T., and Ogle, K.M., 1999, Water resources data, Wyoming, water year 1998, Volume 2. Ground Water: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Data Report WY-98-2, 127 p.
Meister, R.T., 1996, Farm Chemicals Handbook: Willoughby, Ohio, Meister Publishing Co., variable pagination.
Solley, W.B., Pierce, R.R., and Perlman, H.A., 1998, Estimated use of water in the United States in 1995: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1200, 71 p.
Swanson, R.B., Mason, J.P., and Miller, D.T., 2000, Water-resources data, Wyoming, water year 1999, Volume 2. Ground Water: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Data Report WY-99-2.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1996, Drinking water regulations and health advisories: EPA 822-B-96-002.
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, 1993, Procedures for establishing environmental restoration standards for leaking underground storage tank remediation actions, WDEQ/WQD Rules and Regulations, Chapter XVII.
Wyoming Ground-water and Pesticides Strategy Committee, 1999, Wyoming generic state management plan for pesticides and ground water: prepared for Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 103 p.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Jim Bigelow |
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This document was prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS), the Wyoming Department of Agriculture (WDA), and the Wyoming Department
of Environmental Quality, Water Quality Division (WDEQ). All agencies are
members of the Ground-water and Pesticide Strategy Committee.
This
project has been funded in part with a Section 319 grant from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to Wyo. Dept. of Environmental Quality's
Non-Point Source Program.
The use of trade, product, industry, or firm
names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the
U.S. Government.
Prepared by: Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller and Jodi R.
Norris
Email:
cemiller@usgs.gov
Layout by: Suzanne C. Roberts
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