Pesticide Use and Water Quality

Understanding use rates and use patterns of pesticides is valuable to the agricultural industry for manufacturers, registrants, regulatory agencies, environmental interests and pesticide end-users. There are several sources of data, including surveys of pesticide users, monitoring of pesticide detections in the environment, and indirect measures including tracking pesticide sales. The Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 directed the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to collect pesticide sales data from pesticide dealers. The dollar sales data, which is confidential business information, is being used to calculate approximate pounds of active ingredients for pesticides which might impact surface or ground water quality. The calculated pounds data for selected pesticides is then provided to the water quality researchers at the Iowa Geological Survey (IGS) of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and at Iowa State University Extension. The dataset presented here using two methods, one by ISU Extension and the other by the Geologic Survey Bureau, was gathered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Pesticide Bureau and was compiled with assistance from the Iowa Geologic Survey Bureau of the