Protecting Ground Water via Pesticide Registration in New York Presentation to the Watershed Science and Technical Conference Sep. 16, 2010 Steven Pacenka, Brian Richards, and Tammo Steenhuis Soil & Water Group Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering

Partnership with NYS DEC Bureau of Pesticides Management Luanne Whitbeck, Project Manager Maureen Serafini, Bureau Head Cornell leadership personnel: Tammo Steenhuis (PI), Todd Walter (co-PI)‏ Water Resources Institute – Susan Riha

Outline of Presentation Pesticides in groundwater background Pesticide registration background Upstate monitoring approach Progress Intepretations Ongoing work and next steps

Pesticides in US Ground Water Source: USGS NAWQA pesticide national synthesis project. Agricultural Urban Undeveloped Mixed

Pesticide Use in NY Derived from New York Pesticide Sales and Use Reporting system published data.

Product registration and ground water Federal FIFRA and State law Manufacturers test products in environment "Labels" restrict how much, when, where applied Applicator training for restricted use, includes ground water in curriculum

New York's pesticide reporting law Users and sellers report where/when/how much to State Water quality monitoring by USGS and Cornell Annual reports Downloadable county and zip-code censored data (Cornell PMEP)

Not all pesticides are an equal threat to ground water: GUS

GUS Scale Low High Very Low Medium Very High * Imazethapyr * Carbofuran * Atrazine * Alachlor * Chlorothalonil * Glyphosate

Pesticide use weighted by GUS

Cornell Monitoring Process Discuss with SWCD and others in county Identify counties of interest Sample; analyze at DEC & Cornell BEE labs Interpret Recruit land owners

County Partners through 2009 Schenectady Orange Cayuga Cortland Genesee

Testing for pesticide & herbicide active DEC Pesticide Lab. Selected active ingredients using higher resolution immunoassay Cornell Soil & Water Group lab. Cornell Soil & Water Group lab.

And finding... DEC broad-based scans: one detection of one active ingredient in first 200 samples Reporting limits were 1 ug/L (1 ppb) or less No exceedence of any of 15 NYS ground water standards or guidance levels No exceedence of any of 15 NYS ground water standards or guidance levels

Nitrates typical for rural NY

Interpretation Upstate rural wells in good shape relative to pesticide standards. Even vulnerable wells surrounded by fields, and having elevated nitrate, are in decent shape. There are frequent traces of atrazine, and some of metolachlor, as found nationally.

Pesticide registration is a balancing act: economic utility vs. health and environmental risk. For upstate NY, this balance to date has not been bad for shallow ground water wells.

Next: keep looking, harder More areas, and revisit selected wells DEC reporting limits improving to 0.1 ppb Adding selected degradation products (metabolites) to the analytical list Limestone areas

Vulnerability: Carbonate

Contacts Brian Richards Brian Richards Steve Pacenka Steve Pacenka Tammo Steenhuis Tammo Steenhuis pesticides/‏

Thanks Funding NYS DEC NYS WRI directors Keith Porter and Susan Riha, who delegated to BEE Local Partners Cortland, Schenectady, Orange, Cayuga, and Genesee County Soil & Water Conservation Districts Cornell Pesticide Management Education Program for help using the PSUR database NYS Soil & Water Conservation Committee for early endorsement Cornell students Ian Toevs, Tony Salvucci, Ben Liu, Sophia Garcia, Mike Sinkevich, Ivy Tsoi, Zia Ahmed, Sheila Saia, Austin Merboth

Averaged GUS of reported pesticides Redder = more likely to persist and move

Cornell laboratory analyses CortlandSchenecOrangeCayugaGenesee Nitrate-N>10 mg/L < interference00060 Metolachlordetect001 trace <0.1 ug/L560 n.d. < Atrazinedetect trace < n.d. < Alachlordetect trace <0.11 n.d. <0.138 Diazinondetect trace < n.d. < Imidaclopriddetect0 trace <0.21 n.d. <0.239