Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill pests, including insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), and fungi (fungicides). The USGS assesses the occurrence and behavior of pesticides in streams, lakes, and groundwater and the potential for pesticides to contaminate our drinking-water supplies or harm aquatic ecosystems.
NOTICE: The USGS agricultural pesticide-use estimates are supported by funding from the USGS National Water Quality Program for the purpose of better understanding pesticides in freshwater and their impact on water availability nationwide. The USGS recently updated its plan to publish pesticide-use estimates. Final annual pesticide-use estimates, for approximately 400 compounds, from 2018-22 will be published in 2025. After that, preliminary estimates will be published annually and later updated with final estimates once the USDA Census of Agriculture is released (every five years). The total number of pesticides included in the analysis will fluctuate annually, based on data availability from our pesticide use survey contract provider. (Updated February 27, 2024)
Pesticides are used in agriculture, in homes and businesses, on lawns and gardens, along roads, in recreational areas, and on pets and livestock. There are hundreds of different pesticide chemicals in use in the United States. In 2007, about 390 million kilograms (430,000 tons) of pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, were used in the United States. Pesticides released into the environment for agricultural and nonagricultural purposes can contaminate surface water and groundwater, which are critical sources of drinking water.
The USGS, through its National Water Quality Program, researches numerous aspects of pesticides and water quality, and has developed maps, graphics, and tools to aid in understanding where pesticides occur, at what concentrations, and potential consequences.
- Pesticide Use: The tables, maps, and graphs provided on this web site provide estimates of agricultural pesticide use in the conterminous United States for hundreds of pesticides.
- Trends in Pesticide Occurrence in Streams: Use the online tool to view a national maps of trends in pesticide concentrations in streams.
- Concentrations of Pesticides in Water of Potential Human-Health Concern: This searchable online database provides Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs) for hundreds of chemicals, including pesticides and degradates.
- Pesticide Toxicity to Aquatic Organisms: The Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) can be used to assess the potential toxicity of pesticide mixtures in water to freshwater aquatic organisms. Benchmarks also are available for pesticides in sediment.
- Pesticides and Stream Ecology: The Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) is assessing how chemical stressors, such as pesticides and nutrients, and physical stressors, such as disturbed streambanks and sedimentation, are affecting the aquatic organisms that live in small streams across the United States.
- Pesticides and Lake Sediment: Many pesticides dissolve in water, but some pesticides, like DDT and chlordane, adhere to sediment and persist for years in the bed sediments of stream and lakes, recording the history of contaminant use in watershed.
Learn more about USGS research on pesticides and related water-quality topics at the web pages below.
Below, you'll find links to data sets developed for investigation of pesticides.
Below, you’ll find the latest in peer-reviewed journal articles and USGS reports on pesticides and water quality. For more publications on this topic, search the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Complex mixtures of dissolved pesticides show potential aquatic toxicity in a synoptic study of Midwestern U.S. streams
Complex mixtures of Pesticides in Midwest U.S. streams indicated by POCIS time-integrating samplers
Similarities and differences in occurrence and temporal fluctuations in glyphosate and atrazine in small Midwestern streams (USA) during the 2013 growing season
Prediction of pesticide toxicity in Midwest streams
Development and application of freshwater sediment-toxicity benchmarks for currently used pesticides
Pesticide Toxicity Index: a tool for assessing potential toxicity of pesticide mixtures to freshwater aquatic organisms
Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models for predicting stream concentrations of multiple pesticides
Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part I: distribution in relation to urbanization
Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part II—sediment toxicity to the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus
Occurrence and potential sources of pyrethroid insecticides in stream sediments from seven U.S. metropolitan areas
Watershed regressions for pesticides (warp) models for predicting atrazine concentrations in Corn Belt streams
USGS Environmental health science strategy: providing environmental health science for a changing world: Public review release
Pesticide science in the news! Read recent highlights.
Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill pests, including insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), and fungi (fungicides). The USGS assesses the occurrence and behavior of pesticides in streams, lakes, and groundwater and the potential for pesticides to contaminate our drinking-water supplies or harm aquatic ecosystems.
NOTICE: The USGS agricultural pesticide-use estimates are supported by funding from the USGS National Water Quality Program for the purpose of better understanding pesticides in freshwater and their impact on water availability nationwide. The USGS recently updated its plan to publish pesticide-use estimates. Final annual pesticide-use estimates, for approximately 400 compounds, from 2018-22 will be published in 2025. After that, preliminary estimates will be published annually and later updated with final estimates once the USDA Census of Agriculture is released (every five years). The total number of pesticides included in the analysis will fluctuate annually, based on data availability from our pesticide use survey contract provider. (Updated February 27, 2024)
Pesticides are used in agriculture, in homes and businesses, on lawns and gardens, along roads, in recreational areas, and on pets and livestock. There are hundreds of different pesticide chemicals in use in the United States. In 2007, about 390 million kilograms (430,000 tons) of pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, were used in the United States. Pesticides released into the environment for agricultural and nonagricultural purposes can contaminate surface water and groundwater, which are critical sources of drinking water.
The USGS, through its National Water Quality Program, researches numerous aspects of pesticides and water quality, and has developed maps, graphics, and tools to aid in understanding where pesticides occur, at what concentrations, and potential consequences.
- Pesticide Use: The tables, maps, and graphs provided on this web site provide estimates of agricultural pesticide use in the conterminous United States for hundreds of pesticides.
- Trends in Pesticide Occurrence in Streams: Use the online tool to view a national maps of trends in pesticide concentrations in streams.
- Concentrations of Pesticides in Water of Potential Human-Health Concern: This searchable online database provides Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs) for hundreds of chemicals, including pesticides and degradates.
- Pesticide Toxicity to Aquatic Organisms: The Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) can be used to assess the potential toxicity of pesticide mixtures in water to freshwater aquatic organisms. Benchmarks also are available for pesticides in sediment.
- Pesticides and Stream Ecology: The Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) is assessing how chemical stressors, such as pesticides and nutrients, and physical stressors, such as disturbed streambanks and sedimentation, are affecting the aquatic organisms that live in small streams across the United States.
- Pesticides and Lake Sediment: Many pesticides dissolve in water, but some pesticides, like DDT and chlordane, adhere to sediment and persist for years in the bed sediments of stream and lakes, recording the history of contaminant use in watershed.
Learn more about USGS research on pesticides and related water-quality topics at the web pages below.
Below, you'll find links to data sets developed for investigation of pesticides.
Below, you’ll find the latest in peer-reviewed journal articles and USGS reports on pesticides and water quality. For more publications on this topic, search the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Complex mixtures of dissolved pesticides show potential aquatic toxicity in a synoptic study of Midwestern U.S. streams
Complex mixtures of Pesticides in Midwest U.S. streams indicated by POCIS time-integrating samplers
Similarities and differences in occurrence and temporal fluctuations in glyphosate and atrazine in small Midwestern streams (USA) during the 2013 growing season
Prediction of pesticide toxicity in Midwest streams
Development and application of freshwater sediment-toxicity benchmarks for currently used pesticides
Pesticide Toxicity Index: a tool for assessing potential toxicity of pesticide mixtures to freshwater aquatic organisms
Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models for predicting stream concentrations of multiple pesticides
Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part I: distribution in relation to urbanization
Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part II—sediment toxicity to the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus
Occurrence and potential sources of pyrethroid insecticides in stream sediments from seven U.S. metropolitan areas
Watershed regressions for pesticides (warp) models for predicting atrazine concentrations in Corn Belt streams
USGS Environmental health science strategy: providing environmental health science for a changing world: Public review release
Pesticide science in the news! Read recent highlights.