Pesticides and Water Quality Active
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.
Variations in pesticide leaching related to land use, pesticide properties, and unsaturated zone thickness
Simulated fate and transport of metolachlor in the unsaturated zone, Maryland, USA
Comparison of pesticide concentrations in streams at low flow in six metropolitan areas of the United States
Response of Stream Chemistry During Base Flow to Gradients of Urbanization in Selected Locations Across the Conterminous United States, 2002-04
Anthropogenic Organic Compounds in Ground Water and Finished Water of Community Water Systems in the Northern Tampa Bay Area, Florida, 2002-04
Development and Application of Health-Based Screening Levels for Use in Water-Quality Assessments
Enhanced Historical Land-Use and Land-Cover Data Sets of the U.S. Geological Survey
Linking ground-water age and chemistry data along flow paths: Implications for trends and transformations of nitrate and pesticides
Simulation of daily pesticide concentrations from watershed characteristics and monthly climatic data
Pesticide toxicity index for freshwater aquatic organisms, 2nd edition
Regression model for explaining and predicting concentrations of Dieldrin in whole fish from United States streams
Pesticides in the nation's streams and ground water, 1992-2001 - a summary
Pesticide science in the news! Read recent highlights.
- Overview
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.
- Science
Learn more about USGS research on pesticides and related water-quality topics at the web pages below.
- Data
Below, you'll find links to data sets developed for investigation of pesticides.
- Publications
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.
Filter Total Items: 116Variations in pesticide leaching related to land use, pesticide properties, and unsaturated zone thickness
Pesticide leaching through variably thick soils beneath agricultural fields in Morgan Creek, Maryland was simulated for water years 1995 to 2004 using LEACHM (Leaching Estimation and Chemistry Model). Fifteen individual models were constructed to simulate five depths and three crop rotations with associated pesticide applications. Unsaturated zone thickness averaged 4.7 m but reached a maximum ofAuthorsR.M.T. Webb, M.E. Wieczorek, B. T. Nolan, T.C. Hancock, Mark W. Sandstrom, J.E. Barbash, E.R. Bayless, R. W. Healy, J. LinardSimulated fate and transport of metolachlor in the unsaturated zone, Maryland, USA
An unsaturated-zone transport model was used to examine the transport and fate of metolachlor applied to an agricultural site in Maryland, USA. The study site was instrumented to collect data on soil-water content, soil-water potential, ground water levels, major ions, pesticides, and nutrients from the unsaturated zone during 2002-2004. The data set was enhanced with site-specific information desAuthorsE.R. Bayless, P. D. Capel, J.E. Barbash, R.M.T. Webb, T.L.C. Hancock, D.C. LampeComparison of pesticide concentrations in streams at low flow in six metropolitan areas of the United States
To examine the effect of urban development on pesticide concentrations in streams under low-flow conditions, water samples were collected at stream sites along an urban land use gradient in six environmentally heterogeneous metropolitan areas of the United States. In all six metropolitan areas, total insecticide concentrations generally increased significantly as urban land cover in the basin incrAuthorsLori A. Sprague, Lisa H. NowellResponse of Stream Chemistry During Base Flow to Gradients of Urbanization in Selected Locations Across the Conterminous United States, 2002-04
During 2002-2004, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program conducted a study to determine the effects of urbanization on stream water quality and aquatic communities in six environmentally heterogeneous areas of the conterminous United States--Atlanta, Georgia; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Denver, Colorado;AuthorsLori A. Sprague, Douglas A. Harned, David W. Hall, Lisa H. Nowell, Nancy J. Bauch, Kevin D. RichardsAnthropogenic Organic Compounds in Ground Water and Finished Water of Community Water Systems in the Northern Tampa Bay Area, Florida, 2002-04
As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS's) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, a Source Water-Quality Assessment (SWQA) was conducted in the unconfined and semiconfined portions of the Upper Floridan aquifer system during 2002-04. SWQAs are two-phased sampling activities, wherein phase 1 was designed to evaluate the occurrence of 258 anthropogenic organic compounds (AOCs) in gAuthorsPatricia A. Metz, Gregory C. Delzer, Marian P. Berndt, Christy A. Crandall, Patricia L. ToccalinoDevelopment and Application of Health-Based Screening Levels for Use in Water-Quality Assessments
Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs) are non-enforceable water-quality benchmarks that were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and others. HBSLs supplement existing Federal drinking-water standards and guidelines, thereby providing a basis for a more comprehensive evaluation of contaminant-occurrence data in the context oAuthorsPatricia L. ToccalinoEnhanced Historical Land-Use and Land-Cover Data Sets of the U.S. Geological Survey
Historical land-use and land-cover data, available from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the conterminous United States and Hawaii, have been enhanced for use in geographic information systems (GIS) applications. The original digital data sets were created by the USGS in the late 1970s and early 1980s and were later converted by USGS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to a gAuthorsCurtis V. Price, Naomi Nakagaki, Kerie J. Hitt, Rick M. ClawgesLinking ground-water age and chemistry data along flow paths: Implications for trends and transformations of nitrate and pesticides
Tracer-based ground-water ages, along with the concentrations of pesticides, nitrogen species, and other redox-active constituents, were used to evaluate the trends and transformations of agricultural chemicals along flow paths in diverse hydrogeologic settings. A range of conditions affecting the transformation of nitrate and pesticides (e.g., thickness of unsaturated zone, redox conditions) wasAuthorsA. J. Tesoriero, D. A. Saad, K.R. Burow, E. A. Frick, L.J. Puckett, J.E. BarbashSimulation of daily pesticide concentrations from watershed characteristics and monthly climatic data
A time-series model was developed to simulate daily pesticide concentrations for streams in the coterminous United States. The model was based on readily available information on pesticide use, climatic variability, and watershed charac-teristics and was used to simulate concentrations for four herbicides [atrazine, ethyldipropylthiocarbamate (EPTC), metolachlor, and trifluralin] and three insectiAuthorsAldo V. Vecchia, Charles G. CrawfordPesticide toxicity index for freshwater aquatic organisms, 2nd edition
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is designed to assess current water-quality conditions, changes in water quality over time, and the effects of natural and human factors on water quality for the Nation's streams and ground-water resources. For streams, one of the most difficult parts of the assessment is to link chemical conditions to effects on aquatiAuthorsMark D. Munn, Robert J. Gilliom, Patrick W. Moran, Lisa H. NowellRegression model for explaining and predicting concentrations of Dieldrin in whole fish from United States streams
No abstract available.AuthorsLisa H. Nowell, Charles G. Crawford, Naomi Nakagaki, Gail P. Thelin, David M. WolockPesticides in the nation's streams and ground water, 1992-2001 - a summary
No abstract available.AuthorsRobert J. Gilliom, Pixie A. Hamilton - News
Pesticide science in the news! Read recent highlights.