Agricultural areas in the Central Coast and Southern California represent croplands with heavy pesticide uses and irrigation practices of high pesticide runoff potentials in California. To collect data for long-term assessments of surface water pesticide contamination and to provide scientific supports to make regulatory decisions, the surface water monitoring program of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) identified three regions, namely, Salinas, Santa Maria and Imperial valleys for long-term monitoring. 27 locations in the major watersheds of the three regions were monitored since 2008. Water samples collected from those locations were analyzed for concentrations of over 24 pesticides from five groups of insecticides (organophosphate, pyrethroid, diacylhydrazine, carbamate and neonicotinoid), three groups of herbicides (dinitroaniline, nitrophenyl ether and triazine), and two group of fungicides (chloronitrile and strobilurin). This study focused on monitoring datasets collected from recent 5 years (2011-2015) to reflect use patterns of current use pesticides. Pesticide concentrations, detection frequencies and aquatic life benchmark exceedances were statistically analyzed for differences among regions, watersheds, and monitoring site types. The results of the analyses were also applied to optimize the monitoring sites by reducing redundant sites and establishing representative sites.<br/>

Analyses of surface water monitoring results for pesticides in agricultural areas of central coast and Southern California

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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