Pesticides and Water Quality

More information on pesticides and water quality

• Pyrethroid pesticides found at toxic levels in California urban streams (press release, UC Berkeley)
• Sediments in many Central Valley streams contain toxic levels of pyrethroid pesticides (press release, UC Berkeley)
• Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water (USGS)
• Protecting Water Quality from Urban Runoff (EPA) (240KB, PDF)
• Urban Pesticide Use Survey Studies (UC IPM)
• WaterTox database (UC IPM)

Environmental regulations

Agencies involved in pesticide regulation and water quality:

• California Department of Pesticide Regulation
• California State Water Resources Control Board
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Water Programs

The Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 requires that a written plan (called a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL) be developed for every water body that is impaired and does not meet water quality standards. Many California rivers and creeks have been identified as impaired by pesticides and other chemicals. Find out more about the TMDL process and which water bodies have been identified:

• U.S. EPA TMDL Program
• California State Water Resources Control Board TMDL Program

U.S. Geological Survey reports for California

• Recent Online Publications for California
• US Geological Survey, Water Resources of the United States

Further reading

• Aquatic Toxicity Due to Residential Use of Pyrethroid Insecticides (Weston et. al. 2005) (420K, PDF)
• Pyrethroid Insecticides and Sediment Toxicity in Urban Creeks from California and Tennessee (Amweg et.al. 2006) (160K, PDF)
• Aquatic Effects of Aerial Spraying for Mosquito Control over an Urban Area (press release) | Or read the full paper (Weston et. al. 2006) (172K, PDF)
• Use and Toxicity of Pyrethroid Pesticides in the Central Valley, California (Amweg et al. 2005)

Other resources

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• National Pesticide Information center
• Extension Toxicology Network