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Pesticides in surface and ground water at four sites of intensive tobacco cultivation in the Piedmont of North Carolina

Proceedings of the American Water Resources Association, National Symposium on Water Quality, AWRA TPS-94-4, Chicago, Illinois, November, p. 275-283.
By Douglas A. Harned

Abstract

Records of pesticide applications from 1985 to 1990 on a 0.05-square-kilometer field of tobacco cropland in Guilford County, North Carolina, indicate the use of 20 different pesticides. The pesticides frequently applied included acephate, Bacillus thuringiensis, carbaryl, diphenamid, endosulfan, ethephon, flumetralin, malathion, maleic hydrazide, metalaxyl, and methomyl. Pesticide applications began in March, peaked in July, and ended in September of each year. Eight pesticides were monitored from 1985 to 1990 in surface water, soil, and ground water at the tobacco field site, and a larger 2.6-square-kilometer basin in Guilford County. Metalaxyl, isopropalin, diphenamid, fenamiphos, and flumetralin were detected in surface water, soil, and ground water; acephate, ethoprop, and napropamide were detected in runoff and soil but not in ground water at the sites.

More than 80 pesticides were monitored at a 33 square-kilometer site in Franklin County North Carolina nested within a 5,632-square-kilometer site in the upper Tar River Basin during 1993-94. Pesticides commonly used in tobacco cultivation that were detected in surface water included napropamide, pebulate, pendimethalin, carbaryl, and ethoprop.

The smallest basin of the four study sites showed the greatest number of pesticide detections and the highest concentrations; the larger basins showed fewer detections and low concentrations. The reduced concentrations are probably due to effects of the larger scale of the basin, including reduction of the total basin area cultivated in tobacco with increasing basin size, dilution, and trapping and breakdown of pesticides in the riparian zone and farm ponds.

Harned, D.A., 1994, Pesticides in surface and ground water at four sites of intensive tobacco cultivation in the Piedmont of North Carolina: Proceedings of the American Water Resources Association, National Symposium on Water Quality, AWRA TPS-94-4, Chicago, Illinois, November, p. 275-283.