scholarly journals Agricultural chemicals in Iowa's ground water, 1982-95: What are the trends?

Fact Sheet ◽  
1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana W. Koplin ◽  
George Hallberg ◽  
D. A. Sneck-Fahrer ◽  
Robert Libra
Keyword(s):  
Ground Water ◽  
Agricultural Chemicals

Agricultural Chemicals in Ground Water: Suggestions for The Environmental Protection Agency Strategy

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
Dennis Shields
Keyword(s):  
Ground Water ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Nitrate Contamination ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Agricultural Chemicals ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Common Reference ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Shared Goal

Ground water, a hidden resource whose volume is over 50 times that of the nation's surface water, was once thought to remain forever pure. People had little reason not to believe that the soil would naturally purify water returning to an aquifer. It was not until the late 1970s when the Love Canal and Times Beach incidences redirected public opinion and touched off a nationwide concern for the protection of ground water. In August 1984, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Ground Water Protection Strategy to "provide a common reference for responsible institutions as they work toward the shared goal of preserving, for current and future generations, clean ground water for drinking and other uses, while protecting the public health of citizens who may be exposed to the effects of past contamination."1 More specifically, "EPA will increase efforts to protect ground water from pesticide and nitrate contamination." In response, the EPA's Office of Pesticide Protection reviewed existing information on the extent and causes of pesticide contamination, its potential health hazards, existing statutory authorities, and programs available to aid state policy makers. An increased interest in solving problems associated with pesticides in ground water has resulted in the EPA's current development of a national strategy on Agricultural Chemicals in Ground Water. This strategy will outline the EPA's general course of action in addressing the problem of pesticides in ground water during the next 5 to 10 yr. The purpose of this report is to provide EPA with suggestions to be considered in the formulation of the strategy.

Accounting for Temporal Variations in Large-Scale Retrospective Studies of Agricultural Chemicals in Ground Water

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan K. Liddle ◽  
Roy W. Whitmore ◽  
Robert E. Mason ◽  
W. Joseph Alexander ◽  
Larry R. Holden
Keyword(s):  
Ground Water ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Retrospective Studies ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Agricultural Chemicals

Regional estimation of ground water vulnerability to nonpoint sources of agricultural chemicals

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 241-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Burkart ◽  
Janos Feher
Keyword(s):  
Ground Water ◽  
Water Contamination ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
General Strategy ◽  
Agricultural Chemicals ◽  
Ground Water Contamination ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Initial Application ◽  
Water Vulnerability ◽  
Agricultural Contaminants

The potential for ground water contamination by agricultural chemicals exists in many regions of the world. A collaborative effort between Hungarian and United States scientists has developed a general strategy to estimate the regional vulnerability of ground water to agricultural chemicals. The midwest U.S. and most of Hungary are major agricultural regions with similar hydrogeologic settings. Many areas where ground water provides public drinking water supplies in these regions are vulnerable to ground-water contamination. The vulnerability of shallow, unconsolidated aquifers and thinly-covered bedrock aquifers to agricultural chemicals is being investigated in an initial application of the strategy. This strategy integrates elements of overlay methods of vulnerability estimation, process-based modeling methods, and statistical methods. Strategy steps include: identifying characteristics of ground water needed to classify regional ground water resources; mapping the spatial distribution of aquifer classes (unconsolidated and bedrock) using a regional geographic information system; and estimating the occurrence of agricultural contaminants by applying leaching models to representative conditions in each aquifer class. In the U.S. project, pedologic data bases are being used for both mapping aquifer classes and model input. Estimated vulnerability will be evaluated against data from a regional survey of shallow aquifers recently completed in the Midwest. The Hungarian project is developing new maps of basic hydrogeologic characteristics with data that can be used to model vulnerability of the 1-meter root zone, the unsaturated zone, and the saturated zone.

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