Transcript NRCS Pest Management

Reducing the Environmental
Risks of Pest Management
Joseph K. Bagdon
Pest Management Specialist
NRCS National Water & Climate Center
Amherst, Massachusetts
413-253-4376
[email protected]
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov
Environmental Risk Analysis
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Pest Management
• Can impact soil, water and air quality
– Plants
– Animals
– Humans
• Direct impacts
– Plants
– Animals
– Humans
Environmental Risk Analysis
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Pest Management
• Biological control risks
• Cultural control risks
– Soil quality aspects of tillage for weed control
• evaluate with RUSLE 2, WEQ, SCI
• Pesticide control risks
– Air quality
• Air Quality Technical Note - drift and volatilization
– Water quality
• evaluate with Windows Pesticide Screening Tool
Pesticide Environmental Risk - Water Quality
12
Risk
Conc. (ppb)
10
"Acceptable"
HA
8
6
4
2
0
1
4
7
10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49
Year
Trend Analysis - Progress?
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“Environmental Indicators of Pesticide
Leaching and Runoff from Farm Fields”
• Kellogg, Nehring, Grube, Goss, and
Plotkin, January 2002
• Environmental risk indicators for 1960
through 1997 based on:
– The National Pesticide Loss Database
– Annual estimates of pesticide use from Doane
farm panel and USDA pesticide use surveys
Trend Analysis - Progress?
– Annual county estimates of acres planted
– Soils data from National Resources Inventory
– Irrigation from National Resources Inventory
– Water quality thresholds corresponding to
drinking water standards (or equivalent derived
from mammalian chronic toxicity data) and the
maximum safe levels for chronic pesticide
exposure to fish, algae and crustaceans
(http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/pubs)
Trend Analysis - Progress?
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“Trends in the Potential for
Environmental Risk from Pesticide Loss
from Farm Fields”
• Kellogg, Nehring, Grube, Plotkin, Goss and
Wallace, January 1999
(http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/pubs)
So what can we do about risk?
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EPA Pesticide Registration Process
• FIFRA, FQPA
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USDA
• CSREES/Extension - IPM
• NRCS - New pest management policy
– Environmentally sensitive pest management in
site-specific conservation planning
– Mitigation techniques, including IPM
– Integrate pest management into the rest of the
conservation plan
What is NRCS Pest Management?
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A component of Conservation Planning
Pest Management Standard (595) applies
wherever pests will be managed and it
requires IPM where it is available
More than just efficacy and economics
RMS plans must address all pest
management related resource concerns
Farm Bill programs (EQIP and CSP) can be
used to help producers implement
environmentally friendly pest management
Pest Management Component
of a Conservation Plan
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Minimum “Plans and Specifications” for the
Pest Management (595) Standard include:
• Environmental risk analysis, with approved
tools and/or procedures, for probable pest
management recommendations by crop (if
applicable) and pest.
• Interpretation of the environmental risk
analysis and identification of appropriate
mitigation techniques.
Environmental Risk Analysis

Windows Pesticide Screening Tool
• WIN-PST provides:
– Soil/Pesticide Loss Ratings
• the potential to move offsite
– Soil/Pesticide Hazard Ratings
• offsite movement potential combined with exposure
adjusted toxicity rating
• Based on the Soil/Pesticide Interaction
Screening Procedure II (SPISP II)
Soil Rating
Pesticide Rating
Interaction Rating
Exposure Adjusted Toxicity Rating
WIN-PST Hazard Rating
WIN-PST Factors:
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Climate/Irrigation
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Site Conditions
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High/Low Probability of Rainfall
High/Low Efficiency Irrigation
Crop Residue Management
Soil
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High Water Table (apparent)
Macropores (site-specific)
Slope (>15%)
WIN-PST Factors:
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Pesticide
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Toxicity
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Humans
Fish
Management
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Soil Incorporation
Foliar Application
Banded Application
“Standard”, Low Rate or Ultra Low Rate
Environmental Risk Analysis
WIN-PST only provides risk estimates for
pesticide losses in water that moves:
 beyond the edge of the field
 below the bottom of the root zone
Environmental Risk Analysis
Conservation planners must also address:
 distance to the identified water resource
 flow path characteristics
• through the vadose zone
• from the edge of the field to the water body
characteristics of the watershed
 characteristics of the waterbody
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Environmental Risk Analysis
Conservation planners must identify
specific resource concerns and what
level of treatment will be needed:
 Ground Water?
• Human drinking water and/or fish habitat?
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Surface Water?
• Human drinking water and/or fish habitat?
• Solution and/or adsorbed losses impacting
aquatic species?
Mitigating Pesticide Environmental Risk:
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Mitigation
• The process of minimizing the potential for harmful
impacts of pest management activities on soil,
water, air, plant, and animal resources through the
application of conservation practices and/or
management techniques.
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Mitigation Techniques
– Management Techniques
• Pesticide application method, rate and timing, etc.
– Conservation Practices
• Residue Management, Filter Strip, Irrigation Water
Management, etc.
Appropriate Mitigation Techniques
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Mitigation Effectiveness Guide Reducing Pesticide Impacts on Water Quality:
• Management Techniques (9 categories)
• Conservation Practices (74 practices)
In the field
At the edge of the field
• Relative effectiveness by pesticide loss pathway:
<blank> is no effect
+ or - slight effect on the resource (up to 15% change)
++ or -- moderate effect on the resource (up to 25%)
+++ or --- is significant effect on the resource (up to 50%)
Appropriate Mitigation Techniques
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Management Techniques - example
• Substitution
 Alternative low risk pesticides
 Low risk cultural controls
 Low risk biological controls
– Significant effect on leaching (+++)
– Significant effect on solution runoff (+++)
– Significant effect on adsorbed runoff (+++)
Appropriate Mitigation Techniques
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Conservation Practices - example
• Residue Management, No-till and Strip-Till
(329A)
 Increases infiltration
 Reduces soil erosion
 Builds soil organic matter
– Slight effect on leaching (+)
– Moderate effect on solution runoff (++)
– Significant effect on adsorbed runoff (+++)
NRCS Pest Management is:
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Evaluating site-specific environmental risks
Balancing risks with appropriate mitigation
based on Field Office Technical Guide
(FOTG) quality criteria
Always fully utilizing IPM!
• prevention
• avoidance
• monitoring
• suppression
For More Information:
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USDA-NRCS National Water & Climate Center
www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov
• Water Quality
• Pest Management
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NRCS Pest Management Policy
WIN-PST: Windows Pesticide Screening Tool
NAPRA: National Agricultural Pesticide Risk Analysis
NWCC Core 4 Pest Management
NEDC Pest Management Course Materials
Links
• Integrated Pest Management
• Pesticide Data
• Soils Data