Reducing the Environmental Risks of Pest Management

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Reducing the Environmental Risks of Pest
Management

• Joseph K. Bagdon
• Pest Management SpecialistNRCS National Water
  Climate Center Amherst, Massachusetts413-253-43
  76Joseph.Bagdon_at_ma.usda.govhttp//www.wcc.nrcs.u
  sda.gov

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Environmental Risk Analysis

• Pest Management
• Can impact soil, water and air quality
• Plants
• Animals
• Humans
• Direct impacts
• Plants
• Animals
• Humans

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Environmental Risk Analysis

• 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

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Trend Analysis - Progress?

• 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

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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)

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Trend Analysis - Progress?

• 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)

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So what can we do about risk?

• EPA Pesticide Registration Process
• FIFRA, FQPA
• 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

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What is NRCS Pest Management?

• 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

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Pest Management Componentof a Conservation Plan

• 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.

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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)

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WIN-PST Factors

• Climate/Irrigation
• High/Low Probability of Rainfall
• High/Low Efficiency Irrigation
• Site Conditions
• Crop Residue Management
• Soil
• High Water Table (apparent)
• Macropores (site-specific)
• Slope (gt15)

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WIN-PST Factors

• Pesticide
• Toxicity
• Humans
• Fish
• Management
• Soil Incorporation
• Foliar Application
• Banded Application
• Standard, Low Rate or Ultra Low Rate

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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

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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?
• Surface Water?
• Human drinking water and/or fish habitat?
• Solution and/or adsorbed losses impacting aquatic
  species?

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Mitigating Pesticide Environmental Risk

• 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.
• Mitigation Techniques
• Management Techniques
• Pesticide application method, rate and timing,
  etc.
• Conservation Practices
• Residue Management, Filter Strip, Irrigation
  Water Management, etc.

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Appropriate Mitigation Techniques

• 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
  
• ltblankgt 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)

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Appropriate Mitigation Techniques

• 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 ()

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Appropriate Mitigation Techniques

• 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 ()

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NRCS Pest Management is

• 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

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For More Information

• USDA-NRCS National Water Climate Center
• www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov
• Water Quality
• Pest Management
• 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