Development of Indicators Relevant to Agriculture and the Environment Nutrients and Pesticides

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Development of Indicators Relevant to Agriculture
and the Environment Nutrients and Pesticides

• Mike Aucott, Ph.D.
• NJDEP, DSRT
• Trenton, NJ
• maucott_at_dep.state.nj.us

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Indicators

• Targeted information ..direct or indirect
  measures...that can be used to assess status and
  trends in the environments ability to support
  human or ecological health. (EPA, 1991)
• A critical part of results- or outcome-based
  management

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Results- or Outcome-based Management Systems and
the PDCA Model
PLAN
ADAPT
DO
CHECK
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NJ INDICATORS MODEL
(Pressure-State-Response)
(Source-Cause) ? (Ambient Conditions)
? (Action Now)
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Indicator Criteria

• Readily available, technically sound data
• Collected on regular basis over time
• Wide spatial distribution
• Direct measure of environmental quality
• Sensitive to changes
• Appropriate relationship to goal
• Linked to causes
• Educational value

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Indicators development can be aided by
materials accounting analyses

• Can help clarify known and unknown quantities,
  flows
• Can help identify locations of impacts
• Can help determine where additional research is
  needed
• Nutrients pesticides materials accounting can
  highlight areas of focus for indicators
  development

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Key nutrients N and P

• Excessive amounts can cause eutrophication and
  degradation of certain water bodies
• Nitrate, if above critical concentration in
  waters, can cause human health and perhaps
  ecosystem effects
• Ground water human health-based standard is 10
  ppm nitrate-nitrogen

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Nitrogen-related indicators research includes

• Air deposition baseline quantities impacts on
  ecosystems importance of organic N species
• Ground water concentration monitoring
• Surface and drinking water concentration
  monitoring
• Air NOx emissions monitoring, inventories, diesel
  emissions measurement

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Redesigned Ambient Ground Water Quality Network
Network will assess shallow ground water quality
as a function of land use

• NJDEP/USGS cooperative Network
• Will contain 150 wells when
• complete
• 60 Agricultural
• 60 Urban
• 30 Undeveloped
• Wells being installed and sampled
• between 1999 and 2005
• NJGS site selection and
• well installation
• NJDEP/WMM and USGS
• sampling
• USGS water analysis
• Water being analyzed for nutrients
• major ions, trace elements, VOCs,

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Nitrate plus Nitrite data from 60 shallow Ground
Water wells in the New Jersey Coastal Plain,
1999 and 2000
NJGS 4/2002
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Pesticides

• Can be dangerous to applicators, other workers
• Food residues and concentrations in drinking
  water can be of concern
• Some cause problems for wildlife and ecosystems
• Lingering quantities from historical uses
• New evidence of endocrine-disrupting effects of
  some pesticides

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Pesticides, continued

• Materials accounting approach is useful, but is
  complicated by wide variety of pesticides
• NJ DEP has state-of-the-art pesticide survey
  which provides important use and trend data
• More information needed on uses by some sectors,
  e.g. homeowners

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From NJDEP Pesticide Control Program
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Comparison of Higher Risk Pesticides Used with
Total Pesticides Used per Survey Series - 3 Year
Cycle
3000000
2500000
2000000
HR Pesticides
1500000
Total Pesticides
Pounds Active Ingredient
1000000
500000
0
1990-1992
1993-1995
1996-1998
Higher Risk Pesticides Pesticides classified as
A or B carcinogens, and/or classified as
Toxicity Class 1, and/or considered a leacher
and a threat to groundwater.
From NJDEP Pesticide Control Programa
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Pesticides, contd.

• A variety of pesticide concentration monitoring
  efforts are underway
• Pesticides have widely differing fate and
  transport behaviors, and modes of action differ
  greatly
• Temporal and geographic details are important in
  gauging importance of ambient concentrations
• Atrazine provides an example

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from http//in.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/wr07001.htm,
4/22/02
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From USGS, 1999, Relation of Pesticide
Concentrations to Season, StreamFlow, and Land
Use in Seven NJ Streams, WRIR 99-4154.
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Other areas of indicator development

• Water supply and use
• Land use changes open space preservation
• Distributions and populations of certain plants
  and animals (can provide aggregated measures of
  environmental impacts, ecosystem health)

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Statewide Annual Water Withdrawals, by Use
Billions of Gallons
Data Source NJDEP NJ Geological Survey
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Biological Conditions in NJ Streams Benthic
Macroinvertebrate Populations
Source NJDEP, Water Monitoring Management
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Some indicator development needs

• Maintain and broaden monitoring of biota
  identify useful sentinel species, e.g.
  amphibians?
• Find ways to quantify uncertain potentially
  important fluxes, e.g. homeowner pesticide uses,
  lawn fertilizers
• Develop methods to track implementation of
  agricultural (and other) best management
  practices, e.g. milestone of conservation
  management plans on all farms by 2010 per DEP and
  Dept. of Ag. MOA