For the last several years, NDA has been required to evaluate “pesticides of interest” for water quality concerns. The purpose of these evaluations is several fold: The results provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with national measures of performance in addressing water quality issues related to pesticide use. These evaluations also bring attention to lesser known or lesser studied active ingredients and may help drive future monitoring here in Nebraska, if warranted. In addition, they allow NDA and other agencies to target specific outreach efforts for “pesticides of concern” - those found at a level in the environment that may cause human and/or environmental health effects - and broadly measure the effectiveness of those efforts in affecting change in pesticide use for the benefit of human or environmental health.

To date, NDA has evaluated ground water and surface water monitoring data, pesticide use data, and chemical property information for 88 active ingredients. Two of those – acetochlor and atrazine – were bumped to “pesticides of concern", because of levels found in water – mainly rivers and streams – that exceeded the concentration and frequency of occurrence believed to impact aquatic life.

NDA encourages all applicators to continue to follow the label directions on any product used, and be mindful of any restrictions or precautions dealing with potential water quality impacts.

Nebraska Pesticides of Interest Evaluation Summary