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Since the enactment of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA),
passed in August 1996, USEPA has been required to factor potential
exposures to pesticides through drinking water into already
complex procedures used to set pesticide "tolerance levels"
in foods.
Incorporating potential drinking-water exposures into the
pesticide tolerance-setting process has presented USEPA with
many scientific challenges including:
- What reliable data are available on pesticide concentrations
in surface and ground water in the U.S.? How do these concentrations
vary with location and time?
- How can USEPA account for the considerable geographic
variability in geology, hydrology, land use, and agronomic
practices in estimating profiles of pesticide drinking water
exposures in various regions across the U.S.?
- What "real world" data are available to evaluate
and improve computational models that USEPA uses to estimate
pesticide drinking-water residues for new pesticides entering
the market?
- What types of surface- and ground-water monitoring should
USEPA require pesticide makers to conduct after new pesticides
(or significant changes in use areas or practices) are approved
to verify that actual pesticide levels do not exceed those
estimated through USEPA's screening procedures?
Building on many years of productive collaboration between
USEPA and USGS, the NAWQA Program marshaled a wide range of
its data and expertise to help USEPA address these and other
questions.
"We do not have all of the answers yet by any means,
but we in USEPA who are charged with implementing this part
of the new FQPA are greatly impressed with the knowledge and
expertise contributed by NAWQA Program scientists and managers
to assist USEPA in addressing these questions. This collaboration
has been facilitated by NAWQA's dedicating one of its senior
hydrologists to work with USEPA to help both organizations
better understand how NAWQA data and tools can help USEPA."
(Joseph J. Merenda, Office of Pesticide Programs, USEPA, 1998,
U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1164).
USEPA's Office of Pesticide Programs is a very satisfied
"customer" of USGS and NAWQA water-resources programs.
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