National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project
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Estimation Methods:
Beginning 2015, the provider of the surveyed pesticide data used to derive the county-level use estimates discontinued making estimates for seed treatment application of pesticides because of complexity and uncertainty. Pesticide use estimates prior to 2015 include estimates with seed treatment application.
In 2024, when the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture is released, the USGS will use those data in the generation of final pesticide use estimates for 2018-2022. The annual pesticide use estimates for 2018-22 will be published in late 2024. The current plan is to generate new, final pesticide use estimates on a 5-year cycle, which aligns with the release of the USDA Census of Agriculture. Under this plan, after 2024, the next estimates will be published in 2029 and will estimate agricultural pesticide use for the years 2023-27. Preliminary estimates will no longer be published annually and later updated with final estimates.