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The Pesticide Contamination Prevention Act
Back to Ground Water Protection Program
DPR began addressing pesticide contamination of ground water in the early 1980’s after the discovery of widespread contamination from the legal application of the fumigant dibromochloropropane (DBCP). Reports of additional pesticides in ground water resulted in the passage of the Pesticide Contamination Prevention Act (PCPA) in 1985 (Food and Agricultural Code Sections 13145-13152). The PCPA requires the following:
- Registrants of agricultural use pesticides to submit environmental fate data to DPR.
- DPR to use that data to identify pesticides with the potential to pollute ground water.
- DPR to monitor for those pesticides to determine if they have moved to ground water.
- All local, county, and state agencies to submit results of well sampling for pesticides to DPR.
- DPR to maintain a data base of wells sampled for pesticides in California and place a annual summary and analysis of the well sampling data on DPR’s website.
- DPR to verify reports of pesticide detections in ground water and determine whether those detections are due to legal agricultural use.
- DPR to formally review pesticides found in ground water due to legal agricultural use. The purpose of the formal review is to determine if the detected pesticide pollutes or threatens to pollute ground water and if so, to determine whether new management practices can be adopted to allow continued use.