The Department of Pesticide Regulation’s Surface
Water Database was developed under a 1997 agreement
with the State Water Resources Control Board. The purpose
of this database is to collect and make available information
concerning the presence of pesticides in California
surface waters.
The data are monitoring results for pesticides in samples taken from California
rivers, creeks, urban streams, agricultural drains, the San Francisco Bay delta
region, and urban stormwater runoff.
As of February 2006, the database contained results
from 51studies conducted by federal, state, and local
agencies, private industry, and environmental groups.
Nearly 7,000 samples were taken in 27 counties (over
285 sampling sites) from August 1990 through June 2005.
The database contains over 183,000 chemical analysis
records. Each chemical analysis record is the result
of one analysis for a pesticide active ingredient or
breakdown product.
Surface water monitoring data are used to help identify potential contamination
problems before direct evidence of impairment of water quality is available.
As part of the Surface Water Protection Program, DPR
uses monitoring data from the database to identify and trace pesticides in surface
water and develop contamination prevention strategies.
