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Surface Water Database Description
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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 June 2008, the database contained results from 54 studies conducted by federal, state, and local agencies, private industry, and environmental groups. Over 9,500 samples were taken in 52 counties (over 780 sampling sites) from August 1990 through October 2006.
The database contains over 280,000 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.