Comparability of Large-Scale Studies of Agricultural Chemical Contamination of Rural Private Wells |
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| Authors: | Chittaranjan Ray Susan C Schock |
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| Institution: | Chittaranjan Ray;(Illinois State Water Survey, 2204 Griffith Dr., Champaign, IL 61820) is an associate professional scientist with the Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign, Illinois. After receiving his M.S. in civil engineering from Texas Tech University, he was employed by Geraghty &Miller Inc. for more than three years as a staff engineer where he conducted numerous studies on soil and ground water quality assessment, water supply development, and risk assessment of ground water contamination. Subsequently, he received his doctoral degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been employed with the Illinois State Water Survey since 1989 and is a registered professional civil engineer in Illinois. His major area of research is agricultural chemical contamination and flow and transport modeling in subsurface media. Susan C. Schock;(National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. EPA, 26 Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268), an environmental scientist, works in the area of risk assessment and risk characterization of environmental contaminants. She received a B.A. in geosciences from the State University of New York, College at Buffalo, and an M.S. in geology/geochemistry from Michigan State University. She worked for three years for the Health Effects Research Laboratory, and for one year for the Municipal Environmental Research Laboratory of the U.S. EPA before moving to the Illinois State Water Survey in 1982. She returned to the U.S. EPA in 1991, and she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in geography at the University of Cincinnati. Her primary area of research is ground water contamination. |
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| Abstract: | Detection of agricultural chemicals in ground water has prompted numerous studies. Federal, state, and regional studies were conducted in the last 10 years in order to assess the occurrence of agricultural chemicals in ground water. The results of the studies present the number or percentage of samples with agricultural chemicals above the drinking water standard or health advisory levels as well as samples with detections of one or more compounds. Data comparison from one state or region to another are frequently referred to by regulatory and agency personnel involved in water quality and agriculture issues. Unless the history of pesticide use, method of chemical analyses, detection limits, statistical design of the sampling plan, well type, well depth, geology of the formation material, and typical land use around the wellhead are known, such comparisons can be misleading. Reporting the limitations or presenting a disclaimer should be a key element for a study so that "apples and oranges" are not compared. |
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