How to Manage Pests

Pesticides: Water-Related Toxicology of Active Ingredients

What does WaterTox do?
Using WaterTox

1. Which pesticide?
2. How will the pesticide be applied?
3. Risk values and pesticide properties
4. More-detailed data

WaterTox provides information on environmental risk of pesticides. Use it to evaluate potential for pesticides to move with water and eroded soil or organic matter, and to affect nontarget organisms. It can help farmers consider risk of leaching and runoff in making pest management decisions, particularly pesticide choice.

WaterTox is a partial implementation of the Windows Pesticide Screening Tool (WIN-PST) developed by USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS). All data come from their Pesticide Properties Database. The program includes WIN-PST's pesticide hazard adjustments and WIN-PST's rating adjustments for application area, rate, and method. Unlike WIN-PST, it does not provide information for specific soils or allow you to consider impact of water table depth, irrigation, residue management, or other site conditions. In the future, we plan to add these features.

Program design for WaterTox is based on the PesticideWise database by Jay Gan and Peter X. Pang, UC Riverside.

For a pesticide active ingredient in the database, WaterTox produces a graphic report showing the potential long-term harzard to fish and humans due to loss of the pesticide by leaching or runoff from a high-risk soil.

The potential risk of leaching and runoff may be affected by the amount of pesticide used, the area covered, and how much pesticide comes in contact with the soil. WaterTox takes a user's input about these factors to adjust the risk ratings given by the program.

All ratings and values are derived from the USDA–NRCS Windows Pesticide Screening Tool, WIN-PST, except where noted.

• More information on WIN-PST

Using WaterTox   Next