Tiger Jill will assist in GWPA

The GWPA Module:

The California Department of Pesticide Regulations (DPR) is implementing a new regulation (6800) to protect California’s Ground Water. The regulation establishes Ground Water Protection Areas (GWPAs) . Those vulnerable areas are either “runoff GWPAs” or “leaching GWPAs”

The new regulation identifies 7 pesticides that have been detected in groundwater. They are: Atrazine, Simazine, Bromacil, Diuron (except for products with lessthan 7% diuron that are applied to foliage), Prometon, Bentazon and Norflurazon.

A grower that wants to use any of those pesticides in a GWPA area must have them included in his permit and select an approved management practices for each area type to mitigate the harm to the ground water.

The GWPA module is designed to assist growers and PCA in handling the new regulation; User of the new module have access to a table with all the GWPA locations specified by the Site’s section, township, range and Meridian. (Source DPR EH 03-05, 8/18/2003) and a table with the approved mitigation practices.

With the module some records have been expanded; The Material record includes in the state grid a column that determines if the material poses a GWPA hazard; The Site record includes a GWPA field that determines the vulnerability of the area (R for Runoff and L for Leaching). This GWPA field is filled up by the program based on the GWPA location table provided by Orange. Also the Application screen includes a flag that indicates if the application contains GWPA hazardous materials being applied in a GWPA zone.

PCA recommendations and Work Orders that are created for GWPA applications include a description of the management practice approved to mitigate the GWPA harm.

• Adopting a wellhead protection program (see the related Chemigation Initiative)
• Requiring users of pesticides found in ground water due to agricultural use to adopt specific management practices to protect ground water
• Replacing the pesticide management zones with ground water protection areas (GWPA)
• Requiring permits for use of ground water pesticides in GWPAs
• Deleting ground water protection advisories

• About regulatory controls to protect ground water (handout, PDF 99 kb)
• Ground water protection areas (GWPAs)
  • List, by county (PDF 164 kb)
  • Maps, by county
• Pesticide regulated under the program (the ground water protection list)
• Summary of New Regulation Changes (PDF, 26 kb)
• Text of the New Regulations (PDF, 31 kb)

  The following links provide additional documentation for:

  • Vulnerability Assessment and Development of Ground Water Protection Areas
  • Determination of Contamination Processes and Subsequent Mitigation Measures

  The well inventory report is an annual summary of information gathered from California ground water wells that were sampled for the presence of pesticide residue and includes a discussion of actions taken by DPR and the State Water Resources Control Board, including the nine regional Regional Boards to prevent pesticide migration to ground water. The report delineates by county and by pesticide chemical, the number of wells sampled and the number of wells containing pesticide residues. The report is sent to the Legislature, the Department of Health Services, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Water Resources Control Board.

  Well location information is stored in the well inventory database using a unique identifier that corresponds directly to the geographical location of the individual well, combining information on county, township, range section and tract. DPR's policy (PDF, 85 kb) on the release of well information collected by DPR personnel is to provide minimal geographic information that includes the county, township, range and section. The exact well location will not be disclosed.
  
  Program Contact: Mark Pepple, Phone: (916) 324-4086; E-mail: mpepple@cdpr.ca.gov

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  Last updated: 1-21-2005