Pesticides in Surface Waters of the Hudson River Basin, New York and Adjacent States Introduction and Basin percent of the basin is forested land, 14 supply and the ecological health of streams. percent agricultural, and 8 percent is urban/ This fact sheet summarizes results of a study Description residential land. Water samples collected from of pesticides in surface waters of the Hudson streams and rivers in the Hudson River Basin River Basin. The National Water Quality Assessment in 1994 were analyzed for a broad suite of (NAWQA) program is designed to describe pesticides, which included herbicides and the status and trends in the water quality of insecticides. Herbicides are used to control Pesticide Sampling large representative parts of the Nation’s weeds in agricultural fields as well as lawns, surface-water and ground-water resources and commercial land, and other open areas in to provide a scientific understanding of the urban and residential settings. Insecticides are Water samples were collected from a major natural and human factors that affect used to control insects in agricultural and basinwide network of 46 sites on 42 streams the quality of these resources. The Hudson urban settings. Because some pesticides can and rivers (fig. 1) during base-flow conditions River Basin, one of 60 NAWQA project areas, migrate from applied areas to streams and from late May through late June 1994, when encompasses 13,400 mi2 (square miles) in rivers, monitoring surface water for pesticides pesticides are commonly applied to fields. New York and adjacent states. About 78 is necessary to ensure a safe drinking-water Sites were classified into one of the following categories on the basis of predominant land 1 - Canajoharie Creek near Canajoharie NY use and population in the watershed above the 2 - Caroga Creek at Palantine Church NY LOCATION VT site: (1) urban – watersheds with a population 3 - Catskill Creek at Oak Hill NY MAP 2 NH 73° density greater than 200 per mi ; (2) 4 - Claverack Creek at Claverack NY NY MA 44° agricultural – watersheds that are more than 5 - Coeymans Creek near South Bethlehem NY CT 6 - Crum Creek at East Creek NY PA RI 35 percent agricultural land; (3) forested – 7 - East Canada Creek at Stratford NY NJ watersheds that are more than 90 percent 8 - Esopus Creek at Allaben NY 9 - Fall Kill at Poughkeepsie NY forested; and (4) mixed – watersheds that are 10 - Fishkill Cr at Stormville Rd nr Hopewell Jct NY less than 35 percent agricultural, have a 11 - Flat Creek near Ames NY population density of less than 200 per mi2, 12 - Fox Creek near Schoharie NY 13 - Fulmer Creek at Days Rock near Mohawk NY 41 and are less than 90 percent forested. The 21 14 - Hallocks Mill Brook at Yorktown Heights NY 7 mixed category includes sites that represent 15 - Haviland Hollow Brook near Putnam Lake NY most of the large watersheds sampled; 9 of 16 16 - Hoosic River below Williamstown MA 17 - Hoosic River near Eagle Bridge NY 6 sites in this category represent watersheds 13 38 2 2 18 - Hudson River at Waterford NY 29 46 28 17 larger than 500 mi , and the other 7 sites are in 19 - Hudson River near Poughkeepsie NY 301 36 watersheds smaller than 250 mi2. 20 - Hudson River south of Hastings-on-Hudson NY 11 2718 42 24 21 - Hudson River south of Lake Luzerne NY 12 31 25 16 22 - Kinderhook Creek at East Nassau NY 5 23 - Kisco River below Mount Kisco NY 26 22 37 24 - Lisha Kill northwest of Niskayuna NY Results 25 - Little Hoosic River at Petersburg NY 43 3 26 - Little Schoharie Creek at Middleburgh NY 27 - Mohawk River at Cohoes NY 4 Of the 46 sites sampled within the basin, 28 - Mohawk River at Fonda NY 85 percent had detectable concentrations of at 8 45 33 29 - Nowadaga Creek at Newville NY least one pesticide, but only four sites had 30 - Otsquago Creek at Valley Brook near Fort Plain NY 31 - Patroon Creek at Albany NY 34 detectable concentrations of more than five 32 - Peekskill Hollow Cr at Van Cortlandtville NY pesticides. The Mohawk River at Cohoes had 33 - Roeliff Jansen Kill at Jackson Corners NY 19 40 9 measurable amounts of eight pesticides or 34 - Rondout Creek near Sundown NY 39 35 - Saw Mill River at Farragut Ave at Mount Hope NY pesticide-breakdown products (metabolites), 36 - Schoharie Creek at Esperance NY 10 15 and Hoosic River at Eagle Bridge had 37 - Tenmile Creek at Medusa NY 32 measurable amounts of six. Both sites are in 38 - Timmerman Creek at West St. Johnsville NY 44 39 - Wallkill River at Gardiner NY 14 watersheds classified as mixed. Lisha Kill at 40 - Wappinger Creek near Clinton Corners NY 23 20 Niskayuna and West Creek at Warnersville (in 41 - West Canada Creek at Nobleboro NY urban and agricultural watersheds, 42 - West Creek at Warnersville NY 75° 43 - West Kill northwest of North Blenheim NY 41° 35 respectively) each had 5 detectable pesticides 44 - Woodbury Creek near Highland Mills NY and 1 detectable herbicide metabolite. Among 45 - Woodland Creek at Mouth at Phoenicia NY the 46 sites sampled, 15 different pesticides 46 - Zimmerman Creek northeast of St. Johnsville NY 0 10 20 MILES were detected – 8 herbicides, 2 herbicide Base from U.S. Geological Survey digital data 1:2,000,000, 1972 0 25 KILOMETERS metabolites, and 5 insecticides (table 1). Most of the pesticides were at low concentrations, Figure 1. Pesticide-sampling locations in Hudson River Basin ranging from 0.002 to 0.05 µg/L (micrograms per liter). UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Table 1. Pesticides detected in the Hudson River Basin during June 1994 basinwide pesticide sampling1 Pesticide2 Median Maximum (,brown - herbicide, concen- Maximum contaminant liight brown - herbicide Percent of tration of concentration level (MCL) or metabolite, sites with Detection detections detected Health advisory g)reen - insecticide) Trade name(s detection limit (µg/L) (µg/L) (µg/L) (HA)3 (µg/L) Aatrazine A5Atrex, Crisazin 8205.00 08.01 03.3 Metolachlor Dual, Pennant 627 02.00 06.01 00.1 10 Deeethylatrazine4 n2on 5206.00 01.00 0--.04 Diazinon D.z.n, Sarolex 30 0.002 0.0075 0.056 0.6 Spimazine C8aliber, Prince 2503.00 05.01 04.5 Cxyanazine B7lade 1405.00 02.029 01. Atlachlor L92asso, Bulle 03.00 02.01 02.02 Carbaryl Sevin 7 0.003 0.044 1.6 700 DlCPA D42actha 01.00 01.0 00.01 40 Plrometon P48ramito 05.01 04.022 00.02 10 Pbronamide K23er 02.00 02.05 00.05 5 Carbofuran Furacarb 2 0.003 0.021 0.021 40 Chlorpyrifos Genpest, Eradex 2 0.004 0.01 0.01 20 Malathion Cythion 2 0.005 0.1 0.1 200 2e,6-Diethylanaline5 n23on 03.00 03.00 0--.00 1For a complete list of pesticide analytes, refer to Firda and others (1994). 2Use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. 3MCL - Maximum permissible level of a contaminant in water which is delivered to any user of a public water system; HA - Concentration of a chemical in drinking water that is not expected to cause any adverse noncarcinogenic effects over a lifetime of exposure. 4 Deethylatrazine is a metabolite of both atrazine and simazine. 5 2,6-Diethylanaline is a metabolite of alachlor. The maximum concentration of any respectively, and were found together at 67 watershed sites were insecticides, whereas pesticide detected was less than 2 µg/L, and percent of the sites. Atrazine was found at all only 9 percent of those detected at agricultural no concentration exceeded any maximum sites at which any pesticide was detected. and mixed sites were insecticides. Of the contaminant level or health advisory level set Eight of the nine sites without atrazine pesticides detected among all 46 sites, 50 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. detection were in forested or urban percent were at urban-watershed sites. Four of The most frequently detected pesticides watersheds; the ninth was at West Kill, the 15 pesticides detected (carbaryl, DCPA, were atrazine1 and metolachlor, which are northwest of North Blenheim, in a small prometon, and malathion) were found only at widely used for weed control on corn, mixed watershed. urban-watershed sites. sorghum, and certain other crops; they were The sites in urban watersheds had the Pesticides were detected at only 2 of the 6 found at 85 and 67 percent of the 46 sites, same number of pesticides as sites in the forested watershed sites. Four pesticides agricultural and mixed watersheds – nine (atrazine, metolachlor, deethylatrazine, and pesticides in each of these groups cyanazine) were found at West Canada Creek 1 Use of trade, product, or firm names is for (table 2). The types of pesticides at a given at Nobleboro at concentrations less than or descriptive purposes only and does not imply site correlated closely with land use – 32 equal to 0.012 µg/L, and atrazine and endorsement by the U.S. Government. percent of all pesticides detected at urban- metolachlor were detected at East Canada Creek at Stratford at concentrations equal to Table 2. Pesticide detections and watershed land-use category or less than 0.007 µg/L. Atrazine and other herbicides are not commonly used in forested Watershed Percentage areas; thus, their presence could be the result land-use Number of detections Number of pesticides of atmospheric transport from areas in which category of as herbicide/ identified at a site pesticides are applied.