South Florida Ambient Pesticide Monitoring Program

The South Florida Water Management District is a state agency that manages surface and ground water quantity and quality in south Florida. Since 1984 surface water and sediment have been sampled for pesticides at various frequencies and locations in the District's 1400-mile system of canals. Based on monitoring data from 1992 to 2001 the most common pesticides detected in surface water samples were herbicide compounds, especially ametryn and atrazine, while DDE and DDD were the most frequently detected in sediment samples. Exceedances of state surface water quality standards occurred in certain basins for several insecticides including endosulfan. In addition, the concentrations of several ubiquitous organochlorine compounds in sediment were similar to or exceeded threshold effect levels based on a comparison to the NOAA screening quick reference tables (or SQuiRTs) for sediment.