Is NAWQA continuing to monitor and assess pesticides and other water-quality conditions?
In 2001, USGS began its second decade of intensive water-quality assessments and is returning to 42 of the Study Units that were assessed in the first decade from 1991-2001. In this second cycle of studies, NAWQA has expanded its assessment to include new pesticides with high usage in agricultural and populated areas of the country. A major evaluation of trends is planned in the second decade when the Study Units are reassessed and an increasing number of stream and ground-water sampling sites will have had consistent monitoring over a ten-year period. In addition, NAWQA will continue to assess factors and processes that affect pesticide and other water-quality conditions, and examine the linkages among sources of chemicals and other disturbances that degrade water quality, transport of chemicals through the hydrologic system, and potential effects of chemicals and other water-quality disturbances on humans and aquatic ecosystems. The occurrence, trends, transport, and fate will be eva
