A Ground Water Monitoring Study for Pesticides and Nitrates Associated with Golf Courses on Cape Cod

Abstract

AbstractScientists and regulators in the United States began emphasizing the study of pesticides in ground water in 1979 and 1980. The scientific community began to emphasize the study of nitrates in ground water as a result of fertilization in the mid to late 1970s. By the mid 1980s. tens of thousands of wells were found to contain elevated nitrate concentrations and detectable concentrations of pesticides. Few, if any, of the data were collected from wells associated with the nation's 13,000 golf courses.Golf is popular on Cape Cod, an area that depends on a hydrogeologically vulnerable aquifer system as its principal source of drinking water. Pesticides and fertilizers are applied to golf courses, often at high rates on greens and tees. Therefore the EPA, the Barnstable County government, and several local golf course superintendents collaborated on a study of the impact of golf course turf management on ground water quality.Nineteen monitoring wells were installed upgradient and in greens, tees, and fairways on four golf courses. Selected soil core samples were collected and analyzed. Four to six rounds of ground water samples were collected over one and a half years and analyzed for 17 pesticides and related chemicals; nitrate‐N samples were collected at least monthly. Seven of the 17 chemicals were never detected. The most frequently detected chemical‐dichlorobenzoic acid ‐ probably had been an impurity in herbicide formulations. Chlordane was detected in several wells at concentrations exceeding the health advisory level, perhaps due either to repeated heavy applications coupled with preferential flow of the bound/particulate phase and /or cross contamination during well installation. The results show no cause for concern about use of these currently registered pesticides.Nitrate‐N concentrations were generally below the 10 ppm federal MCL, with some exceptions. Overall, nitrate‐N concentrations decreased in response to lower application rates and use of slow‐release fertilizer formulations.