Pest Control Risk Assessment Answers

This ranking gives you an idea of how your pest control practices as a whole might be affecting your drinking water. This ranking should serve only as a very general guide, not a precise diagnosis. Because it represents an averaging of many individual ratings, it can mask any individual dangerous rankings that should be of concern.

Regardless of your overall risk rating, the following practices require immediate attention. Some concerns you can take care of right away; others could be major or costly projects, requiring planning and prioritizing before you take action. (If you see none, you did not mark any of the highest-risk categories.) Results listed in Bold are ones which may not only be dangerous, but also illegal.

High-Risk Practices:

Soil texture
- Coarse (sand, loamy sand, loamy coarse sand)

Soil structure
- Soil is cloddy or dusty, compacted, and poorly aerated.

Soil fertility
- Soil not tested. Fertility not known.

Depth to ground water
- Less than 10 feet.

Field scouting
- Crops are not inspected for pests.

Pest identification
- Pests not identified.

Planning and recordkeeping
- No records are kept, or they are difficult to access.

Crop rotation
- Single or closely related crop species grown in the same field 3 or more years in a row.

Resistant varieties
- Resistant varieties not planted when available.

Cultivation
- Little or no mechanical control used (except no-till). Herbicide control program used exclusively.

Pest habitat management
- No effort to remove breeding/overwintering sites. Uncultivated areas overgrown with weeds.

Equipment cleaning
- Equipment usually not cleaned between fields.

Irrigation Scheduling
- Irrigation scheduled by calendar, with no adjustment for weather conditions.

Water application rate
- No measurement of water applied.

Tailwater
- Tailwater is common, not recycled.

Beneficial and biological controls
- Beneficial are not protected or considered AND pesticides are used frequently.

Frequency of Pesticide use
- Pesticides applied at first sign of pest, or at fixed intervals (for example, every two weeks, every four days).

Choice of Pesticide
- Pesticides selected based on past habits, relative cost, advice of others (salesmen or neighbors). Same chemical used repeatedly, no rotation of chemical classes.

Compliance with pesticide labeling
- Pesticides used in a manner inconsistent with labeling.

Weather conditions
- Pesticides are frequently applied when weather conditions are unsuitable.

Spill response planning and cleanup
- No spill response planning. Labels not available. No MSDS. No tools or materials for spill clean up are available.

Applicator qualifications
- No one on the establishment is trained or certified in pesticide application.

Size of target area
- Acreage not known.

Equipment selection and setup
- Equipment for broadcast applications only, OR equipment applies high volumes of spray mix.

Calibration
- Equipment is not calibrated.

Equipment maintenance
- Repairs made as required.

Chemigation equipment
- No backflow prevention device used; no check valves used; no system interlocks; injection unit located adjacent to well head.