Chesapeake Bay Pesticides: Some Diminish, Some Persist

By Ann Perry
July 7, 2011

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are identifying factors that influence pesticide levels in the Chesapeake Bay airshed, including traces of "legacy" pesticides that still linger even though they are no longer being used.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemists Laura McConnell and Cathleen Hapeman obtained weekly air samples and rain samples for precipitation events from 2000 to 2003 at three sites in Maryland and Delaware. Both scientists work at the ARS Environmental Management and Byproduct Utilization Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.