# Determining the Fate and Transport of Pesticide Emissions in the Chesapeake Bay Region Laura L. McConnell Cathleen J. Hapeman Cody J. Howard U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Beltsville, MD
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# Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

 

# Largest, most diversified agricultural research complex in the world  

# Research laboratories focus on:  

## Plant Sciences  

## Animal Science and Health  

## Natural Resource Management and Protection  

## Human Nutrition  

## National Arboretum (Washington, DC) 2

# Motivation

 Chesapeake Bay Region: Ecosystem Health Decrease  Eutrophication  Toxicity  Decrease in biodiversity 

###  Restoration: Presidential Executive Order 13508  Use expertise and resources to improve health: Local, State, and Federal agencies and others  Adaptive management – utilize more effective monitoring and modeling  Includes milestones  FLC developed the Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed 3

# Background
– Sources of Air Pollutants  Urban NOx, VOCs, and PM  Rural Animal agricultural operations PM, VOCs, SVOCs, ammonia  Pesticide Applications  Legacy and current use pesticides measured in air and rain samples  Inert – VOCs  Active ingredient - SVOCS  Regulated by the CADPR, other states to follow  Biogenic VOCs, SVOCs, PM  Forms Ozone and PM 4

# Research
– Objective & Approach Objective - Discern the chemical nature, fate, and transport of critical agricultural pollutants emitted to the atmosphere and consider the potential risks posed by reactivity and/or deposition of these chemicals to sensitive ecosystems . Approach  

### Measure Ambient Concentrations  

### Legacy and c urrent use pesticides  

### Urban and rural organic pollutants  

### Ozone, NOx

### , ammonia, and PM 10 

###  

### Estimate emissions at smaller grid size with Pesticide Emissions Model (PEM)  

### Determine fate and transport of selected gases using

- Community Multi -scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ)

- EPAs high performance computer cluster with AMAD (RTP, NC) 5

# VOC and Pesticide Emissions  

### VOCs in formulated pesticides are common solvents  

### The characterization of the formulants is proprietary  

### Six different pesticide products containing organic solvents were analyzed by TGA and by GC - MS

 

### Herbicides H1 & H2  

### Fungicides F1 & F2  

### Insecticides I2 & I2TA Instruments

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# VOC and Pesticide Emissions

 CA DPR regulating VOC emissions  Recent manuscript details different methods Zenali et al. 2010. Atmospheric Environment, in review 0.0 15.0 30.0 45.0 60.0 75.0

H1 H2 F1 F2 I1 I2VOC or Active Ingredient (%)

Pesticide Product TGA GC- MS Active Ingredient

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# VOC and Pesticide Emissions

 

### Gases emitted during TGA were analyzed in near real -time using FTIR  

### FTIR spectral intensity were compared to GC- MS data 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06

33 46 58 71 83 96 108 115TGA Mass Loss (%)FTIR Intensity (mV) Intensity 2,2 - dimethyl - 1,3 - dioxolane - 4 - ethanol 2 - Octanone or 2 - Nonanone 1,2 - Propanediol Acetophenone TGA Mass Loss **F1**

115

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# Methods
– Field Measurements

 

## Three representative sites  

## Pesticides measured using high volume samplers  

## VOCs measured using thermal desorption tubes  

## PM measured using filters  

## Collaboration

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# Methods
– What is PEM?

 

# Developed by M. Trevor Scholtz  

## Scholtz 2002a, 2002b and Cooter 2002a, 2002b 

##  

# Inputs: soil concentration, soil property, soil moisture, and meteorological data  

# Calibration  

## Multi -year study of pesticide fate data from USDA-ARS, Beltsville (J. Prueger, T. Gish)  

# Develop emissions inventories for pesticides during selected years of study
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# Results - PEM

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# Results - PEM

Scholtz et al., Interpretation Center Final Report to EPA, March 1999 

###  Results represent gridded atrazine emissions from PEM only  36 x 36 km grid cell resolution  We will use 4 x 4 or 8 x 8 km  Smaller Area  Pin point areas of interest

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# Methods - CMAQ

 

### Community Multi -scale Air Quality Model  

### Inputs
 MET (MM5 or WRF)  Emissions inputs 

###  

### Calibration - Compare against observed measurements  

### Determine fate and transport of selected chemicals

- Biogenic and urban emissions will be incorporated Weather Data Met Model (WRF or MM5) Emission Inventory (Including PEM output) SMOKE (Emissions Processor) 

## CMAQ Model Hourly Gridded Chemical Concentrations

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# Conclusions

 

## TGA analysis can provide pesticide emissions data  

## For inert and active ingredients  

## Using PEM to predict pesticide emissions in a more focused region with smaller grid sizes  

## Once PEM is integrated into CMAQ, hourly gridded chemical concentrations of pesticide and pesticide VOC concentrations will be determined

 

## Help to determine fate and transport of pesticides  

## First year of a five year program underway; currently looking for additional funding from our collaboration partners 14

# Thank You! Any Questions?

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# References Cooter , E.J. and Hutzell , W.T., 2002. A regional atmospheric fate and transport model for atrazine . 1. Development and implementation. Environmental Science & Technology 36 (19), 4091 -4098. Cooter , E.J., Hutzell , W.T., Foreman, W.T. and Majewski , M.S., 2002. A regional atmospheric fate and transport model for atrazine . 2. Evaluation. Environmental Science & Technology 36 (21), 4593 -4599. Scholtz, M.T., Voldner , E., McMillan, A.C. and Van Heyst, B.J., 2002a. A pesticide emission model (PEM) Part I: model development. Atmospheric Environment 36 (32), 5005 - 5013. Scholtz, M.T., Voldner , E., Van Heyst, B.J., McMillan, A.C. and Pattey , E., 2002b. A pesticide emission model (PEM) Part II: model evaluation. Atmospheric Environment 36 (32), 5015 - 5024. Scholtz et al., Hourly Gridded Atrazine Emissions from the Canadian Global Emissions Interpretation Center, Final Report to the EPA, March 1999 16