Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for Southeast StreamQuality Assessment, 2014

Open-File Report 2015–1224

Version 2.1, July 2016

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for 

Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment, 

2014

By Nancy T. Baker

Open-File Report 2015–1224

Version 2.1, July 2016

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Department of the Interior

SALLY JEWELL, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

Suzette M. Kimball, Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia

First release: December 1, 2015

Revised: December 14, 2015 (ver. 2.0)

Revised: July 2016 (ver. 2.1) 

For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living 

resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS.

For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, 

visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/.

Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the 

U.S. Government.

Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also may contain copyrighted materials 

as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner.

Suggested citation:

Baker, N.T., 2016, Estimated agricultural pesticide use for Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment, 2014

(ver. 2.1, July 2016): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015–1224, 5 p., 

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151224.

ISSN 2331-1258 (online)
iii

Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................1

Estimation Methods ......................................................................................................................................1

Pesticide Use Data .......................................................................................................................................2

Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................................................3

References Cited............................................................................................................................................5

Figure

1. Location of Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment watersheds.........................................4

Tables

1. Estimated pesticide use (EPest)-high and EPest-low estimates, by county, for the 

southeastern United States, 2014 (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ofr/20151224/)........3

2. Estimated pesticide use (EPest)-high and EPest-low estimates, by watershed, for 

the southeastern United States, 2014 (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ofr/20151224/) .3

3. Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment watershed station information (available 

at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ofr/20151224/).......................................................................................3
Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for Southeast 

Stream-Quality Assessment, 2014

By Nancy T. Baker

Introduction 

One of the goals of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment (SESQA) is to characterize contaminants at perennial-stream sites throughout the 

southern Piedmont and southern Appalachian Mountains. The 

evaluation of pesticide inputs from agricultural sources will 

aid in that characterization. 

Methods used for calculating county-level pesticide 

use documented in this report are from methods developed 

and described by Thelin and Stone (2013) and Baker and 

Stone (2015). Two methods for calculating estimated pesticide use (EPest) rates—EPest-low and EPest-high—were 

applied in this study to estimate a probable range in the annual 

amounts of pesticide used for agriculture in 2014. To calculate 

watershed-level estimates, county-level use was proportionally allocated to agricultural land within each watershed. 

Concentrations of 262 pesticide compounds were estimated 

and compiled for subsequent analysis by the USGS National 

Water Quality Assessment Program, Southeast Stream-Quality 

Assessment.

This report provides estimates of annual agricultural use 

of 262 pesticide compounds for counties and selected watersheds in parts of eight southeastern States for 2014. Estimates 

of county- and watershed-level annual agricultural pesticide 

use are provided as downloadable, tab-delimited files for both 

EPest-high and EPest-low.

Estimation Methods 

County-level estimation methods for pesticide use , 

which are summarized in this report, are described in detail 

in Thelin and Stone (2013) and Baker and Stone (2015). 

Pesticide-use data compiled from proprietary surveys of farm 

operations located within U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) Crop Reporting Districts (CRDs)—a collection of 

contiguous counties within each state—were used to calculate 

pesticide use per crop acre, or an “estimated pesticide use” 

(EPest) rate, for each pesticide compound used in a CRD. 

Pesticide-use estimates at the county level were then calculated by multiplying EPest rates by harvested-crop acres for 

each pesticide-by-crop combination in each county. The data 

for annual harvested-crop acres are reported in the USDA–

National Agricultural Statistics 2012 Census of Agriculture 

(Ag Census; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014), and the 

data for each crop harvested in the CRD are reported in the 

2014 County Agricultural Production Survey (CAPS; U.S. 

Department of Agriculture–National Agricultural Statistics 

Service, 2015).

Two estimates—EPest-low and EPest-high—provide 

a range of values of pesticide use (Thelin and Stone, 2013; 

Baker and Stone, 2015) where a pesticide-use rate is not 

available for a crop from a CRD. Both estimation methods 

incorporate extrapolated rates and rates reported from surveys 

of farmers to estimate pesticide use for counties, but EPestlow and EPest-high estimation procedures differ in how they 

treat situations when a CRD was surveyed and pesticide use 

was not reported for a particular pesticide-by-crop combination. The EPest-low estimate is zero in the CRD for pesticideby-crop combinations not listed in responses from surveyed 

farmers. The EPest-high estimate, which is used for counties 

in unsurveyed CRDs and in surveyed CRDs with missing 

or incomplete responses from farmers, was made by using a 

complex algorithm described in detail by Thelin and Stone 

(2013). The EPest-high estimate is based on the median of 

reported pesticide-by-crop use rates from surveyed farmers in 

neighboring CRDs and, in some cases, CRDs within the same 

USDA Farm Resource Region (Thelin and Stone, 2013). In 

some cases, EPest-low annual totals can be greater than EPesthigh totals when the EPest-low regional pesticide-by-crop rate 

is greater than the EPest-high rate. EPest regional pesticideby-crop rates are determined by using the median rate of a 

minimum of three CRDs, and, typically, EPest-high regional 

rates are determined from the median of a greater number of 

CRDs than EPest-low regional rates, and this occasionally 

results in a higher rate for EPest-low (Thelin and Stone, 2013). 
2

Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment, 2014

To calculate watershed-level estimates for pesticide use, 

county-level pesticide-by-crop use was first aggregated to 

county-level pesticide use on pasture or hay and on cultivated 

land. This was done because the National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2011; Homer and others, 2015), which was used 

to proportionally allocate county estimates to agricultural land 

within each watershed assigns pasture or hay to NLCD class 

81 and cultivated land to NLCD class 82. The NLCD 2011 

land-use raster, which has a 30-meter [m] cell size, was then 

combined with a 30-m cell size rasterized version (JoAnn 

Gronberg, U.S. Geological Survey, written commun., 2012) 

of the Topographically Integrated Geographic Encoding and 

Referencing (TIGER)/Line® shapefile of county boundaries from the 2010 U.S. Census (https://www.census.gov/geo/

maps-data/data/tiger-line.html; United States Census Bureau, 

2012). Thus, the combined files result in a geospatial raster 

that includes NLCD class 81 and class 82 for each county 

(NLCD-CO) located in the SESQA study area. The aggregated pesticide by county values for NLCD 81 and NLCD 82 

EPest-high and EPest-low rate was then joined by county code 

to NLCD-CO. To obtain the NLCD-CO per 30-m cell use rate 

for each pesticide, the county use was divided by the number 

of cells within each county and NCLD 2011 class combination (NLCD-CO-EPest). Geospatial vector data of watershed 

boundaries, developed for 115 SESQA stream sites (Naomi 

Nakagaki and Sharon Qi, U.S. Geological Survey, written 

commun., 2015), were then used to extract the NLCD-COEPest for each watershed. For each compound, the NLCDCO-EPest cells within each watershed were summed to obtain 

the total pesticide use for that compound in that watershed. 

Pesticide Use Data 

Estimates of annual agricultural pesticide use, by county 

and watershed, are provided for this report as downloadable, tab-delimited files available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/

ofr/20151224/. The results for pesticide use are considered to 

satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which 

the data were collected. Although these data and associated 

metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding 

the display or utility of the data on any other system or for 

general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution 

constitute any such warranty. 

County-level high and low estimates, provided for the 

southeastern states, are listed in table 1. The area of agricultural land (NLCD classes 81 and 82) is provided to show the 

relative amount of agricultural land in the county. The 16 

column headings in table 1 and descriptions are listed below. 

Heading Description

1. STATE_FIPS_CODE Federal Information 

Processing Standard (FIPS) 

code

2. STATE state name

3. COUNTY_FIPS_CODE county FIPS code

4. COUNTY county name

5. STATECO_FIPS_CODE combined state and county 

FIPS code

6. YEAR year

7. COUNTY_AREA_KM2 area of the county, in square 

kilometers (km2

)

8. LU81_KM2 area of NLCD class 81 land 

use, in km2

9. LU82_KM2 area of NLCD class 82 land 

use, in km2

10. COMPOUND pesticide compound name

11. EPEST__HIGH_LU81_KGS high estimated pesticide use 

for NLCD class 81 

(pasture or hay), in 

kilograms (kgs)

12. EPEST__HIGH_LU82_KGS high estimated pesticide use 

for NLCD class 82 (cultivated land), in kgs

13. EPEST_HIGH_KGS high estimated total pesticide 

use for classes 81 plus 82 

combined, in kgs

14. EPEST_ LOW_LU81_KGS low estimated pesticide use for 

NLCD class 81 

(pasture or hay), in kgs

15. EPEST__LOW_LU82_KGS low estimated pesticide use for 

NLCD class 82 (cultivated 

land), in kgs 

16. EPEST__LOW_KGS low estimated total pesticide 

use for classes 81 and 82 

combined, in kgs
Acknowledgments

3

High and low estimates of pesticide use, organized by 

watershed station identification number, are provided in 

table 2. The area of agricultural land (NLCD classes 81 and 

82) is provided to show the relative amount of agricultural 

land in the watershed. The 14 column headings in table 2 and 

descriptions are listed below. 

Heading Description

1. STATION_ID watershed identification 

number

2. YEAR year

3. STATION_DA_KM2 drainage area of the watershed, 

in km2

4. LU81_KM2 area of NLCD class 81 land 

use, in km2

5. LU82_KM2 area of NLCD class 82 land 

use, in km2

6. COMPOUND pesticide compound name

7. EPEST_HIGH_LU81_KGS high estimated pesticide use 

for NLCD class 81 (pasture 

or hay), in kgs

8. EPEST_HIGH_LU82_KGS high estimated pesticide use 

for NLCD class 82 (cultivated land), in kgs

9. EPEST_HIGH_KGS high estimated total pesticide 

use for classes 81 plus 82 

combined, in kgs

10. EPEST_HIGH_KGSperKM2 high estimated total pesticide 

use, in kgs per km2

 of land 

in the watershed

11. EPEST_LOW_LU81_KGS low estimated pesticide use for 

NLCD class 81 (pasture or 

hay), in kgs

12. EPEST_LOW_LU82_KGS low estimated pesticide use for 

NLCD class 82 (cultivated 

land), in kgs

13. EPEST_LOW_KGS low estimated total pesticide 

use for classes 81 and 82 

combined, in kgs

14. EPEST_LOW_KGSperKM2 low estimated total pesticide 

use, in kgs per km2 of land 

in the watershed

Watersheds in the southeastern United States that are 

part of the SESQA study area and for which pesticide use was 

estimated are shown in figure 1. The SESQA watershed station 

information is listed in table 3.

Acknowledgments

Several U.S. Geological Survey colleagues are gratefully acknowledged for assisting with various aspects of this 

investigation. Geospatial vector data of watershed boundaries 

for SESQA were provided by Naomi Nakagaki and Sharon 

L. Qi. Geospatial raster data of 2010 county boundaries were 

provided by JoAnn M. Gronberg. Technical reviews were 

provided by Aubrey R. Bunch and W. Fred Falls.

Table 1. Estimated pesticide use (EPest)-high and EPest-low 

estimates, by county, for the southeastern United States, 2014 

(available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ofr/20151224/).

Table 2. Estimated pesticide use (EPest)-high and EPest-low 

estimates, by watershed, for the southeastern United States, 2014 

(available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ofr/20151224/).

Table 3. Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment watershed 

station information (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/

ofr/20151224/).
4

Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment, 2014

80°

85°

90°

40°

35°

48

11

12

20

19

86 102

26

32

25

114

9

47

103

3

77

107

71

112

113

24

97

64

31 42

85

63

22

94

6

7

21

4

83

69

41

111

98

87

92

30

95

62

105

104

88

68

60

73

106 80

109

43 27

33

15

16

75

66

74

96

18

5

54

82

45

35

14

13

100

101

61

0 55 110 220 Miles

0 110 220 Kilometers 55

2 1

17

8

10

115

34

29 28

37 38

40 39

36

23

110

59

50

49

51

52

53

56

55

44

58 5746

67 65

108

70

76

72

99

81

84 89 9091

93

78 79

85

Kentucky

Tennessee

Alabama

Georgia

South

Carolina

North

Carolina

Virginia

West

Virginia

Watershed boundary 

 and map identifier

82 (cultivated land)

81 (pasture or hay)

National Land Cover Database

 land-use class

EXPLANATION

Figure 1. Location of Southeast Stream Quality Assessment watersheds.

Figure 1. Location of Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment watersheds.
References Cited

5

References Cited

Baker, N.T., and Stone, W.W., 2015, Estimated annual 

agricultural pesticide use for counties of the conterminous 

United States, 2008–12: U.S. Geological Survey Data 

Series 907, 9 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds907.

Homer, C.G., Dewitz, J.A., Yang, L., Jin, S., Danielson, P., 

Xian, G., Coulston, J., Herold, N.D., Wickham, J.D., and 

Megown, K., 2015, Completion of the 2011 National Land 

Cover Database for the conterminous United States—

Representing a decade of land cover change information: 

Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 81, 

no. 5, p. 345–354, accessed November, 2, 2014, at 

http://www.asprs.org/a/publications/pers/2015journals/

PERS_May_2015/HTML/index.html#345/z.

Thelin, G.P., and Stone, W.W., 2013, Estimation of annual 

agricultural pesticide use for counties of the conterminous 

United States, 1992–2009: U.S. Geological Survey 

Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5009, 54 p.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2012, TIGER/Line® shapefiles and 

TIGER/Line® files: accessed October 15, 2015, at

https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-line.html.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014, 2012 Census of 

agriculture, United States summary and state data: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Sta-

tistics Service, Geographic Area Series, v. 1, pt. 51, 

AC–12–A–51, accessed May 2013 at http://www.agcensus.

usda.gov/Publications/2012/.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014, 2012 Census of 

agriculture, county-level data: U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, v. 1, 

chap. 2, accessed October 15, 2015, at http://www.agcensus.

usda.gov/Publications/2012/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chap-

ter_2_County_Level/.

U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statis-

tics Service, 2015, Quick-Stats—Field crops, 2014: Wash-

ington D.C., U.S. Department of Agriculture, accessed 

April 2015 at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/.


Baker—Estimated Agricultural Pesticide Use for Southeast Stream-Quality Assessment, 2014—Open-File Report 2015–1224, ver. 2.1 

ISSN 2331-1258 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151224