Tuesday, December 12, 2006
D0329

Department of pesticide regulation air monitoring and pest management projects address pesticide-related air quality issues in California's San Joaquin Valley

Randy Segawa, rsegawa@cdpr.ca.gov, Thomas Babb, tbabb@cdpr.ca.gov, Robert Elliott, belliott@cdpr.ca.gov, Minghua Zhang, mzhang@cdpr.ca.gov, and Patricia Matteson, pmatteson@cdpr.ca.gov. Cal/EPA, Department of Pesticide Regulation, 1001 I Street, P.O.Box 4015, Sacramento, CA

Improving air quality in the San Joaquin Valley is a high priority for Cal/EPA's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). A DPR Environmental Justice Pilot Project is sampling air in Parlier, Fresno County, a small Hispanic town surrounded by orchards and vineyards, to determine whether pesticides are present at levels of health concern. DPR funds University of California (UC) grape IPM research and is implementing a U.S. EPA-funded stone fruit IPM project in Parlier, partnering with progressive growers, UC, and the California Tree Fruit Agreement (a commodity group) for field evaluation and promotion of environmentally friendly pest management practices. The project has published a Seasonal Guide to Environmentally Responsible Pest Management Practices in Peaches and Nectarines. In collaboration with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, financial incentives are being offered to growers who use sensor-equipped sprayers that reduce pesticide use and drift. Remote sensing-guided variable rate pesticide application technology is being evaluated for tree fruit pest management.