COMPARING THE LEACHING CHARACTERISTICS OF SEVEN PESTICIDES APPLIED TO TURFGRASS COVERED UNDISTURBED SOIL COLUMNS UNDER TWO IRRIGATION REGIMES

S.K. Starrettı, N.E. Christians² and T.A. Austin³

ıCivil Engineering Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, 913-532-1583; ²Horticulture Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011; and ³Civil and Construction Engineering Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011


ABSTRACT

Pesticides are applied to grasses on golf courses, home lawns, sports complexes, industrial parks and other areas to improve turf quality. Current public concern has focused attention on the environmental effects of chemical applications to turfgrass areas. The objective of this research was to compare the leaching characteristics of pendimethalin, chlorpyrifos, isazofos, metalaxyl, 2,4-D, dicamba and MCPP when applied to a Kentucky bluegrass turf established on 50 cm undisturbed soil columns. The macropore system in the soil remained intact. This study was conducted using a heavy and light irrigation regime. The heavy irrigation regime consisted of four 2.54 cm applications spread over the four week test period. The light irrigation regime consisted of sixteen 0.63 cm applications spread over the four week test period. Isazofos, chlorpyrifos, metalaxyl, pendimethalin, 2,4-D, dicamba and MCPP recovery in the leachate from soil columns under the heavy irrigation regime averaged 6.3, 0.5, 7.7, 0.2, 0.6, 0.1 and 0.0% of the applied, respectively. Isazofos, chlorpyrifos, metalaxyl, pendimethalin, 2,4-D, dicamba and MCPP recovery in the leachate from soil columns under the light irrigation regime averaged 0.4, 0.0, 0.2, 0.0, 0.1, 0.0 and 0.0% of the applied, respectively. From this research, it was concluded that irrigation practices can have an impact on the leaching of pesticides through soil profiles.

KEY WORDS

environment, urban, insecticide, herbicide, fungicide

This paper is from the Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Hazardous Waste Research 1995, published in hard copy and on the Web by the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Hazardous Substance Research Center.