If you rely on an underground drinking water source, you — like many others — may have assumed that your water was well protected from contamination. The weedkillers and the insecticides used by you, your neighbors or the farmer in the next county may seem like the last things you should think about when it comes to water quality. Unfortunately, it’s time to think again.

A variety of pesticides, legally used and applied, have found their way into our drinking water supplies — including groundwater. Atrazine, a weedkiller heavily used on corn and soybeans, suburban lawns and utility rights-of-way shows up in alarming regularity in water supplies around the country. In California, water users still struggle with widespread contamination of groundwater by DBCP — a pesticide linked with male fertility problems and banned many years ago. In the State of Maine communities in close proximity to blueberry fields have found that their chances of detecting weedkillers in their wells are very high, and in Iowa a 1996 study indicated contamination in more than half of the state’s municipal wells.

All across the country the story repeats itself. Pesticides end up in places they were never supposed to reach. They end up in our tap water and in our streams.

But groundwater contamination can be addressed. 

You can help protect the water your family relies on...

Second, use Friends of the Earth's new publication Protecting Groundwater from Pesticides:  A Clean Water Action Guide to get involved in pesticide management decisions in your area. This guide will give you all the background you need to get up-to-speed — even if you are a newcomer to groundwater issues or to the world of pesticides. This 80-page guide is written for novice and experienced activists alike and will help you become an informed participant in debates about pesticide management in your own backyard.  Use the Table of Contents to decide which sections you would like to review.