Pesticide Fate Research Trends within a Strict Regulatory Environment: The Case of Germany

Germany has adopted tough regulations to prevent environmental contamination from agricultural chemicals. This is exemplified by strict standards for drinking water that limit chemical concentrations to 0.1 part-per-billion (ppb), regardless of toxicity. Current German regulatory and research trends are described, with an emphasis on basic pesticide fate research. Several key trends are identified: (1) protection of ground water, surface water, and the atmosphere are all important regulatory priorities, (2) computer models, soil lysimeters, and monitoring play critical roles in regulation and research, (3) increased emphasis is being placed upon multidisciplinary studies to address complex research problems, and (4) solutions are being sought to meet the regulatory goal of absolute protection of drinking water, especially ground water

Allocating Nutrient Load Reduction across a Watershed: Implications of Different Principles

A watershed based model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), along with transfer coefficients is used to assess alternative principles of allocating nutrient load reduction in the Raccoon River watershed in central Iowa. Four principles are examined for their cost-effectiveness and impacts on water quality: absolute equity, equity based on ability, critical area targeting, and geographic proximity. Based on SWAT simulation results, transfer coefficients are calculated for the effects of nitrogen application reduction. We find both critical area targeting and downstream focus (an example of geographic proximity) can be more expensive than equal allocation, a manifestation of absolute equity. Unless abatement costs are quite heterogeneous across the subwatersheds, the least-cost allocation (an application of the principle of equity based on ability) have a potential of cost savings of about 10% compared to equal allocation. We also find that the gap between nitrogen loading estimated from transfer coefficients and nitrogen loading predicted by SWAT simulation is small (in general less than 5%). This suggests that transfer coefficients can be a useful tool for watershed nutrient planning. Sensitivity analyses suggest that these results are robust with respect to different degrees of nitrogen reduction and how much other conservation practices are used.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Carbon Sequestration, Co-Benefits, and Conservation Programs

Land use changes to sequester carbon also provide ﾓco-benefits,ﾔ some of which (for example, water quality) have attracted at least as much attention as carbon storage. The non-separability of these co-benefits presents a challenge for policy design. If carbon markets are employed, then social efficiency will depend on how we take into account co-benefits, that is, externalities, in such markets. If carbon sequestration is incorporated into conservation programs, then the weight given to carbon sequestration relative to its co-benefits will partly shape these programs. Using the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as an example, we show that CRP has been sequestering carbon, which was not an intended objective of the program. We also demonstrate that more carbon would have been sequestered had CRP targeted this objective, although the ﾓco-benefitsﾔ would have increased or decreased.

Environmental Conservation in Agriculture: Land Retirement Versus Changing Practices on Working Land

The study develops a conceptual framework for analyzing the allocation of conservation funds via selectively offering incentive payments to farmers for enrolling in one of two mutually exclusive agricultural conservation programs: retiring land from production or changing farming practices on land that remains in production. We investigate how the existence of a pre-fixed budget allocation between the programs affects the amounts of environmental benefits obtainable under alternative policy implementation schemes. The framework is applied to a major agricultural production region using field-scale data in conjunction with empirical models of land retirement and conservation tillage adoption, and a biophysical process simulation model for the environmental benefits of carbon sequestration and reduction in soil erosion.

Potential Adoption of Managed Aquifer Recharge Systems in the Corn Belt Region

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is a technique for improving groundwater recharge and maintaining aquifer levels to support water storage for water treatment systems and irrigation for agricultural production or other water needs. MAR is an effective buffer against future fluctuations in water demand, drought, and climate change. MAR systems include bank filtration, infiltration ponds/galleries, percolation tanks, and aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells (Page et al. 2018; Dillon et al. 2019; Alam et al. 2021). In the United States, MAR system use has increased for several reasons including water shortages, greater need for reliable seasonal water sources, and favorable costs (Bray 2020; Page et al. 2018; Pyne 2005). Dillon et al. (2019) report that average annual total MAR volume in the United States was 2,569 million cubic meters (MCM)/year in 2015. However, wider adoption of MAR systems has been hindered by uncertainty in determining appropriate site conditions and MAR method (Alam et al. 2021), lack of economic data (Maliva 2014), and legal, policy, and/or environmental issues (Bray 2020)

The Environmental Component of the National Pilot Project Integrated Modeling System

An integrated modeling system has been constructed for the Upper North Bosque River Watershed (UNBRW) in Erath and Hamilton Counties, Texas, to simulate the movement of nutrients from dairy waste disposal fields. The authors describe the environmental component of that modeling system, focusing on the assumptions used in configuring the models for the UNBRW and the linkages between them

Interactive APEX (i_APEX) USER’S GUIDE USING APEX2110 and APEX0806

A tool for managing large numbers of APEX runs, handling data input and output. Program Components: ACCESS Database: Contains input tables used by i_APEX to construct APEX runs and output tables to organize APEX output. Graphical User Interface: Allows for single runs and ranges of runs and permits editing of input data as well as selection of output variables and output files

Evaluation of EPIC for Three Minnesota Cropping Systems

The Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model was tested using four years of field data collected at a site near Lamberton, Minnesota, under three different crop rotations: continuous corn (Zea mays L.) or CC, soybean (Glycine max L.)-corn (SC), continuous alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) or CA. The model was evaluated by comparing measured versus predicted subsurface drainage flow (tile flow), nitratenitrogen (NO3-N) loss in tile flow, residual NO3-N in the soil profile, crop N uptake, and yield. Initially, EPIC was run using standard Soil Conservation Service (SCS) runoff curve numbers (CN2) suggested for the soil type at the site. Two different SC runs were performed with a nitrogen fixation parameter denoted as parm(7) set at either 1.0 or 0.3, reflecting uncertainty for this parameter. Under this scenario, EPIC accurately tracked monthly CC and SC variations of tile flow (r2 = 0.86 and 0.90) and NO3- N loss (r2 = 0.69 and 0.52 or 0.62). However, average annual CC and SC tile flows were under-predicted by 32 and 34 percent, and corresponding annual NO3-N losses were under-predicted by 11 and 41 or 52 percent. Predicted average annual tile flows and NO3-N losses improved following calibration of the CN2; CC and SC tile flow under-predictions were -9 and -12 percent while NO3-N losses were 0.6 and -54 or -24 percent. In general, EPIC reliably replicated the impacts of different crop management systems on nitrogen fate; e.g., greater N loss under CC and SC than CA, and less residual soil N under CA as compared to the other cropping systems. The simulated CA monthly tile flows and NO3-N losses also compared poorly with observed values (r2 values of 0.27 and 0.19). However, the predicted CA annual drainage volumes and N losses were of similar magnitude to those measured, which is of primary interest when applying models such as EPIC on a regional scale

Predicting pharmacy naloxone stocking and dispensing following a statewide standing order, Indiana 2016

BACKGROUND: While naloxone, the overdose reversal medication, has been available for decades, factors associated with its availability through pharmacies remain unclear. Studies suggest that policy and pharmacist beliefs may impact availability. Indiana passed a standing order law for naloxone in 2015 to increase access to naloxone. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with community pharmacy naloxone stocking and dispensing following the enactment of a statewide naloxone standing order. METHODS: A 2016 cross-sectional census of Indiana community pharmacists was conducted following a naloxone standing order. Community, pharmacy, and pharmacist characteristics, and pharmacist attitudes about naloxone dispensing, access, and perceptions of the standing order were measured. Modified Poisson and binary logistic regression models attempted to predict naloxone stocking and dispensing, respectively. RESULTS: Over half (58.1%) of pharmacies stocked naloxone, yet 23.6% of pharmacists dispensed it. Most (72.5%) pharmacists believed the standing order would increase naloxone stocking, and 66.5% believed it would increase dispensing. Chain pharmacies were 3.2 times as likely to stock naloxone. Naloxone stocking was 1.6 times as likely in pharmacies with more than one full-time pharmacist. Pharmacies where pharmacists received naloxone continuing education in the past two years were 1.3 times as likely to stock naloxone. The attempted dispensing model yielded no improvement over the constant-only model. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacies with larger capacity took advantage of the naloxone standing order. Predictors of pharmacist naloxone dispensing should continue to be explored to maximize naloxone access