Leaching of agricultural chemicals to groundwater is an
environmental issue of major concern in Hawaii. Fumigants used by the
pineapple industry are a possible source of this contamination. In this paper we
report the results of an initial evaluation of the Pesticide Root Zone Model
(PRZM) for highly structured Hawaiian soils. We use PRZM to predict the
transport of the soil fumigant ethylene dibromide (EDB) for two pineapple fields
and compare the simulated concentration profiles with field measurements.
Although preliminary, our results suggest that PRZM may be useful in the future
for pesticide screening and risk assessment in Hawaii. The work reported here
is part of a larger ongoing study concerned with development and application
of methodology for assessing potential groundwater contamination by pesticides
