Keep Pesticides From Entering Groundwater

The average suburban home is using more pesticides and herbicides, fossil fuels, and water to maintain than well-maintained agricultural land, acre per acre. Organic remedies must replace standard landscaping and become standard practice, now, to improve groundwater and environmental health.

Two main sources of pesticides have different effects on the environment.

1. Pyrethroids are toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates, but not as toxic to humans.
2. Organophosphates – made up of Diazinon and Chlorpyrifos – are toxic to humans and all kinds of animals.

Taken off the market in early 2000s, this second group isn’t entirely a thing of the past. Government and agricultural websites which help get the word out about avoiding pesticides – not just a recommendation, but necessary action – tell consumers that if they must use pesticides, they must dispose of them safely. There is no known safe way to dispose of pesticides. They must be stored properly until they are used entirely. They simply must be ‘used’. Sanitation services cannot accept them and they can not be allowed into groundwater or even near foliage where humans and mammals would be in contact with the toxins. Sadly, these were widely available on store shelves as a ‘remedy’ to garden pests not too long ago.

Two Ways These Toxins Affect Surrounding Environments Where They Have Been Used:

1. Run-off water – often from rain spilling out over gutters – runs into storm drains and then into waterways.
2. Particles attached to dirt are washed down through household drains and into treatment plants.

Treatment plants can not dissolve or clean pesticide residue from water. Therefor, water released back into the enviroment after being treated – if pesticides have leaked in – contains some level of trace, pesticide residue. This residue is very harmful to fish and aquatic life, damaging eco-systems which are fragile enough already.

Non-toxic Methods of Managing Pests

• Water, mulch, and fertilize to keep plants healthy and able to grow beyond slight nibbles. Healthy plants are more likely to avoid infestations naturally.
• Plant indigenous cultivars and pest-resistant varieties of plants. Read labels on plants and seeds at garden centers where this information is given. Consult books, web pages, and neighbors with healthy garden plants.
• Use netting, copper barriers, and other products which promote healthy, organic, pest resistant gardening.
• Increase the number of pests’ predators in the garden by purchasing and releasing ladybugs, lacewings, preying mantises, and butterflies.
• Use slug traps, shallow saucers full of beer submerged at ground level, and dispose of them.
• Prune off and wash pest infected areas of plants with regular soap and water rinses. A gentle dish soap, bubble soap, and a powerful setting of a spray nozzle attached to the hose sprays pests off plants.
• Invest in an organic gardening manual or consult the library or internet to identify particular pest problems and determine the organic remedy that works.
• Encourage others to garden organically.
• Hire landscapers with organic gardening credentials.

For more information on growing organic vegetables, read about growing and serving Organic Eggplant from seedling to the table, also written by Kara Smith.