EPA Releases More User-friendly Calculator for Estimating Pesticide Concentrations in Water
Released on May 31, 2024
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the release of a faster, more user-friendly version of the Pesticide in Water Calculator. This is a model EPA uses to estimate exposure to pesticides in drinking water when developing human dietary risk assessments as well as for estimating pesticide concentrations for ecological risk assessments.
The new version of the model has a simplified user interface and faster processing times. In addition, it allows users to run multiple pesticide simulations at once, replacing a manual process that could take weeks. It also includes automatic calculations that previously required the use of additional steps. For example, the model now automatically determines the estimated drift of pesticide droplets outside of the target field (spray drift). As a result, users no longer need to run a separate model to obtain spray drift estimates. Furthermore, this new version allows users to consider the impact of pesticide application timing factors, such as weather, on exposure estimates and enables users to automatically include all types of waterbodies that are relevant to risk assessments.
EPA has made the model available to the public to increase the transparency in its risk assessment process, and stakeholders can use it to inform their submissions to the Agency. It was last updated in April 2023 to use the same scenarios for both drinking water and ecological risk assessments. EPA will update this model when substantial changes are necessary.