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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #231333
Title: Pesticide Transport with Runoff from Turf: Observations Compared with TurfPQ Model Simulations

Author
item Kramer, Kirsten
item Rice, Pamela
item HORGAN, BRIAN - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item Hamlin, Jennifer
item King, Kevin

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2009
Publication Date: 9/11/2009
Citation: Kramer, K.E., Rice, P.J., Horgan, B.P., Rittenhouse, J.L., King, K.W. 2009. Pesticide Transport with Runoff from Turf: Observations Compared with TurfPQ Model Simulations. Journal of Environmental Quality. 38(6):2402-2411.

Interpretive Summary: Pesticides applied to turf grass have been detected in surface waters raising concerns of their affect on water quality and interest in their source, hydrological transport and use of models to predict transport. TurfPQ, a pesticide runoff model for turf, is a computer model used to predict chemical fate and transport without having to devote time and resources toward field data collection. We report that TurfPQ, a pesticide runoff model for turf grass, consistently underestimated the transport of dicamba, flutolanil, and chlorpyrifos with runoff from golf course fairway turf during intense storm events. The greatest source of error was not in estimates of the pesticide properties or turf characteristics but rather in the timing of predicted infiltration and runoff, which influenced the predicted availability of pesticides for transport with runoff. Changing the model’s chronological separation of infiltration and runoff and replacing the daily precipitation inputs with more frequent time steps would allow for more accurate predictions of pesticide transport with runoff during larger storm events.

Technical Abstract: Pesticides applied to turf grass have been detected in surface waters raising concerns of their affect on water quality and interest in their source, hydrological transport and use of models to predict transport. TurfPQ, a pesticide runoff model for turf grass, predicts pesticide transport but has not been rigorously validated for larger storms. The objective of this study was to determine TurfPQ’s ability to accurately predict the transport of pesticides with runoff following more intense precipitation. The study was conducted with creeping bentgrass [Agrostis palustris Huds.] turf managed as a golf course fairway. A pesticide mixture containing dicamba, 2,4-D, MCPP, flutolanil, and chlorpyrifos was applied to six adjacent 24.4 m x 6.1 m plots. Controlled rainfall simulations were conducted using a rainfall simulator designed to deliver water droplets similar to natural rain. Runoff flow rates and volume were measured and water samples were collected for analysis of pesticide concentrations. Six simulations yielded 13 events with which to test TurfPQ. Measured mean percentage of applied pesticide recovered in the runoff for dicamba, 2,4-D, MCPP, flutolanil, and chlorpyrifos was 24.6, 20.7, 14.9, 5.9, and 0.8 %, respectively. The predicted mean values produced by TurfPQ were 13.7, 15.6, 15.5, 2.5, and 0.2 %, respectively. The model produced correlations of r = 0.56 and 0.64 for curve number hydrology and measured hydrology, respectively. Comparisons of the model estimates with our field observations indicate that TurfPQ under predicted pesticide runoff during 69.5 ± 11.4 mm, 1.9 ± 0.2 h, simulated storms.