About the UP3 Project
Photo credit: SWAMP, S.F. Bay Water Board
Background:
Preventing water pollution from urban pesticide use is the goal of the Urban Pesticide Pollution Prevention (UP3) Project. Funded by a State Water Resources Control Board to the San Francisco Estuary Project, the UP3 Project addresses the fact that a number of California creeks have sediment that is toxic to aquatic life—and this toxicity is caused by commonly used urban insecticides. Pesticides used by professionals and homeowners to kill ants and other insects can be washed into creeks when it rains (or during irrigation). Researchers have recently found evidence of widespread toxicity caused by a group of commonly used insecticides known as pyrethroids.
The UP3 Project works to reduce this toxicity in our creeks in three main ways:
- Providing tools to municipalities to support their efforts to reduce municipal pesticide use and to conduct outreach to their communities on less-toxic methods of pest control (e.g., baits, caulking, improved sanitation)
- Compiling the latest relevant scientific information and providing regular e-mail updates and informative annual reports.
- Providing technical assistance to California Water Boards and municipalities to encourage the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to prevent water quality problems from pesticides.
A partner in the UP3 Project grant, TDC Environmental, LLC. is providing technical assistance with monitoring and science, and regulatory activities.
Highlights of UP3 Accomplishments to Date:
- Manage the bimonthly Urban Pesticides Committee (UPC), a nationally unique statewide network of more than 150 agencies, nonprofits, industry, and other stakeholders that are working to solve water quality problems from pesticides.
- Organized biannual Public Agencies IPM Exchange meetings, which bring together municipal integrated pest management (IPM) coordinators, pest managers, and others to share resources and discuss ways to make IPM work “on-the-ground”
- Provided more than 100 UPC e-mail updates on science, regulatory, and outreach issues.
- Established the UP3 web site, which draws thousands of hits per month and is cited by researchers, water quality managers, and regulators as a key resource for their work.
- Trained hundreds of municipal staff and pest managers on the links between pesticide use and water quality and how to manage ant problems using integrated pest management.
- Completed the only available analysis of urban pesticide use patterns to inform water quality and pesticide agency responses to pesticide-related surface water toxicity.
- Tracked the latest science and regulatory information and provided informative annual reports
Documents:
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water: Urban Pesticide Use Trends Report 2007, prepared for the UP3 Project by TDC Environmental. (PDF file)
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water: Annual Review of New Scientific Findings 2007, Prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, June 2007
Urban Use of the Insecticide Fipronil--Water Quality Implications, Memorandum to the Urban Pesticide Committee from Kelly D. Moran, TDC Environmental, June 18, 2007
The Urban Pesticide Pollution Prevention Project--A Regional Initiative, presentation at the 3rd Annual Regional IPM Conference, San Jose, November 14, 2006
Status Report: Bay Area Municipal Urban Runoff Management Agencies' Pesticide-Related Activities, UP3 Project, July 2006 (PDF file)
Improving Pesticide Regulatory Activities to Protect Water Quality: Annual Update 2006, prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, January 2007 (PDF file)
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water, Annual Research and Monitoring Update 2006, Prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, April 2006 (PDF file)
Status Report: Bay Area Municipal Urban Runoff Management Agencies' Pesticide-Related Activities, UP3 Project, July 2006 (PDF file)
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water, Annual Research and Monitoring Update 2006, Prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, April 2006 (PDF file)
Improving Pesticide Regulatory Activities to Protect Water Quality: Annual Update 2005, prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, December 2005
Poster Presentation: Sources of Pyrethroids in Urban Runoff, prepared for the UP3 Project by TDC Environmental, State of the Estuary Conference, October 4-6, 2005
San Francisco Bay Area Pesticide Retail Store Survey, prepared for the UP3 Project by TDC Environmental, September 2005
Presentation: Pesticides, Water, and You: How the Pesticides We Use Affect Water Quality, by Kelly Moran, TDC Environmental for the Second Annual Regional IPM Conference, June 14, 2005.
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water: Urban Pesticides Use Trends Annual Report 2005, prepared for the San Franisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, March 2005
Bay Area Pesticide Use: Urban/Agricultural Use Comparison, 2003, Memorandum from Kelly Moran, TDC Environmental to Bill Johnson, S.F. Bay Water Board, prepared as part of the UP3 Project, May 11, 2005
Pesticides in Urban Surface Water, Annual Research and Monitoring Update 2005, Prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, March 2005
Improving Pesticide Regulatory Activities to Protect Water Quality: Annual Update 2004, Prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Project by TDC Environmental, December 2004 (PDF file)
Preliminary Work Plan, November 15, 2004 (PDF file)
Project Summary, July 2004 (PDF file)
For More Information Contact:
Laura Speare
UP3 Project Manager
San Francisco Estuary Project
1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400
Oakland, CA 94612
510-622-2452
up3@waterboards.ca.gov