September 2022: Meeting – Nature Conservation Council (NCC) and EPA

Pesticide tests in Narromine region

Overspray – Specific Questions:
Will the EPA share the data already collected under the pilot chemical monitoring program being conducted in the Central West?

The EPA has prepared the attached Fact Sheet (Tab 5) that is being finalised for uploading onto the EPA website.
What compounds does the EPA test for when taking a vegetation sample?
Samples were collected on 71 occasions between February and June 2021 and were tested for
approximately 600 pesticides, including a wide range of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.
Pesticides detected in the bulk deposition samples were atrazine (detected on nine occasions),
carbendazim (detected once), ethephon (detected twice) and simazine (detected once). Pesticides detected in vegetation samples were atrazine (detected twice), diuron (detected twice), ethephon (detected once) and glyphosate (detected once). Most of the detections were for widely used pesticides. Ethephon is the only one of the chemicals detected which is primarily used on cotton. Ethephon was only detected on two sampling occasions.