transforming old farms into housing with wells is a bad idea.

more on pesticides
I have been tearing apart the data we have collected from all the well testing,
there are things i "see" as the data goes in that i have to prove by sorting and compiling the data.
That is part of why the Nitrate post was important, because the supposed link between Nitrate levels and pesticides is in the very fabric of current State of Connecticut thinking.
However, this does not mean the reason why that thinking exists is wrong.
The idea that old agricultural areas are to blame, i believe still holds water.
There are many old farm areas that have now become suburbs and this is what i address today.
Data was collected (as best that we could) on past uses of a property.
The entire dataset now has close to 1000 test results,
the dataset of property that used to be on farm land is smaller, but over my own designated limit of 50 wells.
Of all the wells tested, 19.1% of the wells have some pesticide present,
7.74% have pesticides over action limit
From homes that were built in areas that were farms:
26.23% of these wells have some pesticide present
14.75% have pesticides over the action limit.
When looking at the GIS map of this information, it should be noted that only a portion of the old farm area is effected, most of the area is not.
This would indicate that a significant portion (not the only) is from old farm dump sites.

The Pesticide Nitrate relation

The State DEEP has been saying for a long time that if a well had Nitrate nitrogen over 5.0 mg/L, the well should be tested for pesticides.
A while back i said that it did not look as if it was so, but was waiting to study it.
Here is the data

343 wells tested for both pesticides and Nitrate-nitrogen.
66 showed pesticides at some level.
45 showed Nitrate Nitrogen > 5.0 mg/L
11 wells with high Nitrate-nitrogen showed pesticides
55 did not.

Lets put the nails in the coffin, this does not correlate!

Confusion, detection limits and action levels

It is time for me to "go" there.
The article was in the Advocate (Stamford newspaper) talking about detection limits and how tests before 2011 were not any good because they could not "see" trace amounts of the pesticides everyone was worrying about.
The reality is many tests done by several labs were reported down to a detection limit that was as sensitive as it could be, many were not and it depended on the lab.
A discussion on this can be found at the following link.
It is confusing.
There were labs which were simply taking peoples money and doing a test which was only a screening test.
There were other labs who would not report down to the detection limits.
Now tho, there is another wrinkle - the state lab will no longer report anything below the current action level.
There maybe politics involved since they used to do this.
If the DEEP uses the state lab, then one could expect to see some where around 5% of the wells with reportable amounts of pesticides in CT.
In Stamford, we have been looking for any amount detectable and that level runs about 19%.
This of course will mean that "pesticides" are a "Stamford" problem and not a big deal.
I have seen (and have some of them in my possession) reports from other towns with pesticides in wells that are both above the action levels and below.
These wells are not necessarily near Stamford.
Is 19 or 29% unacceptable and 5% is?
Those are questions people need to ask and it does get confusing.

Rabies!

We regularly send up different animals for testing, mostly bats and only a few of those come back positive for rabies...
However in the last week 2 SKUNKS TESTED POSITIVE FOR RABIES BOTH OCCURRING IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER.
This was in Stamford in the area of the Oaklawn cemetery.
One was typical - dogs going after a skunk in the yard.
the other very unusual in that the skunk attacked a person without warning.
There have been a number of other reports of unusual skunk behavior, but none have been positive so far.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL AROUND SKUNKS - THEY SHOULD BE ACTIVE ONLY AT NIGHT AND IF THEY SHOW UP DURING THE DAY ANIMAL CONTROL (POLICE) SHOULD BE CALLED IMMEDIATELY!

West Nile Returns to Stamford

We go through this now annually since the early 1990's.
First it is the dead birds, then Mosquito's , then Humans.
West Nile virus is here to stay and because we had a very mild winter and early, warm Spring.
The virus is present in the mosquitoes that bite humans a month or so early.
Precautions:
Limit activities in the early morning and early to late evening.
Wear long sleeves
Put on insect repellent.
If you have a party outside in the evening, put fans out - mosquitoes have a hard time navigating in wind.
Eliminate any standing water that you can.  Mosquitoes do not travel very far.
If the water can not be eliminated, us BT dunks.
This bacteria is effective against mosquito larva only, so very safe and effective!
Be safe!

The numbers reported on pesticides are not what we gave

The percentages that are being reported in the local papers are not correct.
Some of my issues my have a small bit to do with it,
but nothing is as high as is being reported concerning pesticides.
First the Percentages below the merrit parkwat were 25% presence - not above action levels.
Second, when doing calculations, the query for all tests, included a numebr of repeat positive tests.
Why, because i made a mistake:
In gathering all the information that i could on wells, there were times that the presence of a pool was not recorded or a well depth was recorded as what an owner remembered, not what a well drillers report showed.  Since the query was a "grouped" query, so that the highest level of pesticide found would show, individual properties were counted twice.
This increased the number of tests significantly.
So in this blog, i am trying to give the most accurate information that i can.

The current number of 30% above action level is being reported and yet even with all my mistakes, it never was that level.
24% presence level and above the action level was less.
so here is what i have, correcting previous mistakes:

total wells tested	766
less early test	713 (not using current methods and with poor detection levels.)

Summary of extra information collected

	House Built	Well depth	well distance	pool Onsite
Average	1958	250	33
Max	2008	1100	200
Min	1730	30	0
count	741	134	97	55
median	1962	200	25

Sum of pesticides

	Chlordane	Dieldren	Heptachlor epoxide	Transnonchlor	alpha chlordane	gamma chlordane
max	7.400	1.300	0.240	0.100	0.930	0.740
not 0	75	108	7	6	19	18
above AL	26	54	-	-	-	-
above MCL	2	-	1.000	-	-	-

Percentages (Dieldren and chlordane only)

dieldren and chlordane both present?			percent
	both	33	4.31%
	either	117	16.41%

both dieldren and chlordane >= AL			percent
		18	2.35%
		44	6.17%

In the meantime i am doing one last study on nitrate levels in the wells found with pesticides and not found a significant correlation

To those reviewing this, know there are probably more mistakes that i have made and i will correct them when i find them

Pesticides and personal experience

many years ago before i was a chemist, i had a cat.
The cat was Siamese and was unusual the way Siamese cats often are.
He caught, one spring 4 baby quail and brought them to us unharmed.
We decided to raise them and built a large cage on the side of the yard.
The quail lived several years until a neighbor decided to spray their entire yard for insects.
Being in the 1960's - Chlordane was the probable agent and maybe mixed with dieldren.
The quailed died immediately after the spraying, along with a Horn Toad that liked our rock garden and a Red eared terrapin (turtle).
I did not understand all of it at that time, but it left an impression that i would not use pesticides when ever possible.
Fast forward to 2012 and a discussion with a state person asking for the original copies of test results from 1990.
The strange thing about this is that things have changed.
In 1990,the current method used for detection was not widely used.
The best Gas Chromatography used capillary tubes and the best detection level i saw was 0.5 ppb -
the current action level for chlordane is 0.3 ppb and 0.03 for dieldren and most levels are below 0.5 ppb.
There was an experimental method (at the time) that reached 0.1 ppb,
but the reality is you are comparing apples and squash - not even the same classification.

How we learn