Water samples collected from 102 farm wells in the most intensively farmed region in Nova Scotia were analyzed for pesticides, nitrate-N and coliform bacteria. An additional 135 wells were sampled for nitrate-N only. None of the study wells contained pesticide concentrations above maximum acceptable concentrations for Canadian drinking water; however, very low pesticide levels were found in 41% of the wells. Atrazine was the most prevalent pesticide, occurring in 79% of the wells with detections. Nitrate-N and coliform bacteria exceeded the guidelines in 13 and 9% of the study wells, respectively. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that pesticide contamination was generally not related to well construction and surficial material parameters, but some correlations were found for nitrate-N and bacterial contamination. Case studies indicated that the majority of pesticide occurrences were attributable to nonpoint sources. Atrazine contamination may be the result of historic use rather than current agricultural practices.
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Briggins et al. (1995) studied this question.
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