AWWA SYM53631

Increased agricultural runoff, sometimes up to 10 times higher than conventionalagriculture, have been found with a recent agricultural practice calledplasticulture, which uses an impermeable plastic sheet as a mulch. Thischaracteristic increases the chance that pesticides will enter adjacentwaterways, sometimes at much higher concentrations than conventional agriculture.Plasticulture is now being used on tomatoes and a variety of row crops includingstrawberries, green peppers, eggplants, melons, sweet corn, and cucumbers. Theuse of plasticulture is increasing nationwide; as an example, North Carolina hastripled its tomato production from the combined use of plasticulture and dripirrigation. The main advantage of the plasticulture system over conventionalagriculture is that it significantly increases marketable vegetable yields. Otheradvantages include weed control, minimized herbicide use, soil temperaturecontrol, increased disease resistance, fertilizer stabilization, and moisturecontrol. Plasticulture fields have been shown to have reduced permeability torain and increased runoff compared to conventional agriculture. The objective ofthis research was to evaluate the water quality in runoff from tomatoplasticulture fields. Field samples were obtained at a variety of agriculturaland stream sampling sites in eastern Virginia. Includes 5 references, table, figures.