The thing that people don't understand is that they didn't ban pesticides because environmentalists are big meanies who don't want you to have a pretty lawn. It's because the phosphorus and nitrates in the pesticides pollute drinking water.
When you spray pesticides on your lawn, they don't magically stay there. When it rains, the rain washes the pesticides off your lawn and into the storm drains where it goes straight into Lake Ontario - which if you're not aware - is where we get our drinking water from. Once pesticides are in the drinking water, they are very difficult to remove.
According to the EPA:
In general, conventional water treatment methods used at most community water systems (CWS) – specifically coagulation-flocculation, sedimentation, and conventional filtration – do not appear to facilitate pesticide removal and transformation in finished drinking water.
It also says:
- Certain treatment technologies appear to be ineffective in removing certain pesticides in raw water.
- Some treatment technologies appear to result in the formation of transformation products which may have toxicological significance.
Link: SUMMARY OF PESTICIDE REMOVAL/TRANSFORMATION EFFICIENCIES
FROM VARIOUS DRINKING WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES
In short - even though they have treatment processes that can remove most contaminants, pesticides are very difficult to remove. Some of them make it through the treatment process and into your glass.
It's much easier and cost effective to prevent contaminants from getting into water in the first place, hence the pesticide ban.
An alternative to chemical pesticides is Scott's Eco Sense Weed B Gon. The active ingredient is Iron, which will will kill the weeds, but not the grass.
