Help/User Guide Contents

Welcome to the California Pesticide Information Portal (CalPIP). CalPIP allows you to query from more than one database, or data source, to find information on pesticide related issues. The general public, agricultural producers, environmental regulators, and public policy decision-makers are interested in pesticide-related information about human health issues, food safety, environmental impacts, chemical properties, and agricultural practices. Governmental and private organizations use DPR’s pesticide data to assess risk, food quality, worker exposure, endangered species protection, water and air quality, and to analyze pest management, and land use trends. CalPIP makes it easy for you to acquire pesticide use information on a 24-hour by 7-day basis about pesticide uses specific to your needs and interests.

Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR) Data Source

California’s pesticide use reporting program is the most comprehensive of its kind. Each year, DPR collects and processes more than 2.5 million records of pesticide applications, where each record represents one production agricultural application of a pesticide product or a monthly summary of other kinds of applications. California was the first state in the U.S. to require full reporting of all pesticide use in agriculture.

The reporting requirements apply to a range of uses partly due to the California legal definition of agricultural use. With implementation of full use reporting in 1990, the following pesticide uses are required to be reported to the CAC who, in turn, reports the data to DPR:

• Production of any agricultural commodity except livestock
• Treatment of postharvest agricultural commodities.
• Landscape maintenance in parks, golf courses, cemeteries, and similar sites defined in California code as agricultural use (non-production-agriculture).
• Roadside and railroad rights-of-way.
• Poultry and fish production.
• Application of a restricted material.
• Application of a pesticide listed in regulation as having the potential to pollute ground water when used outdoors in industrial and institutional settings.
• Application by licensed pest control operators, which includes agricultural and structural applicators and professional landscape gardeners.

The primary exceptions to the use reporting requirements are consumer home-and-garden uses and most industrial and institutional uses.

Ground Water Protection Area (GWPA) Data Source

In 1985, the Pesticide Contamination Prevention Act gave DPR a mandate to monitor wells for contamination and identify pesticides moving to ground water. To implement the law, we designated pesticide management zones (PMZs) to control use where contamination occurred. Those early efforts helped us understand how, where, and why some areas were more vulnerable to ground water contamination. Using this extensive data and other information, our scientists created a computer model that shows where regulatory action can effectively prevent contamination. It identifies soil and depth-to-ground-water combinations that can threaten ground water quality.

To better protect vulnerable areas, we are replacing the scattered groupings of PMZs (where use of certain pesticides has been prohibited or restricted) with broader geographical areas, the GWPAs. A GWPA is a geographically defined area that is vulnerable to pesticide contamination, either by leaching or runoff. GWPAs include all existing pesticide management zones, plus other areas based on specified soil types and a depth to ground water of 70 feet or less, encompassing almost eight times more area.

Permits are required for use of ground water pesticides in GWPAs. Using the GWPA data source you will be able to find out whether the field you want to treat is in a GWPA. For more information on GWPAs visit DPR’s Ground Water Protection Program.

Pesticide Regulation’s Endangered Species Custom Realtime Internet Bulletin Engine (PRESCRIBE) Data Source

DPR has been studying endangered species protection issues with federal funding since 1988. There are currently 359 federally listed species in California including federally protected endangered and threatened species, proposed endangered, and proposed threatened species. Collectively, the federally listed species may occupy about 16 million acres, or about 16 percent of the land area of the state, albeit at very low densities.

Since endangered species are not economic pests, there is no essential conflict between using pesticides and protecting endangered species, provided that non-target hazards of pesticides are understood and adequate protection strategies are developed and used to avoid non-target exposures. Even species that broadly overlap agricultural areas need not conflict with local pest control programs if non-target exposures are avoided. PRESCRIBE provides users with pesticide use limits to protect endangered and threatened species from harm due to pesticide use. For more information, visit DPR’s Endangered Species Project.

Version 2023.01 (2021 PUR Data Update)