Help/User Guide Contents

Navigating the Data Sources:

• PUR - Pesticide Use Reporting Data Source
• GWPA - Ground Water Protection Area Data Source
• PRESCRIBE - Pesticide Regulation’s Endangered Species Custom Realtime Internet Bulletin Engine Data Source

Navigating the Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR) Data Source

The “CalPIP Navigation Menu” in the vertical box on the left side of this web page lists multiple selection options for you to choose from in order to retrieve pesticide use information. For more information about the data in each category, click on the question mark (?) icon next to the category heading. You can double-check your category selections by clicking the My Selections button at the bottom of any page. After choosing your selections, visit the Format Output link near the bottom of the Navigation Menu.

Selection Categories:

1. Data Sources: Check that “Pesticide Use Report” appears below the Selected Data Source heading. If it does not, click on PUR underneath the Data Sources heading.
2. Date: Click on the Year link to select a year of data. Note that only one year may be selected at a time. If no year is selected, you will receive the most current year of data available.
3. Location: Click on County, COMTRS, or Zip Code to narrow your pesticide data to specific geographical areas. A COMTRS (County code, Meridian, Township, Range, Section) is a 1x1 square mile section defined by the Public Land Survey System grid. Zip codes are estimated by the intersection of COMTRS and Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs, created by the US Census Bureau). Not all zip codes are available. Click the (?) icon for more details. Location defaults to the entire state if no selections are made. You must select at least one County or Zip Code first if you want to choose COMTRS. Non-agricultural pesticide use is only available by county – not by COMTRS or zip code.
4. Site/Crop: Click on the Name Search link below the Site/Crop heading to choose crops or other pesticide application sites of interest. Site/Crop defaults to all possible sites and crops if no selections are made.
5. Product: Click on the Name Search link below the Product heading to select pesticide products by name or registration number. Product defaults to all products if no selections are made.
6. Chemical: Chemicals are the active ingredient(s) of a pesticide product. Click on the Name Search link below the Chemical heading to select any chemicals of interest. Chemical defaults to all chemicals if no selections are made.
7. Other Criteria: Click on the Ag/NonAg link below the Other Criteria heading to filter results to solely production agricultural PUR records (‘Ag’) or non-production-agricultural PUR records (‘NonAg’). If no selection is made, both Ag and NonAg records will be returned. In general, Ag records cover all production agriculture that takes place in the field, while NonAg records include everything else that must legally be reported, such as structural use, landscape maintenance, golf courses, parks, cemeteries, post-harvest commodity treatments, and applications in agricultural fields to irrigation ditches or other non-crop areas.

NOTE: CalPIP will only return results if there are pesticide use reports that meet your selection criteria (or default selections). If no data is returned for your query, pesticide use reports may not exist that meet your category selections.

Format Output: Choose from 39 available data columns. Definitions can be found by visiting the Column Definitions Page. Selections will appear in the Selected Items box.

1. If you would like pesticide use (amount_product_applied, amount_planted, amount_treated, pounds_chemical_applied, or pounds_product_applied) to be summed over your selected categories, click the Summarize the Data box. Be sure to include the corresponding UNIT column.
2. If you would like the columns to be in a certain order, you can use the Sort-By Columns box to add each previously selected column in your preferred order.
3. You can choose either a tab-delimited text file, an HTML table file, or both. Text files can be opened in text editors such as Notepad, spreadsheets such as Excel, or loaded into databases and many types of software programs. An HTML table file opens as a webpage displayed by a web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, etc.
4. When finished, click the Submit Query button, enter your email address, and click the Send Query Now button. You will receive an email with a link to a webpage containing a link to download a zip file of the data you requested.

At anytime you may review your selections on the My Selections page.

CalPIP also provides you with many ways to format your tabular results. On the Format Output page you may obtain raw data or you may select summarized data grouped by category. When you are satisfied with your data selections and formatting, click on Submit Query to send your query to the data warehouse and obtain a return data set.

If you need a large amount of PUR data, visit DPR’s Pesticide Use Reporting page to download summary reports or contact PUR.Inquiry@cdpr.ca.gov. If you need only a portion of the data available, you should narrow your search by selecting a smaller number of criteria within each of the active data categories.

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Navigating the Ground Water Protection Area (GWPA) Data Source

To search for ground water protection areas (GWPAs):

1: Pick the GWPA Data Source from the pull down menu at the top of the left navigation column.

2: Choosing the GWPA data source will automatically bring up Step 1, the Select County page.

To begin your GWPA search, click on a county name (to select multiple counties, hold down the Shift or Ctrl key). Click Select. Once you see the county or counties you have selected appear in the Counties Selected box, click Next to go to the Select Township-Range-Section page. See Step 2.

Note: Advanced users can choose to enter a County/Meridian/Township/Range/Section (COMTRS) location directly in the COMTRS input field at the bottom of the Select County page, and then click the Search GWPA button to see immediately whether the section entered is a GWPA.

3: You can select specific COMTRS locations on the Select Township-Range-Section page. The MTRS link in the left navigation column will also take you to this page.

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

To search for use limitations on pesticides that may harm species listed as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or harm habitat critical to those species’ survival:

First: Pick the PRESCRIBE Data Source from the pull down menu at the top of the left navigation column.

Step 1: Choosing the PRESCRIBE data source will automatically bring up Step 1, the Select County page.

To begin your PRESCRIBE search, click on a county name (to select multiple counties, hold down the Shift or Ctrl key). Click Select. Once you see the county or counties you have selected appear in the Counties Selected box, click Next to go to the Select Township-Range-Section page. See Step 2. At anytime you may review your selections on the My Selections page.

Step 2: You can select specific COMTRS locations on the Select Township-Range-Section page. The MTRS link in the left navigation column will also take you to this page.

Note: You must select a county and/or zip code before you can open the Select Township-Range-Section page.

First choose from the box containing "Available COMTR Township and Range under selected county(s)." This box is located to the left of the gray vertical dashed line. Once you have selected a COMTR, the "Available COMTRS Sections within selected Township-Range" appear in the upper box to the right of the gray vertical dashed line. From this box you can select one or more individual sections. When specific COMTRS are selected, the PRESCRIBE search will be performed on all the sections selected. If specific township/range blocks are selected but no COMTRS are selected, the PRESCRIBE search will be performed on all the COMTRS under the selected townships. If no specific township/range blocks are selected and only a county or counties are selected, the PRESCRIBE search will be performed on all the COMTRS within the selected counties.

Once you have made your selection, clicking the Next button will bring up a list of protected species located in the selected section(s).

Step 3: You can view information on endangered, threatened, proposed endangered, proposed threatened and rare species within your selected location.

If your search has returned a list of species on the Species Located page, you can click on a species name to go to a Species Detail page containing information about that species, including a description, habitat information and photo, if available. If you decide to go to one of the Species Detail pages, you will need to click on your browser’s Back button to return to the Species Located page. Clicking the Next button at the bottom of the Species Located page will take you to the Select Product /Labels page to identify the product(s) you intend to use. The Product: Name Search link in the left navigation column will also take you to this page.

Step 4: Identify the products that you intend to use by entering the product name or keyword into the Search Box.

The Product Search function accepts partial and whole words. When you hit the Search button, you will see a list of search results in the Available Products box. You may also click on a letter of the alphabet to display Available Product labels by letter. Product names starting with the letter "A" are displayed by default. When the products appear in the Available Product box, click on the names of the product(s) you intend to apply and click Select to select the product(s).

Use the Unselect button to remove individual products from the Selected Products list. Use the Clear Selection button to clear your search request and return to the full list of products.

To continue, click Next or Submit to see any use limits on the product(s) you’ve chosen relevant to protected species identified in your locations.

Step 5: View the use limit codes for your selected products.

View the pesticide use limitations, if any, for the products that you have selected, applicable to any species identified in your locations. Scrolling down the page, you will see the list of protected species, a list of your location selections, and a list of your selected products. If there are use limits on your selected product(s), a numerical code will appear in the Use Limits column to the left of the product name. Scroll down to view the code definitions. Following these use limitations will protect endangered and threatened species from harm due to pesticide use.

Click the Start Over button to begin a new query, or use the Back button on your browser to modify your current query criteria.

Version 2023.01 (2021 PUR Data Update)