The economy of the San Joaquin Valley of Central California is strongly agricultural with two of its counties, Fresno and Kern ranking 1 and 2, respectively, among all counties in the nation for gross dollar value of farm produce. Over the years a host of fertilizers and pesticides have been utilized to increase farm production, and now some of these are threatening the quality of the underlying groundwater which for many communities and nearly all rural homes is the sole source of water supply. One of these major contaminants is 1, 2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP) which was used extensively as a fumigant to control nematodes attacking the roots of grape vines and deciduous fruit trees from the mid-fifties to the late seventies. use of DBCP was banned by the State of California in 1977 and nationally (except Hawaii) in 1979 due to potential carcinogenic and infertility risks to production workers in the chemical plants and to agricultural workers in the fields whwere the product was applied.~1 This, along with the discovery of DBCP residues on food crops, and its implication as a carcinogen, also prompted the suspension of the use of DBCP on selected agricultural crops by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)~2.
展开▼
