Water Quality in Sacramento and its surrounding areas has always been a hot button issue. Although not as polarizing as second amendment rights or abortion it has become a political football none the less. This topic should be important to everyone because we all come in contact with “treated” water at some point in out lives. I don’t think anyone is filling their pools with bottled spring water! With that said there are some important distinctions to be made about what is in our water and where it comes from.
For decades people have worried about pesticides. How much they are applied, where they go and what the pesticides can do to people if they ingest them. Let’s start by accepting that no pesticides are safe. That is why they are a controlled substance (in their concentrate form) and most require a license to apply. There is a big difference between pesticides used in the past and what the modern pest control technician applies to homes and businesses today.
Decades ago our industry used organochlorines (DDT) and organophosphates to treat plants and structures to prevent disease and spoilage. Today the majority of our pesticides are Pyrethroids or synthetic pyrethrin based pesticides. Pyrethrin is made from Crysanthumum flowers grown mostly on the continent of Africa. “The United States Department of Agriculture has stated that synergized pyrethrum ” is probably the safest of all insecticides for use in food plants “[citation needed] and that ” a pyrethrum formulation is approved for use around foodstuffs”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrin).
When discussed in conjunction with water quality the majority of articles are misleading. There are far more pharmaceuticals and industrial cleansers found in water then pesticide. It is believed that pesticides are blamed because the pest control industry is an easier target then then big pharma. As an example, here is the last water quality study published for Sacramento.

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