Presenter: Sadie Thueson
Authors: Sadie Thueson, Christine Nakonechnyy, Sara Rocks
Faculty Advisor: Sally Rocks
Institution: Utah Valley University
Chemicals to control pests and weeds have been used in agriculture, cities, and householdsfor decades. Due to the remarkable chemical stability of thesecompounds, they do not degrade in the environment easily, which can lead to significant accumulation.This accumulation may also consist of pesticides and herbicides that have been discontinued due to their harmful health impacts.Three pesticides are of particular interest due to their negative environmental and health effects:dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane(DDT),Roundup(Glyphosate), and Metolachlor-S.DDTis a known animal carcinogenand hasbeen known to impact bird populations due to thinning the shells of their eggs. DDTwas widely used until it was discontinued in 1972, but its stability may mean it is still present in the environment.Glyphosate has been known to cause harm tocropsand other plant species, andMetolachlor-S is toxic to aquatic populations.Currently, there is not enough publicly known information about the pesticide use around UtahLake to gauge which pesticideshaveaccumulatedwithin the lake sediment. With a population of over six hundred thousand living around Utah Lake, this creates great concern for the health of those who both live around, as well as visit, the lake. The goal of this research is to understand the types of pesticides that have been used throughout the history of Utah Valley, when and where they were introduced and/or outlawed, and if they are still present in UtahLake sediments. By understanding the pesticides that are still present in Utah Lake’s sediments today, they can be compared to the history of pesticide use toprovidea better picture of which pesticides impact the environment the most. Through the retrieval and analysis of core samples around Utah Lake, the stability of popular pesticidescan be better understood,whichmayprovide more information aboutthehealth and safetyimplications ofthesecompounds tothe lake and those around it.