The article Agriculture Drainwater Effects on Wildlife in Central California, written by Harry M. Ohlendorf and Roger L. Hothem is found in the Handbook of Ecotoxicology. This handbook is a primary source because it was published by the CRC Press and has a review board made up of 16 reviewers. In California’s San Joaquin Valley and in other agricultural areas in the Western U.S., irrigation wastewater pollutes nearby aquifers with agrochemicals that have been applied to crops in order to combat pests and diseases. Much of the irrigation water is leached into evaporation ponds causing an abundance of food, this is because the soil underneath the evaporation ponds are nutrient packed allowing wild plants to flourish. The focus of this article is to analyze the effects of subsurface agricultural drainwater on the San Joaquin Valley wildlife. For the sake of the blog I will skip the methods used and move onto the findings. Most of the effects of agricultural drainwater on wildlife were first recorded at Kesterson Reservoir in 1983. The number one element in concern was Selenium because it bio accumulates and is toxic to bird embryos, birds, frogs, snakes, and mammals. Other elements were also recorded in high concentrations in organisms and evaporation ponds. This article ties well into my topic, which is the effects of agrochemicals on humans. This article helps prove the presence of agrochemical particles in subsurface agricultural drainwater. It would be interesting to assess how many people have reported heart disease or cancers and whether or not there is a correlation between where they live and where they get their water from. If many people are reporting diseases near agricultural fields and are drinking well water, that water should be tested for agrochemical particles.

Ohlendorf, H. M., & Hothem, R. L. (n.d.). Agricultural Drainwater Effects on Wildlife in Central California. In Handbook of ecotoxicology. Lewis .