A mathematical screening mode! of the pesticide leaching process is used to estimate the potential for a pesticide to reach groundwater at significant concentrations. The model assumes steady water flow, equilibrium linear adsorption, and depth-dependent first-order biodegradation and predicts groundwater travel times and residual concentrations that depend on soil and environmental conditions as well as pesticide adsorption and decay constants. When groundwater protection is expressed as a condition that the residual undegraded pesticide mass remaining below the surface layer of soil must be less than a specified fraction of the initial mass added in a pulse application at the surface, the model prediction is shown to reduce to a linear inequality between the organic C partition coefficient Koc and the biochemical half-life, r. The screening model is illustrated on 50 pesticides and two scenarios representing low and high potential for groundwater contamination. The calculations reveal a significant dependence on sitespecific soil and environmental conditions, suggesting that regulations restricting pesticide use should take soil and management factors as well as chemical properties into account when screening for groundwater pollution potential. Additional index words: Screening model, Chemical transport, Leaching. Jury, W.A., D.D. Focht, and W.J. Farmer. 1987. Evaluation of pesticide groundwater pollution potential from standard indices of soil-chemical adsorption and biodegradation. J. Environ. Qual. 16:422-428. 422

A mathematical model is introduced for describing transport and loss of soil‐applied organic chemicals. The model assumes linear, equilibrium partitioning between vapor, liquid, and adsorbed chemical phases, net first order degradation, and chemical movement to the atmosphere by volatilization loss through a stagnant air boundary layer at the soil surface. From these assumptions and the assumption of steady state upward or downward water flow, an analytic solution is derived for chemical concentration and volatilization flux.This model, which is intended to classify and screen organic chemicals for their relative susceptibility to different loss pathways (volatilization, leaching, degradation) in the soil and air, requires knowledge of the organic carbon partition coefficient (Koc), Henry's constant (KH), and net, first‐order degradation rate coefficient or chemical half‐life to use on a given chemical.Illustration of the outputs available with the model is shown for two pesticides, lindane (γ‐1,2,3,4,5,6‐hexachlorocyclohexane) and 2,4‐D [(2,4‐dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid], which have widely differing chemical properties. Lindane, with a large Koc, large KH, and small degradation rate coefficient, is shown to be relatively immobile, persistent, and susceptible to volatilization. 2,4‐D, with a small Koc, small KH, and large degradation rate coefficient, is mobile and degrades rapidly, but is only slightly susceptible to losses by volatilization.

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In this paper, the organic chemical transport screening model developed in Jury et al. (1983) is simplified by dividing chemicals into volatilization and mobility categories. The volatilization classification is based on whether or not the predominant resistance to volatilization loss lies in the soil or in the boundary layer above the soil surface. This categorization reduces to a condition on the Henry's constant (KH) and organic C partition coefficient (Koc) when standard values are used to represent soil and chemical parameters. The mobility categories are based on the calculated time to convect or diffuse a given distance through the soil.Simulations are conducted for chemicals falling into one or another of these volatilization or mobility categories to examine the sensitivity of these processes to variations in water evaporation, water content, organic C fraction, and boundary layer thickness. The dependence of both volatilization flux and leaching flux on these parameters is summarized.