The State - News from Aug. 28, 1985

A study by the makers of aldicarb--the pesticide that caused a recent watermelon contamination scare--indicates that it is capable of contaminating water wells in California’s Central Valley, environmental groups opposed to use of the chemical reported. Spokesmen for the Sierra Club and the Planning and Conservation League released copies of a report they said was made by Union Carbide Agricultural Products Co. Inc., manufacturer of aldicarb, which concluded that the pesticide residues will not enter drinking water in most wells because it breaks down into a harmless residue--but noted that traces of aldicarb were found to penetrate 15.4 feet of a shallow water table at a Merced County test well.