EPA began to emphasize work on ground water contamination by pesticides in 1979. Much monitoring has been done in this area since 1979, mostly by state agencies and, to a lesser extent, pesticide registrants, university scientists, and EPA.To date, as a result of agricultural use, a total of 12 different pesticides have been found in the ground water of 18 different states. The 12 chemicals represent seven different chemical classes.Despite significant limitations in the laboratory and field data, some generalizations about the key environmental fate parameters and field conditions are made which aid in predicting which compounds will leach to ground water. Use of pesticides in the production of U.S. agricultural commodities is widespread; 370,455 metric tons of active ingredients, which corresponds to 70.3% of the total poundage of pesticide active ingredients used in the U.S., were applied to agricultural land in 1982 (1). With the worldwide increase in need for food and fiber (2), use of pesticides is expected to increase (3). Since nearly half of the U.S. population relies on ground water as their source of drinking water (4), potential for contamination of ground water due to pesticide use must be considered in the registration process.In this paper, the environmental fate characteristics of those pesticides found to date in ground water as a result of agricultural use are summarized. Monitoring data are also summarized. From those summaries, and information on the sites of ground water contamination, it can be concluded which combination of pesticide chemical characteristics and use sites represent a high potential for ground water contamination.Other aspects of assessing potential for ground water contamination, such as study design and modeling, as well as interpretations of sorption, volatility, and photolysis data are also discussed.This chapter not subject to U.S.