Perhaps you recall that I have been posting about the half life of
clothianidin, which it appears from the EPA memo is estimated to be 19 years
in Fuquay series soil.

 Well I guess I was being overly alarmist.
There is not even 2 million acres of Fuquay series soil in the US.  Only
1.78 million.  And it is all concentrated in one area anyway (Alabama,
Northern Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina).
See the map at
http://www.cei.psu.edu/soiltool/semtool.html?seriesname=FUQUAY

Unfortuneately, a sandy loam from marine sediments is much like our PE
island soil.

You might also recall that I recently posted that Paul was correct that the
amount going on the soil in a treated corn seed application was 0.1 lb
active ingredient per acre.   But that it was registered for other crops
(including apples and pears) as a foliar and soil treatment at 0.4 lbs ai
per acre.  Well further into the memo (its about a hundred pages, so there
was quite a bit I missed on the first reading) I find that even that rate is
nothing compared with some vegetables.  Cucumbers are 0.16 ,  brocolli and
cabbage are 0.4,  radishes are 0.67,  potatoes  are 0.32, and all this pales
before head and leaf lettuce which are 2.25 lbs of active ingredient per
acre in a seed treatment.

So really, corn isn't really much of a problem compared with lettuce.  But
take heart if you keep bees in the Fuquay soil area.  Bees don't visit
lettuce and the residue will only be there for a few decades.

I am obviously missing something here, because I don't believe that
registration would have proceeded if it was this clear cut a problem.  But I
don't know what it is, so I would appreciate being shown my error by people
who think that these long lasting systemics are an improvement.   I don't
know what percentage of the clothianidin gets broken down in the lettuce.
Because that will likely be the main route for a lot of it.   How much is
left in the soil?  Someone must be monitoring this.  What happens if there
is a problem with the lettuce (a fungus, or whatever) and it gets plowed
in.  What is in the soil then?

Stan

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