The U.S. cotton sector is an intensive user of chemicals some of which become pollution when they leach into ground water, or leave the field dissolved in runoff or attached to soil particles that erode from the land. The industry will likely be under increasing pressure to reduce offsite damages from chemical pollution. The costs of reducing pollution from cotton land can be minimized if producers will: include maintaining and improving environmental quality, along with profit, as objectives of their operation; seek out and use management options and conservation practices that will reduce pollution without reducing profits; and, support research to discover new ways to improve environmental quality and increase profit at the same time. There is evidence that in many cases, pollution from cotton cropland can be reduced without lowering profit.