Occurrence of Pesticides in the Arno River and in Potable Water—A Survey of the Period 1992–1995

Abstract

The Arno river is one of the largest rivers in Italy. Its catchment area is approx. 8200 km 2 , where pesticides are extensively used for agricultural purpose. The pesticides used can enter the river by superficial runoff (Pereira and Rostad 1990;Thurman et al. 1991) precipitation and discharge of wastewater. Because more than 90 % of the raw water used for the public water supply of Florence comes from the Arno river, public concern has increased regarding pesticide contamination of drinking water, and one of the major problems the water supply of Florence is facing is the presence of these compounds in the water. Since the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) for drinking water established by the EEC is 0.1 µg/L for individual pesticides and 0.5 µg/L for total pesticides, the water supply of Florence has intensified water quality monitoring of drinking water sources with respect to the presence of pesticides, with the aim of determining the outlines of the levels, distributions and seasonal variations, and of optimizing the treatment in drinking water plants. This paper describes the results of a long time monitoring survey of various pesticides contained in the Arno river water, as well as in finished drinking water. MATERIALS AND METHODS45 pesticides (32 herbicides, 11 insecticides, 1 fungicide and 1 acaricide) including triazines, organophosphate and organochlorine, carbamates, anilides, anilines and amides were analysed in this study. These compounds comprise the most commonly used and important pesticides in Italy. Pesticide standards were obtained from Supelco (Bellefonte, PA, USA) and Riedel-de-Haën (Seelze-Hannover, Germany). Standard solutions were prepared in methanol.

Pesticide adsorption and degradation in fine earth and rock fragments of two soils of different origin

“…However, in this case, it could also be possible that organic carbon is not the only contributor to adsorption since some inorganic surfaces of the rock fragments could be responsible for adsorption, increasing the K oc value (Griffini et al, 1997;Kah and Brown, 2006;Aggarwal et al, 2006).…”

Kinetic and mechanistic investigations of mesotrione degradation in aqueous medium by Fenton process

“…Then, an appropriate amount of Fe 2+ in the range from 0 to 4 mM was added (as FeSO 4 ·7H 2 O) and the pH was adjusted to 3.5 ± 0.1 with sodium hydroxide or sulphuric acid. According to literature [37,38], this pH is in the optimum range of pH (3)(4) to promote the formation of HO • radicals in Fenton process, which has been verified by performing several experiments for pH ranges from 3 to 6, and it was found that 95-100% TOC removal was obtained in the pH range of 3-4. In all cases, the reaction was started by adding appropriate dose of H 2 O 2 (30%) to obtain concentrations of 2-20 mM H 2 O 2 in solution.…”

“…Fenton process is a promising and easy to manipulate advanced oxidation technology in which a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ) salts is added directly to the wastewater. This mixture promotes the formation of HO • radicals by catalytic decomposition of H 2 O 2 in acidic medium (pH in the range 3-4) as shown by the reactions sequence (1)(2)(3)(4)(5): …”

“…Almost all herbicides in use today are considered organic herbicides in that they contain carbon as a primary molecular component. Herbicides have been detected in surface and ground water [1][2][3][4][5][6], despite their rapid microbial and photo-induced decomposition. However, concerns about the potential impacts of pesticides on human health have arisen because the extensive use of these substances leads to their presence, together with their metabolites, in surface wastewaters from agricultural activities and in drinking waters.…”

The Occurrence and Spatial Distribution of Organophosphorous Pesticides in Chinese Surface Water

“…When Compared with the pesticides concentrations in European freshwaters, parathion methyl was detected in the Segre (Spain), Elbe and Rhine rivers (Germany) at concentrations up to 270, 332 ng/L and 40 ng/L, respectively (Planas et al 1997;Gotz et al 1998). Malathion was detected in River Arno (Italy), at 170.0 ng/L (Griffini et al 1997), and dimethoate in the Elbe and Rhine rivers (Germany) at 3,210.0 ng/L and 50.0 ng/L, respectively (Gotz et al 1998). The concentrations of the dimethoate, methyl parathion, and malathion in this study were much lower, which suggested that the Chinese surface water is also somewhat moderately polluted by dimethoate, methyl parathion, malathion, and parathion.…”