Monitoring of atrazine and its metabolites in groundwaters of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The intensive use of atrazine herbicides in the Republic of Serbia during recent decades has led to the accumulation of residues of atrazine and its metabolites in the environment, which endangers groundwater. With the objective to check the presence of atrazine and its metabolites deethylatrazine (DEA) and deisopropylatrazine (DIA) in the groundwater, the monitoring programme was carried out over the period from 2007 to 2009 in the localities where the atrazine-based herbicides were intensively applied for a number of years. Samples were taken from 327 localities, in total there were 1408 samples of groundwater of the first welling-up collected. The atrazine and its metabolites were extracted with methanol by means of ENVI-C18 (47mm) disc, and the residue level of the studied compounds was analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In the most of groundwater samples collected from agricultural regions, the average value of all tested analytes was above 0.1 µg/dm3. The highest values of atrazine and its metabolites were in the localities that are known for intensive maize production and in the areas of this region under orchards and vineyards, where atrazine was used in large quantities. The average content values of this active substance in the analyzed samples are the result of intensive and long-term usage of this group of herbicides, as well as the high level of groundwater in this region.

Ekspanzija u primeni herbicida na bazi atrazina u Republici Srbiji poslednjih decenija dovela je do nagomilavanja ostataka atrazina i njegovih degradacionih produkata u životnoj sredini, čime su naročito ugrožene podzemne vode. Radi provere prisustva atrazina i njegovih metabolita deetil-atrazina (DEA) i deizopropil-atrazina (DIA) u podzemnim vodama sproveden je monitoring program u periodu 2007-2009. godine na područjima pod intenzivnom poljoprivrednom proizvodnjom na teritoriji Republike Srbije. Podzemna voda prve izdani uzorkovana je na 327 lokaliteta, ukupno je prikupljeno 1408 uzoraka. Ekstrakcija analita iz vode izvedena je metanolom uz primenu C18-ENVI diska (47 mm), dok je nivo rezidua određen primenom gasne hromatografije sa masenim spektrometrom (GC/MS). Analizom je utvrđeno prisustvo atrazina, DEA i DIA iznad 0,1 |µg/dm3 u podzemnim vodama većine lokaliteta obuhvaćenih ispitivanjem. Najveće vrednosti ispitivanih analita utvrđene su na lokalitetima sa intenzivnom proizvodnjom kukuruza, kao i na površinama pod voćnjacima i vinogradima, gde je atrazin primenjivan u velikim količinama.