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Herbicide micropollutants in surface, ground and drinking waters within and near the area of Zagreb, Croatia

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 24, pages 11017–11030 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The frequency and mass concentrations of 13 herbicide micropollutants (triazines, phenylureas, chloroacetanilides and trifluralin) were investigated during 2014 in surface, ground and drinking waters in the area of the city of Zagreb and its suburbs. Herbicide compounds were accumulated from water by solid-phase extraction using either octadecylsilica or styrene-divinylbenzene sorbent cartridges and analysed either by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV-diode array detector or gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. Atrazine was the most frequently detected herbicide in drinking (84 % of samples) and ground (61 % of samples) waters in mass concentrations of 5 to 68 ng L−1. It was followed by metolachlor and terbuthylazine, the former being detected in 54 % of drinking (up to 15 ng L−1) and 23 % of ground (up to 100 ng L−1) waters, and the latter in 45 % of drinking (up to 20 ng L−1) and 26 % of ground (up to 25 ng L−1) water samples. Acetochlor was the fourth most abundant herbicide in drinking waters, detected in 32 % of samples. Its mass concentrations of 107 to 117 ng L−1 in three tap water samples were the highest of all herbicides measured in the drinking waters. The most frequently (62 % of samples) and highly (up to 887 ng L−1) detected herbicide in surface waters was metolachlor, followed by terbuthylazine detected in 49 % of samples in mass concentrations of up to 690 ng L−1, and atrazine detected in 30 % of samples in mass concentrations of up to 18 ng L−1. The seasonal variations in herbicide concentrations in surface waters were observed for terbuthylazine, metolachlor, acetochlor, chlortoluron and isoproturon with the highest concentrations measured from April to August.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project No. 8366 “Organic pollutants in Environment-Markers and Biomarkers of Toxicity” (OPENTOX).

The authors would like to thank the staff of Water Supply and Drainage (supplier of water services in public water supply and sewage for the City of Zagreb and the wider Zagreb area) for the collection of ground waters from municipal wells used in the public water supply systems and Mrs. Biserka Tkalčević for her skillful technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska c. 2, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sanja Fingler, G. Mendaš, M. Dvoršćak, S. Stipičević, Ž. Vasilić & V. Drevenkar

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  1. Sanja Fingler
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  2. G. Mendaš
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  3. M. Dvoršćak
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  4. S. Stipičević
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  5. Ž. Vasilić
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  6. V. Drevenkar
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Correspondence to Sanja Fingler.

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Responsible editor: Roland Kallenborn

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Fingler, S., Mendaš, G., Dvoršćak, M. et al. Herbicide micropollutants in surface, ground and drinking waters within and near the area of Zagreb, Croatia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 11017–11030 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7074-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7074-6

Keywords

  • Triazines
  • Phenylureas
  • Chloroacetanilides
  • Herbicide degradation products
  • Spatial and seasonal variations
  • Water