Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
9-1-1985
Keywords
Agriculture, crop production, analysis, detection, pesticides, groundwater contamination
Abstract
Agricultural production is a major source of revenue in Arkansas. In order to increase productivity, it has been necessary to rely increasingly on the use of pesticides and irrigation water. In the last 15 years several states have reported finding pesticides in groundwater as a result of normal agricultural practices. Since almost half of the population also relies on groundwater as their source of drinking water, it is necessary to conduct research as to ascertain the presence or absence of commonly used pesticides in groundwater. Multi residue analytical techniques were developed for the analysis of acifluorfen, alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, diuron, fluometuron, linuron, metolachlor and propanil from groundwater, by either GLC or HPLC. Analytical sensitivities ranged from 1 to 5 ppb. Groundwater samples were collected from three areas of southeastern Arkansas that are under heavy agricultural production. Samples were collected directly from irrigation wells just prior to and during the peak of the irrigation season and will be compared to determine whether any temporal differences exist. To-date, over 500 samples have been analyzed. No positive finding for any pesticide has been shown.
Citation
Lavy, T. L.; Mattice, J. D.; and Cavalier, T. C.. 1985. Analyses of Groundwater for Trace Levels of Pesticides. Arkansas Water Resources Center, Fayetteville, AR. PUB 118. 23
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/awrctr/241
Report Number
PUB 118
Page
23