Pesticides in water sources used for human consumption in the semiarid region of Argentina

MAS, LAURA I.; APARICIO, VIRGINIA C.; DE GERÓNIMO, EDUARDO; COSTA, JOSÉ L.

SN Applied Sciences

Springer Nature Switzerland

Año: 2020 vol. 2

2523-3963

Presence of pesticides in drinking water is an issue of great concern in agricultural areas. In Argentina?s semiarid regions,where surface water sources are scarce and groundwater may be of poor quality, rainwater becomes important for safewater supply. The expansion of agriculture in these regions due to no till management has led to a high use of pesticides which jeopardize the safety of all water sources used for human consumption. The objective was to monitor thepresence of pesticides in diferent water sources from two agricultural areas of Santiago del Estero. Samples belongedto cisterns in which rainwater is collected, wells and dams. The most contaminated sources were dams, followed bycisterns and wells. Applied doses and frequency of use played an important role in the presence of pesticides. Thus,the most frequent molecules were mainly herbicides; atrazine and metolachlor were the most abundant. Glyphosateand aminomethylphosphonic acid presented the highest concentrations. Almost all measured values were below theUS Environmental Protection Agency limits, but 73% of the samples exceeded the limit of 0.5 μg L−1 established by theEuropean Union for the sum of molecules although only 7.4% of individual molecules exceeded the limit of 0.1 μg L−1.However, risk assessment showed that pesticides from all sources presented a low potential risk to human health throughdrinking water exposure route.