Utilizing Legacy Data from Illinois Rivers to Identify Pesticide Trends

Sparks, Ryan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121776 Copy

Description

Title

Utilizing Legacy Data from Illinois Rivers to Identify Pesticide Trends

Author(s)

Sparks, Ryan

Issue Date

2023-04-18

Keyword(s)

• herbicide
• insecticide
• fungicide
• Little Wabash River
• Kaskaskia River basin

Geographic Coverage

Illinois rivers, United States

Abstract

From 1999 to 2021, IEPA has collected water samples up to 9 times per year from 11 major river basins in Illinois. Samples have been analyzed for over 40 different herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides including atrazine, metolachlor, simazine, glyphosate, 2,4-D, and chlorpyrifos. Analysis showed herbicides exhibited peak concentrations May through July, with the exception of simazine, which peaked in the winter. The Little Wabash River basin showed the highest maximum atrazine and metolachlor concentrations, followed by the Kaskaskia River basin. Additionally, substantial increases in metolachlor and metribuzin concentrations have been exhibited throughout Illinois since 2015. Insecticides with the highest detection rates include dieldrin, lindane, and methoxychlor, but no single value exceeded 0.002 ug/l following 2016. Overall, total insecticide concentrations and percent detections have decreased since 2018 with all concentrations measuring less than 1 ug/L after 2015. Fungicides captan and hexachlorobenzene did not exhibit any clear trends. Examining these long-term datasets allows us to evaluate sampling efforts, determine future resource allocation, and paves the way to add new or remove existing parameters that are infrequently or no longer detected in Illinois surface water samples.

Series/Report Name or Number

2023 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

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