Groundwater from infiltration galleries used for small public water supply systems: contamination with pesticides and endocrine disruptors

Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2011 Sep;87(3):312-8. doi: 10.1007/s00128-011-0337-5. Epub 2011 Jun 17.

Abstract

Infiltration galleries are among the oldest known means used for small public water fountains. Owing to its ancestral origin they are usually associated with high quality water. Thirty-one compounds, including pesticides and estrogens from different chemical families, were analysed in waters from infiltration galleries collected in Alto Douro Demarcated Wine region (North of Portugal). A total of twelve compounds were detected in the water samples. Nine of these compounds are described as presenting evidence or potential evidence of interfering with the hormone system of humans and wildlife. Although concentrations of the target analytes were relatively low, many of them below their limit of quantification, four compounds were above quantification limit and two of them even above the legal limit of 0.1 μg/L: dimethoate (30.38 ng/L), folpet (64.35 ng/L), terbuthylazine-desethyl (22.28 to 292.36 ng/L) and terbuthylazine (22.49 to 369.33 ng/L).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Wild
  • Dimethoate / analysis
  • Drainage, Sanitary*
  • Endocrine Disruptors / analysis*
  • Environmental Monitoring*
  • Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • Humans
  • Pesticides / analysis*
  • Phthalimides / analysis
  • Portugal
  • Risk Assessment
  • Triazines / analysis
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
  • Water Supply / analysis*
  • Water Supply / standards

Substances

  • Endocrine Disruptors
  • Pesticides
  • Phthalimides
  • Triazines
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • terbutylazine
  • Dimethoate
  • folpet