Sediment-water partitioning and risk assessment of organochlorine pesticides along the urban, peri-urban and rural transects of Krishna River Basin, Peninsular India

VamshiKrishna Gandla; Mounika Chiluka; Harish Gupta; Sukesh Narayan Sinha; Paromita Chakraborty

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162360

Sediment-water partitioning and risk assessment of organochlorine pesticides along the urban, peri-urban and rural transects of Krishna River Basin, Peninsular India

Sci Total Environ. 2023 May 20:874:162360. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162360. Epub 2023 Feb 21.

Authors

VamshiKrishna Gandla¹, Mounika Chiluka¹, Harish Gupta², Sukesh Narayan Sinha³, Paromita Chakraborty⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Geochemistry, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
² Department of Civil Engineering, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
³ Division of Food Safety, National Institute of Nutrition-ICMR, Hyderabad, India.
⁴ Environmental Science and Technology Laboratory, Centre for Research in Environment, Sustainability Advocacy and Climate Change (REACH), SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, India. Electronic address: paromitc@srmist.edu.in.

PMID: 36822433
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162360

Abstract

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were widely used in the past for pest control in agricultural lands and vector control programs in India. Due to their persistence and toxic impacts, we have quantified twenty OCPs in surface water, groundwater, and surface sediment samples along the Krishna River Basin (KRB), flowing through Peninsular India. Samples were collected along the urban, peri-urban, and rural transects of the KRB to understand the relation between the occurrence of pesticidal organochlorine pollutants based on the land use and land cover (LULC) and asses potential risk. Diagnostic ratios revealed ongoing Lindane usage in rural and peri-urban transects. On the contrary, the urban transect of the Musi River (MR) showed fresh inputs of technical HCH. The ratios of (p,p'-DDE+ p,p'-DDD)/ΣDDT >0.5 and α/β-Endosulfan < 2.33 for most of the sites across the three transects for surface water, groundwater, and sediment indicate past DDT and Endosulfan usage across KRB. Excluding p,p'-DDE, and heptachlor in most of the sites, the logK_OC' was higher than logK_OC for other OCPs in the urban transect. However, for all the OCPs, the logK_OC' was lower than logK_OC in the peri-urban and rural transects of KRB thereby indicating that riverine sediment is acting as a sink for OCPs. The Krishna River annually transport about 0.24 tons HCH, 0.11 tons of DDT and 0.1 tons of Endosulfan. Despite having low water discharge, the compound-specific fluxes of the Wyra river are higher than the other two tributaries. Ecotoxicological risk assessment based on the Hazard Quotient suggested DDT pose higher risks to scud (zooplankton) and dinoflagellate and diatom (phytoplankton) whereas Endosulfan poses a threat to Bluegill (fish).

Keywords: Ecotoxicological risk; Health risk assessment; Organochlorine pesticides; Peri-urban River; Rural River; Sediment-water partitioning; Urban River.