A Decade of Research on the Occurrence of Triazine Herbicides in the Environment Leads to a Unique Summary

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists completed a variety of groundbreaking studies on the occurrence, fate, and transport of triazine herbicides and their degradates throughout the 1990s. The results of these studies have been summarized and condensed into a USGS report and a book chapter providing, for the first time, a comprehensive snapshot of a decade of this research. The studies include:

• The development of methods for the analysis of triazine herbicides and their degradates in water.
• A surface-water reconnaissance that documented a "spring flush" of herbicide concentrations in rivers.
• A ground-water reconnaissance involving more than 300 wells across the Midwestern United States that showed degradates of herbicides were more commonly found than the parent compounds.
• Tracking the transport of triazines through drinking-water reservoirs; results showed herbicide concentrations remaining high throughout most of the year in reservoirs where the water has long residence times.
• Research on the occurrence of triazines in precipitation that documented the atmospheric transport of trazine herbicides on a regional scale.

The publications provide one-stop access for information that can be used for the scientific underpinnings of policy, land management, and regulatory decision making regarding triazine herbicides and their degradates in the environment.

References

Scribner, E.A., Thurman, E.M., Goolsby, D.A., Meyer, M.T., Battaglin, W.A., and Kolpin, D.W., 2005, Summary of significant results from studies of triazine herbicides and their degradation products in surface water, ground water, and precipitation in the midwestern United States during the 1990s: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5094, 33 p.

Thurman, E.M., and Scribner, E.A., 2008, A decade of measuring, monitoring, and studying the fate and transport of triazine herbicides in groundwater, surface water, reservoirs, and precipitation by the U.S. Geological Survey, in LeBaron, H.M., McFarland, J., and Burnside, O., eds., The Triazine Herbicides: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Elsevier Science (in press).

More Information

• Agricultural Chemicals in the Upper Midwest
• Occurrence and Distribution of Agricultural Chemicals in the Upper Midwest (Corn Belt) Bibliography
• USGS Organic Geochemistry Research Group

Related Headlines

• Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams
• Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common
• Tracking Atrazine and a Breakdown Product (deethylatrazine) through a Drinking-Water Reservoir
• Science of the Total Environment Special Issue on Agricultural Chemicals
• Measuring Pesticides and How They Transform in the Environment
• Management Practices a Factor in Herbicide Declines
• Degradates: A Key to Assessing Herbicide Impacts in Streams
• Where are the Pesticides?

Back to Headlines Page