Abstract
The increasing use of pesticides in Morocco raises the potential risk of groundwater contamination, notably in the Gharb area, which has a shallow groundwater table. Thus, the leaching of two phenyl-ureas, diuron and linuron and their metabolites through undisturbed soil columns was studied under outdoor conditions. The soil chosen is a loamy clay soil, representative of the Gharb agricultural area. After four irrigation events were applied from 31/03/2005 to 15/05/2005, leachates contained higher amounts of linuron (from 0.08% to 6.96% of applied linuron) than diuron (from 0% to 0.27%). The greater mobility of linuron might be related to its higher water solubility (64 mg · L− 1 compared with 42 mg · L− 1 for diuron) and smaller adsorption coefficient (Koc of 400 L · kg− 1, compared with 480 L · kg− 1 for diuron). Concerning their metabolites, greater amounts of, N′-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-N, (DCPMU) than N′-3,4-dichlorophenylurea (DCPU) were detected N-dimethylurea in the percolates, from 0% to 0.046% and from 0% to 0.008%, respectively. At the end of the monitoring period, more linuron residues than diuron residues were recovered in the soil profiles, 25.02% and 16.41%, respectively. The diuron residues were found mainly in the 0-20 cm soil layer, whereas linuron residues reached the 20-40 cm soil layer. Under such experimental conditions, linuron leaching, and thus its potential to contaminate groundwater, is greater than that of diuron.
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More From: Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B
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