Abstract
Recent studies observed a correlation between estrogen-related cancers and groundwater atrazine in eastern Nebraska counties. However, the mechanisms of human exposure to atrazine are unclear because low groundwater atrazine concentration was observed in counties with high cancer incidence despite having the highest atrazine usage. We studied groundwater atrazine fate in high atrazine usage Nebraska counties. Data were collected from Quality Assessed Agrichemical Contaminant Nebraska Groundwater, Parameter–Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), and water use databases. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were performed. Domestic wells (59%) were the predominant well type. Groundwater atrazine was affected by well depth. Clusters consisting of wells with low atrazine were characterized by excessive groundwater abstraction, reduced precipitation, high population, discharge areas, and metropolitan counties. Hence, low groundwater atrazine may be due to excessive groundwater abstraction accompanied by atrazine. Human exposure to atrazine in abstracted groundwater may be higher than the estimated amount in groundwater.
Highlights
Data used for this county-level study were obtained from three data sources: Quality Assessed Agrichemical Contaminant Nebraska Groundwater Database; Parameter–Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) as weather data [14,15]; and water use data obtained from United States Geographical Survey (USGS)
The motivation for this study emanated from our previous findings, which observed elevated estrogen-related cancers (ERC) incidence in Nebraska counties with the highest atrazine usage
Given that groundwater is one of the significant exposure routes of atrazine to humans, we were puzzled by the low-level atrazine concentration frequently observed in the groundwater of these counties
Summary
Recent studies observed a correlation between estrogen-related cancers and groundwater atrazine in eastern Nebraska counties. The mechanisms of human exposure to atrazine are unclear because low groundwater atrazine concentration was observed in counties with high cancer incidence despite having the highest atrazine usage. We studied groundwater atrazine fate in high atrazine usage Nebraska counties. Clusters consisting of wells with low atrazine were characterized by excessive groundwater abstraction, reduced precipitation, high population, discharge areas, and metropolitan counties. Low groundwater atrazine may be due to excessive groundwater abstraction accompanied by atrazine. Human exposure to atrazine in abstracted groundwater may be higher than the estimated amount in groundwater. 1. Introduction with regard to jurisdictional claims in Approximately 115 million people in the U.S rely on groundwater as drinking water [1], and 80–85% of Nebraskans receive their drinking water from groundwater [2,3]
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