The Arno river is one of the largest rivers in Italy. Its catchment area is approx. 8200 km 2 , where pesticides are extensively used for agricultural purpose. The pesticides used can enter the river by superficial runoff (Pereira and Rostad 1990;Thurman et al. 1991) precipitation and discharge of wastewater. Because more than 90 % of the raw water used for the public water supply of Florence comes from the Arno river, public concern has increased regarding pesticide contamination of drinking water, and one of the major problems the water supply of Florence is facing is the presence of these compounds in the water. Since the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) for drinking water established by the EEC is 0.1 µg/L for individual pesticides and 0.5 µg/L for total pesticides, the water supply of Florence has intensified water quality monitoring of drinking water sources with respect to the presence of pesticides, with the aim of determining the outlines of the levels, distributions and seasonal variations, and of optimizing the treatment in drinking water plants. This paper describes the results of a long time monitoring survey of various pesticides contained in the Arno river water, as well as in finished drinking water.
MATERIALS AND METHODS45 pesticides (32 herbicides, 11 insecticides, 1 fungicide and 1 acaricide) including triazines, organophosphate and organochlorine, carbamates, anilides, anilines and amides were analysed in this study. These compounds comprise the most commonly used and important pesticides in Italy. Pesticide standards were obtained from Supelco (Bellefonte, PA, USA) and Riedel-de-Haën (Seelze-Hannover, Germany). Standard solutions were prepared in methanol.
In Brazil, landfills are commonly used as a method for the final disposal of waste that is compliant with the legislation. This technique, however, presents a risk to surface water and groundwater resources, owing to the leakage of metals, anions, and organic compounds. The geochemical monitoring of water resources is therefore extremely important, since the leachate can compromise the quality and use of surface water and groundwater close to landfills. In this paper, the results of analyses of metals, anions, ammonia, and physicochemical parameters were used to identify possible contamination of surface water and groundwater in a landfill area. A statistical multivariate approach was used. The values found for alkali metals, nitrate, and chloride indicate contamination in the regional groundwater and, moreover, surface waters also show variation when compared to the other background points, mainly for ammonia. Thus, the results of this study evidence the landfill leachate influence on the quality of groundwater and surface water in the study area.
Obtaining sound evidence of environmental pollution crimes is usually challenging in environments impacted by multiple sources. This is particularly true when the situation involves running waters systems and the contaminants discharged by the suspect facility must be searched in stream-bed sediments, which are typically heterogeneous in terms of texture and composition. The heterogeneity reflects on the high variability of contaminant content, which implies that a large number of samples must be analyzed in order to reduce the uncertainty of the resulting data to an acceptable level. In environmental crimes investigations, where the State or “People” must provide the scientific proof, resources as laboratory analyses are few, and there are also time restrains, therefore, more effective and fit-for-purpose methodologies must be developed and tested in order to provide the justice operators a reliable evidence in a feasible manner. The present work introduces a case study of leachate discharge from a hazardous waste landfill in a heavily polluted watercourse where the use of a multiparameter approach using metals, stable isotope and organics analysis in stream-bed sediments was performed as an exploratory means provide evidence of this possible crime. A brief review of methods that explore multiple variables to add qualitative consistency for the results obtained is also presented.
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