Effect of temperature on the disappearance of four triazine herbicides in environmental waters

The influence of temperature on the disappearance of four s-triazine herbicides, terbuthylazine, simazine, atrazine and prometryn was studied in sea, river and groundwaters spiked with approx. 5 mg l−1 of each during long-term laboratory incubation. Residues were analyzed by GC-NPD and confirmed by GC-MSD. No clean-up was necessary and a micro on-line method for the determination of herbicide residues was used. The results showed that temperature had little effect on the behaviour of the four herbicides in river and seawaters but strongly affected their behaviour in groundwater. Simazine was the most readily affected compound in sea, river and groundwaters, while terbuthylazine and atrazine were the most persistent in all cases, especially in riverwater. Half-lives ranged from 41 days (constant RATE=0.017 days−1) to 196 days (constant RATE=0.003 days−1) for simazine (40 °C) and terbuthylazine (20 °C), respectively, in riverwater. Only for terbuthylazine in riverwater was the remaining percentage at the end of the experiment higher than 50% (58%, 3.21 mg l−1). In the other cases, the remaining percentage varied from 4% (0.20 mg l−1, 40 °C) to 43% (2.25 mg l−1, 20 °C) for simazine and terbuthylazine, respectively, in groundwater.