Concentration and loading of pesticide residues in Lake Biwa basin (Japan)

The concentrations and loading rates of pesticides used in paddy fields were investigated over a period of 5 years in the Seta River, which is the only natural outlet of Lake Biwa. The lakeʹs water catchment area is 3174 km2, 20% of which contains paddy fields. Water samples were also collected in six rivers flowing into the lake in order to compare the contamination level and concentration profile. The pesticides analyzed were four herbicides (molinate, simetryn, oxadiazon, and thiobencarb), one fungicide (isoprothiolane), and two insecticides (diazinon and fenitrothion). Molinate, simetryn, oxadiazon and isoprothiolane were found at the higher frequencies with maximum concentrations of 1.1, 0.4, 0.1 and 0.5 μg/l in the effluent river, one or two order of magnitude higher than that of effluent in influent rivers. These peak concentrations were observed during the application period in influent rivers and two or three weeks after that in effluent river. The frequency of occurrence of thiobencarb, diazinon, and fenitrothion was relatively low and their maximum concentrations in the effluent remained below 0.1 μg/l. The decrease of molinate, simetryn and oxadiazon concentrations in the effluent river were approximated by two straight lines plotted on semilogarithmic scale. Increased loading was induced by intense rainfall, which took place during the application period. Simetryn and isoprothiolane persisted in relatively high concentrations through the year were also influenced on its loading by the heavy rainfall in the following months. The percentages of the total amount of pesticides released through Lake Biwa to the basin in downstream were estimated to be 1.3–2.9% for molinate, 5.4–10.0% for simetryn, 0.6–1.3% for oxadiazon, 0.2–0.9% for thiobencarb, 1.8–6.6% for isoprothiolane, 0.3–2.1% for diazinon, and 0% for fenitrothion.