Organochlorine Pesticides in Rainwater, Oahu, Hawaii, 1971-1972

by ARTHU~ BEVENUE, JAMES N. OGATA, and JOHN W. HYLm Department o] Agricultural Biochemistry, University o] Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

The vapor p r e s s u r e s of many pes t i c ides a re sufficiently high to a s s u r e l o s se s f r o m plants , soil, sur face water s l icks , and building s t r u c t u r e s into the a t m o s p h e r e , and Abbott e t al . (1965) suggested that pes t i c ides a r e c a r r i e d in the a tmosphe re e i ther as vapo r s or by occlusion on dust pa r t i c l e s and a re subsequently "scrubbed out" by r a in and snow. Woodwen et al. (1971) noted that the p r i m a r y m e c h a n i s m for the r e m o v a l of DDT f r o m the a tmosphe re was probably ra infa l l . Schmidt e t aim. (1971) r e p o r t e d that ae r i a l fal lout was one source of polychlorobiphenyl (PCB's) contamination, and Reynolds (1971) a t t r ibuted pa r t of this contaminat ion to the burning of was t e s containing PCB's. The poss ibi l i ty that t r a n s - locat ion of pes t ic ide r e s i dues could, in par t , be a t t r ibuted to fal lout by r a i n w a t e r was shown to be a fac t by Cohen and Pinkerton (1966) in 1964, but not all of the organochlor ine content of the r a inwa te r could be a sc r i bed to pes t ic ides . Wheatley and Hardman (1965) and T a r r a n t and Tat ton (1968) r e p o r t e d s imi l a r findings f r o m ra inwate r in England, with the additional observa t ion by T a r r a n t and Tat ton that smal l amounts of PCB's we re p re sen t in al l samples ; however , the PCB's we re not quantified.

Pesticide res idue data were obtained f r o m ra inwa te r s amp le s in Hawaii for the per iod 1971-1972 and the r e s u l t s a re given in Table 1. Samples were col lected in one-gal lon g l a s s conta iners p ro tec ted f r o m sunlight with a cover ing of a luminum foil. Precaut ionary m e a s u r e s agains t contaminat ion during sampl ing and ana lys i s w e r e taken as p rev ious ly desc r ibed (BEVENUE e t al . 1971). Analys is of the s amples for r e s idues were made by gas ch romatography as p rev ious ly desc r ibed (BEVENUE et al . 1972). The methyl and ethyl e ther de r iva t ives of pentachlorophenol (PCP) were p r e p a r e d for gas ch romatography and a th i rd der iva t ive , pentachlorophenyl ace ta te , was a lso used for the conf i rmat ion of the p r e s ence of PCP (RUDLING 1970). During this study,

Journal Ser ies No. 1486 of the Hawaii Agr icu l tura l Exper imen t Station.

238

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination & Toxicology, Vol. 8, No. 4,1972 (~ by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

TABLE i

Organochlorine Pesticides in Rainwater,

Oahu Hawaii,

Nanograms per Liter (parts per trillion)

1971-1972

Area of Oahu Sampled

Kailua

Kaneohe

Time Period

Chlordane

1-5-72

to 1-23-72

3

9-30-71 to 11-17-71

2

1-4-72

to 1-25-72

3

1-28-72 to 2-23-72

N.D. ~*

2-28-72 to 3-4-72

N.D.

3-4-72

to 4-27-72

N.D.

1-6-72

to 3-4-72

3

p,p'DDT

Dieldrin

Lindane

PCP*

Total

4

6

3

20

36

9

7

2

8

28

3

2

i

ii

20

i

4

N.D.

16

21

I

2

I

15

19

2

i

i

i0

14

i

4

4

14

26

Waipahu

Honolulu

Nuuanu-Vineyard Aves.***

i-6-72

to 3-4-72

N.D.

i

4

5

16

26

Nuuanu-School Sts.

9-28-71 to 12-27-71

N.D.

6

97

2

77

182

Nuuanu-School Sts.

1-1-72

to 2-23-72

N.D.

3

19

2

45

69

Nuuanu-School Sts.

2-25-72 to 5-15-72

N.D.

14

9

9

2

34

Pawaa Lane

1-1-72

to 2-20-72

2

5

6

3

55

71

Pawaa Lane

2-27-72 to 5-11-72

i

5

4

3

50

63

Manoa****

9-30-71 to 11-15-71

N.D.

3

3

2

284

292

Manoa****

1-3-72

to 1-24-72

.... N o t

D e t e r m i n e d ....

270

270

Range

N.D.-3

1-14

1-97

N.D.-9

2-284

Average

1

4

12

3

60

78

PCP = Pentachlorophenol

N.D. = None detectable

Sampled from roof of building 24 stories above street level

University of Hawaii campus

a sample of snow f rom Mauna Kea Summit (13,800 ft) and a sample of wa te r f rom Lake Waiau (fed a lmos t exc lus ive ly by the Summit snows) f r o m the i s land of Hawaii we re a lso examined for pes t i c ides ; the ana ly t ica l r e s u l t s a r e given in Table 2.

TABLE 2

Organochlor ine Pes t i c ides in Snow and Lake Water Nanograms per L i t e r (par t s per t r i l l ion)

p, p' -DDT Die ldr in Lindane PCP Total

Snow 15 2 3 14 34 Lake Water 5 1 5 10 21

The total o rganochlor ine r e s i d u e s in Hawaiian r a inwa te r a r e in the low p a r t s per t r i l l i on range and a re comparab le to prev ious ana lyse s made during the pe r iod 1970-1971. The r e s idue va lues for the snow and lake wa te r were in the same range noted in the r a i n w a t e r . The Hawaiian va lues a r e cons ide rab ly lower than those r e p o r t e d in other a r e a s (Table 3). However , the compara t ive 6 to 7 y e a r - o l d data may not be wholly l eg i t ima te because of i nc r ea sed r e s t r i c t i v e pes t i c ide cont ro ls in i t ia ted during the pas t s eve r a l y e a r s .

TABLE 3

Compara t ive Data on Organochlor ine Pes t ic ides in Rainwater in Different A r e a s

Nanograms per L i t e r (par t s per t r i l l ion)

A,rea

England a England b Ohio (USA) c .

Hawaii (USA) ~ Hawaii (USA)

Time Per iod (year) Lindane Dieldr in p , p ' - D D T Chlordane PCP

1964-1965 75 19 3 1966-1967 60 8 46 1965 25 150 1970-1971 5 5 3 not de t e rmined 1971-1972 3 12 4 1 60

a. WHEATLEY and HARDMAN, 1965 b. TARRANT and TATTON, 1968 c. COHEN and PINKERTON, 1966 d. BEVENUE et a l . , 1972

Under the condit ions of this study, no PCB's were detected. The p e s t i c i d e s obse rved could be r e a d i l y detected at the 1 p. p . t . level ; however, PCB's, such as the A r o c l o r s 1248, 1254, and 1232, would r e q u i r e about 20 to 40 p. p . t . of each for min imum detect ion.

240

Although all of the observed res idues were in the par ts per tr i l l ion range, a distribution pattern is possibly noted in the different a reas of Oahu (Table 1). Kailua and Kaneohe are p r imar i ly resident ial a reas and separated f rom Honolulu by a mountain range. Waipahu is located about 15 miles west of Honolulu. These three a reas indicated a lower res idue level than the Honolulu area; the lat ter a rea is a crowded, complex mixture of resident ial , commerc ia l , and industrial es tabl ishments . Dieldrin is used to some extent in res ident ia l a reas for te rmi te control and, for a s imilar reason, a large percentage of all construct ion lumber used on the island is pre t rea ted with chemical formulat ions containing PCP, which may account for the consistent presence of res idues of this chemical in the local environment.

References

ABBOTT, D. C . , HARRISON, R. B., TATTON, J. O'G, and THOMPSON, J. , Nature 208, 1317 (1965). BEVENUE, A . , KELLEY, T. W. , and HYLIN, J. W. , J. Chromatog. 54, 71 (1971). BEVENUE, A. , HYLIN, J. W., KAWANO, Y. , and KELLEY, T. W., Pesticides Monitoring J. , in p r e s s (1972). COHEN, J. M. and PINKERTON, C. in Organic Pesticides in the Environ- ment, p. 163 (1966), Amer ican Chemical Society, Washington, D. C. REYNOLDS, L. M. , Residue Reviews 3_44, 27 (1971). RUDLING, L. , Water Research 4, 533 (1970). SCHMIDT, T. T . , RISEBROUGH, R. W., and GRESS, F . , Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 6, 235 (1971). TARRANT, K. R. and TATTON, J. O 'G . , Nature 219, 725 (1968). WHEATLEY, G. A. and HARDMAN, J. A . , Nature 207, 486 (1965). WOODWELL, G. M., CRAIG, P. P. , and JOHNSON, H. A . , Science 174, 1101 (1971).

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