Abiotic persistence of atrazine and simazine in water

✍ Scribed by Comber, Sean D W

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 109 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-498X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9063(199907)55:7<696::aid-ps11>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

Hydrolysis and photolysis experiments have been undertaken to investigate the abiotic persistence of atrazine and simazine in a variety of waters. Hydrolysis only occurs to a signi®cant extent at pH values at the lower limit of those found in the natural aquatic environment (pH 4.0 or less). Photolysis was initiated by a wide range of wavelengths in waters at pH 4.0, but only by more energetic wavelengths of less than 300 nm at higher pH values (pH 6 to 8). Based on these data, the aquatic halflife of atrazine and simazine in well-lit acidic upland waters will be typically six days. In lowland rivers with higher pH (7 to 8.5), these triazines are likely to exhibit half-lives of months rather than days. In groundwaters, atrazine and simazine will have half-lives in the order of years, due to the exceedingly slow rate of hydrolysis.