GC-MS/MS determination and ecological risk assessment of pesticides in aquatic system: A case study in Hooghly River basin in West Bengal, India

Abstract A liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) for water and modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method for sediment combined with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) detection in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was standardized for determination of 31 pesticides. Performance characteristics for the selected pesticides were acceptable according to European Commission's (EC) guidelines for method validation (recovery 70–120%, RSD 2 value ≥ 0.99). River, pond and tubewell water and river sediment samples (64 nos.) were collected from Hooghly River basin in West Bengal, India during 2014–2016. About 42% of the samples showed the presence of 19 pesticides with the highest loading of total pesticides (T-pesticides) in river water (3.01 ng mL −1 ) followed by sediment (1.25 ng g −1 ), pond (0.40 ng mL −1 ) and tubewell (0.02 ng mL −1 ) water. The non-agricultural OC (organochlorine) insecticides were detected in all river water and sediment samples mainly due to HCHs (hexachlorocyclohexane) from old source and fresh use of DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in local areas. No OC insecticides were detected in pond and tubewell water. Maximum residues of some recommended pesticides in agriculture were obtained in pond water. Most of the river water samples (93.7%) were in excess of EC limit (0.50 ng mL −1 ) of T-pesticides for drinking followed by pond water samples (56.2%). Tubewell water samples were free from T-pesticide threat but exceeded the EC limit (0.10 ng mL −1 ) for single pesticide in case of chlorpyrifos only. Ecological risk on aquatic animals was observed for OCs in river and chlorpyrifos in pond aquatic ecosystem.