The potential of pesticides to contaminate the groundwater resources of the Axios river basin. Part II. Monitoring study in the south part of the basin.

Abstract A monitoring study was conducted during 1992–1994 in the south part of the Axios river basin, which constitutes one of the main rice-cultivated basins of Greece. The potential of pesticides to contaminate groundwater resources was assessed under realistic agricultural conditions using suction lysimeters. Pesticide residues were also measured in local drainage canals, the phreatic horizon and Axios river. Carbofuran, atrazine, alachlor, prometryne and propanil were regularly detected at concentrations exceeding 1 μg/l in the soil water of deeper soil layers and in the phreatic horizon of the fields. Residues of those pesticides were measured in the soil water and the phreatic horizon of all the studied fields even though they had only been applied in certain fields. This almost uniform distribution of pesticide residues across the whole of the studied area was attributed to rice cultivation. Soil water and its pesticidal content was horizontally transported from saturated soil conditions beneath rice paddies to adjacent corn or cotton-cultivated fields with lower soil moisture contents. The presence of high pesticide concentrations in the water of the Axios river, which was used for the irrigation of the studied area, had probably contributed to the generalized pesticide contamination of the soil water in the studied area. These results suggest that there is a high risk for groundwater contamination in the basin.