Distribution and fate of organochlorine pesticide residues in sediments from the selected rivers in Taiwan

The contamination of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in sediments from selected rivers in Taiwan was investigated to evaluate the pollution potentials and hazard in river sediments. Da-han River and Erh-jen River were selected as the target rivers due to their serious pollution. A total of 40 surface sediment samples were collected at five sampling stations along the rivers. Results showed that the concentrations of various pesticides in sediments were in the range of 0.57-14.1 ng/g for SigmaHCH, 0.05-0.15 ng/g for aldrin, 0.12-5.8 ng/g for dieldrin, 0.22-0.64 for endrin, 0.24-6.37 ng/g for endosulfan and 0.21-8.81 ng/g for SigmaDDT (p,p'-DDD, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT). Among the OCPs, SigmaHCH, endosulfan and SigmaDDT were the most dominant compounds in the river sediments. Endosulfan sulfate was the most frequent detected compound in the sediments from the selected rivers. Also, SigmaDDT, dieldrin and beta-HCH were in abundance. Different contamination patterns between the selected river sediments were also observed. Da-han River was mainly contaminated with endosulfan sulfate and SigmaDDT. Whereas the main pesticides in Erh-jen River were beta-HCH and SigmaDDT. Among the cyclodiene compounds, dieldrin was in abundance in most of the sediments. Moreover, the frequencies of detection of the metabolites were higher than those of parent compounds, depicting that the sediments have contaminated for a long time. The results obtained in this study showed that there still exist a variety of OCP residues in the river sediments in Taiwan. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.