Concentrations of metabolites of an agricultural herbicide were monitored in wells supplying drinking water from captured groundwater springs in areas with shallow fractured and karst aquifers and known to have widespread application of the product. For two sites sufficient hydrological, hydrogeological, and pedological data were available to provide a reasonable basis for a pragmatic modeling approach to address the question of whether the measured concentrations could be regarded as representative for documented applications of the product in the area of the well. Leaching simulations were carried out for relevant fields using the PEARL leaching model. A mass balance based model considering simple groundwater flow was developed and implemented in a spreadsheet to calculate time-dependent concentrations at the monitoring wells resulting from the simulated leachate solute mass fluxes in the catchment area. The results indicate that the measured concentrations can be considered as representative for the documented product usage and local conditions.

Modeling herbicide metabolite concentrations in groundwater at shallow karst monitoring sites in France

244th National Meeting (2012)

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