Herbicides are ubiquitous throughout the Midwestern agriculture community. One of the most commonly used corn herbicides is atrazine. In a recent 7 year span, over 1.5 million pounds of atrazine containing herbicides were applied to US soil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires the atrazine contamination level in food and public water supplies to be under 3 µg/L. An EPA report observed an atrazine concentration within the Macomb, IL watershed to be 14 µg/L in June 2009. Methods have been established by the EPA to detect and quantify atrazine concentration in water sources. Results will be presented on the modification of the EPA method to reduce the amount of organic solvent required and also eliminate the use of a specialized gas chromatography instrument.

Atrazine detection using GC-FID in the Macomb watershed

251st National Meeting (2016)

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