Profiles and risk assessment of legacy and current use pesticides in urban rivers in Beijing, China

Pesticides in the environment can pose serious risks to aquatic ecosystems. This study focused on the existence of 27 pesticides, including 13 pesticides regulated by the Stockholm Convention as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and 14 commonly used pesticides in three urban rivers in Beijing that receive effluents from three municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTPs). Among the 27 pesticides, 12 were detected at least once over a period of 4 seasons. Atrazine, aldrin and dieldrin were universally found in the three rivers, with the highest concentrations being 311, 163 and 23.3 ng/L, respectively. HCHs, DDTs, heptachlor and endosulfan, which are POPs, were detected at lower concentrations (ND-16.7 ng/L). Most of the insecticides and some of the herbicides in the rivers originated from MWTP effluents. The risk assessment results showed that aldrin posed medium risk (0.1 <= RQ < 1) to fish, and atrazine exhibited medium risk to both fish and algae. Despite the implementation of the Stockholm Convention and the upgrades of MWTPs emitting ozone, high loads of aldrin, atrazine and dieldrin were discharged to the rivers. Efforts should be devoted to identifying POP pesticide sources and upgrading MWTPs with other technologies to ensure the ecological safety of rivers.

Automated summary

The study found multiple pesticides in three urban rivers in Beijing, with some posing medium risks, and most originating from effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants.