Low-Level Groundwater Atrazine in High Atrazine Usage Nebraska Counties: Likely Effects of Excessive Groundwater Abstraction

Authors

Moses New-Aaron, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow
Olufemi Abimbola, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Raheleh Mohammadi, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow
Oluwaseun Famojuro, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow
Zaeema Naveed, The University of British ColumbiaFollow
Azar Abadi, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow
Jesse E. Bell, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow
Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Eleanor G. Rogan, University of Nebraska Medical CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

New-Aaron, M.; Abimbola, O.; Mohammadi, R.; Famojuro, O.; Naveed, Z.; Abadi, A.; Bell, J.E.; Bartelt-Hunt, S.; Rogan, E.G. Low-Level Groundwater Atrazine in High Atrazine Usage Nebraska Counties: Likely Effects of Excessive Groundwater Abstraction. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 13241. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph182413241

Comments

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Abstract

Recent studies observed a correlation between estrogen-related cancers and groundwater atrazine in eastern Nebraska counties. However, the mechanisms of human exposure to atrazine are unclear because low groundwater atrazine concentration was observed in counties with high cancer incidence despite having the highest atrazine usage. We studied groundwater atrazine fate in high atrazine usage Nebraska counties. Data were collected from Quality Assessed Agrichemical Contaminant Nebraska Groundwater, Parameter–Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), and water use databases. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were performed. Domestic wells (59%) were the predominant well type. Groundwater atrazine was affected by well depth. Clusters consisting of wells with low atrazine were characterized by excessive groundwater abstraction, reduced precipitation, high population, discharge areas, and metropolitan counties. Hence, low groundwater atrazine may be due to excessive groundwater abstraction accompanied by atrazine. Human exposure to atrazine in abstracted groundwater may be higher than the estimated amount in groundwater.