The organic contamination survey and health risk assessment of 16 source water reservoirs in Haihe River basin

Abstract

Although contamination by organic pollutants has previously been reported to occur in the Haihe River basin, few studies have been carried out on the levels of source water reservoir contamination and the health risk in the Haihe River basin. To understand the organic pollution status of the reservoirs in the Haihe River basin, samples were collected from 16 source water reservoirs. The samples were analyzed for the representative organic pollutants, which included benzene homologues, chlorobenzene compounds, organophosphorus pesticides, and nitrobenzene compounds, a total in all of 17 compounds. It was observed that the concentrations of the 17 compounds in the 16 reservoirs were all less than the limit laid down by Chinese surface water quality standards. In addition, benzene, toluene, nitrobenzene, p-nitrochlorobenzene, 2,4-dinitrotoluene and 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene, dichlorvos, demeton, dimethoate methyl parathion, malathion and parathion were frequently detected in the 16 source water reservoirs, especially the organophosphorus pesticides; the detection rates of dichlorvos, dimethoate, methyl parathion, malathion and parathion were all 100% in the 16 source water reservoirs. The detection rate of target compounds suggested that organic pollution had been common in the source water of the Haihe River basin. The health risk assessment results suggested that the noncarcinogenic risk hazard quotient values of the target compounds were less than one, and the cancer risk values were all below 1 × 10−6, which indicated that the heath risk produced by the target compounds in the 16 reservoirs was at an acceptable level.