Pesticide processing potential in prairie pothole porewaters

Prairie pothole lakes (PPLs) are located within the extensively farmed Great Plains region of North America, and many are negatively impacted by nonpoint source pesticide pollution. To date, the environmental fate of pesticides in these lakes remains largely unknown. In this study, two PPLs in the Cottonwood Lake area of North Dakota were sampled, and transformations of four chloroacetanilide pesticides in sediment porewaters were examined. The reduced sulfur species in the porewaters, such as bisulfide (HS(-)) and polysulfides (S(n)(2-)), readily transformed the target pesticides into sulfur-substituted products. Although HS(-) and S(n)(2-) played a dominant role, other reactive constituents in PPL porewaters also contributed to the transformation. Results from this study revealed that abiotic reactions with reduced sulfur species could represent an important removal pathway for pesticides entering PPLs.