The report deals with the transportation behavior of lindane, a pesticide used commonly in the agricultural and public health sectors in India, through sandy and loamy soils. The contamination of groundwater by pesticides is a worldwide problem because of their tissue degradation and carcinogenic nature. They are bio-accumulative and relatively stable and therefore, require close monitoring.
The pesticides used for agricultural, forestry and domestic activities leach into the groundwater and therefore, it is very important to study their transportation behavior in different types of soil media.
The effect of various operating variables, viz concentration of lindane, pH of the mobile phase, soil column length and flow rate have been studied. It has been observed that the concentration ranging from 5 to 25 μg and 5 to 35 μg were retarded by the sandy and loamy soils respectively. Therefore, 40 μg was selected as the optimum concentration for the study.
In the experiment, the pH was varied from 2 to 7 and it was found that the minimum transportation of lindane occurred at pH 7 in both sandy and loamy soils. The effect of column length on the transportation of lindane indicates that the amount of lindane transported decreases with increasing column length. The flow rate did not show any significant effect on the transportation of lindane.
The distribution of lindane was also studied under saturated conditions. A uniform distribution of lindane (25 ml of 5 mg/l) has been observed after 240 hrs and 12 weeks in sandy and loamy soils respectively. It may be due to the fact that the inter-particle space is greater in sandy soil than the loamy soil. Also, the adsorption capacity of loamy soil is higher than that of sandy soil.
It may be concluded that the contamination of groundwater from surface is faster in sandy soil in comparison to loamy soil.
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