Downloaded by NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIV on August 10, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 21, 1996 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1996-0630.pr001
Preface SINCE T H E INTRODUCTION O F T H E HERBICIDE 2,4-D in 1945, many thousands of journal articles and several volumes have been published on herbicides. Tlie majority of publications have explored herbicide characteristics related to weed control and crop tolerance. These characteristics include sorption, bonding, leaching, solubility, vapor pressure, half-life, and degradation pathways. In addition, many studies have been conducted on herbicides in surface water, and these studies have demonstrated that herbicides are common contaminants in surface water. Much less has been written on herbicide transport and occurrence in groundwater. However, this is changing. As a result of mounting interest in the state of our groundwater resources in the 1980s and the improved ability over the last decade to detect compounds by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy and highperformance liquid chromatography, research on the occurrence and transport of herbicides into groundwater has expanded. This research has found that herbicides are commonly detected in groundwater, but at much lower concentrations than in surface water. Because research has shown that herbicides are common contaminants in surface water and groundwater, a logical hypothesis to test was that herbicide metabolites are also present in water. Several recent studies have shown this to be the case. The term metabolite in this volume refers to direct and indirect biotic and abiotic degradation products of a parent herbicide. The study of herbicide metabolites has become an important research area in agricultural and environmental chemistry. As a result, this symposium was designed to give an overview of the environmental chemistry of herbicide metabolites and to provide specific examples of research being conducted in the broad categories of analytical methods, fate and transport, and water-quality surveys. It is our hope that this symposium will lead to future research dedicated to the fate of herbicide metabolites in surface water and groundwater and provide a better understanding of the environmental chemistry of pesticides. This volume was prepared to benefit environmental and agrochemical researchers, residue chemists, environmental regulators, and those in positions to recommend areas of study or establish policy at agrochemical companies, universities, and federal, state, and local government agencies.
ix Meyer and Thurman; Herbicide Metabolites in Surface Water and Groundwater ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1996.
Acknowledgments We acknowledge the financial support provided by Ciba Geigy, DuPont, Monsanto, and the Agrochemicals Division and Environmental Chemis try, Inc., Division of the American Chemical Society, which helped to make this symposium a successful endeavor.
Downloaded by NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIV on August 10, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 21, 1996 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1996-0630.pr001
M. T. M E Y E R
U.S. Geological Survey 3816 Sunset Ridge Road Raleigh, NC 27607 E. M . T H U R M A N
U.S. Geological Survey 4821 Quail Crest Place Lawrence, KS 66049 March, 1996
χ Meyer and Thurman; Herbicide Metabolites in Surface Water and Groundwater ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1996.
