# Assessment of Pesticide Contamination of Groundwater from Titu-Sarata Plain, Romania
## 4 Discussion
The obtained results show the exceedance of the maximum permitted concentration of OCPs (0.030 \(\upmu\)g/L for drinking water) for over 55% of the groundwater samples collected from the Titu-Sarata Plain, Romania. Thus, for aldrin, there were exceedances in the groundwaters collected from 6 locations: Baba Ana, Brezoaia, Beraitaru, Ciocanesti, Cosereni, and Fanari; for pp'DDE, there were exceedances in groundwaters collected from 11 locations: Baraitaru, Ciocanesti, Jilavele, Lunguletu, Niculesti, Odaia Turcului, Olarii Vechi, Predesti, Palanca, Suseni Bilicuresti, and Salcuta; and for alfa endosulfan and dieldrin, there were exceedances only in the groundwater collected from one location: Cosereni. The \(RQ\) values obtained for Phosdrin in all of the water samples were higher than 10, indicating a high risk for the environment. In the case of phorate, the \(RQ\) values were observed to be between 1 and 10 for the Palanca and Spataru locations (moderate risk) and higher than 10 for the other locations (high risk). Although the individual environmental risk factor (\(RQ\)) values in the cases of dichloroprop, aldicarb sulfoxide, carbaryl, simazine, and atrazine were lower than 1, indicating that they do not pose a risk for the environment, they do contribute to the increase in the total risk (\(RQ_{ltot}\)). These results demonstrate that even low concentrations of some pesticides can be harmful if we consider all the contaminants present in a water sample. Concerning the \(RQ\) values for OCPs, it has been observed that pp'DDE (\(RQ\) ranging from 27 to 136) poses a high risk for the environment in the areas of Baraitaru, Ciocanesti, Jilavele, Lunguletu, Niculesti, Odaia Turcului, Olarii Vechi, Predesti, Palanca, Romanesti, Suseni Bilicuresti, and Salcuta, and alfa endosulfan induces a moderate risk for the environment (\(RQ\) = 6.38) only in the Cosereni area. In order to capture the real situation of the degree of water pollution and environmental risk, we must take into account all of the pesticides present in the water sample from each location. Great attention must be given in the future to the areas where both OPs and OCPs were found in the groundwater, like Brezoaia, Crovu, Gageni, Spataru, and Salcuta (\(RQ\) ranging from 61.4 to 1036.3). The \(HQ\) values obtained in the cases of the ingestion of contaminated groundwater with OPs like aldicarb sulfoxide, carbaryl, simazine, atrazine, and phorate, for the three age groups considered (infants, children, and adults), are much lower than 1 (on the order of \(10^{-4}\)-\(10^{-10}\)). Also, the \(HI\) values (7.5 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\)-3.7 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for infants; \(8.5\times 10^{-6}\) to \(1.7\times 10^{-4}\) for children; and \(6\times 10^{-6}\) to \(10\times 10^{-5}\) for adults) show that the ingestion of the sampled groundwater causes low or negligible non-carcinogenic risks for the population in the studied areas. The \(HQ\) values obtained in the cases of the ingestion of contaminated groundwater from the studied areas, with OCPs like aldirn (\(HQ\) ranging from 1.2 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) to 2.7 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for infants; from 5.8 \(\times\)\(10^{-5}\) to 1.2 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for children; and from 3.3 \(\times\)\(10^{-5}\) to 7.4 \(\times\)\(10^{-5}\) for adults) and pp'DDE (\(HQ\) ranging from 9.6 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\) to 1.1 \(\times\)\(10^{-5}\) for infants; from 5.4 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\) to 1 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\) for children; and from 1.5 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\) to 3.1 \(\times\)\(10^{-6}\) for adults) indicates that the ingestion of groundwater from the researched areas have low or negligible non-carcinogenic risks for the population. In addition, for the Cosereni area, where the groundwater was found to be contaminated with dieldrin, in the case of groundwater ingestion, the obtained \(HQ\) values (7.6 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for infants; 3.5 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for children; and 2 \(\times\)\(10^{-4}\) for adults) showed low or negligible non-carcinogenic risks for the population.