Irrigated rice production can involve environmental contamination with pesticides due to the proximity of the fields to rivers and to management problems. During three years (2000 to 2003) the rice herbicides clomazone, propanil and quinclorac were quantified in water during the rice growing season, in the Vacacaí and Vacacaí-Mirim Rivers, located in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) State, Brazil. Water samples were taken at several locations in each river, selected by their importance in terms of rice drainage area. The samples were analyzed by HPLC-UV. At least one herbicide was detected in 41% of the samples from the Vacacaí River and 33% from the Vacacaí-Mirim River. The most frequent herbicide in both rivers and in each year was clomazone. The amount of herbicides in the river water was dependent on the rainfall regime. River water contamination by rice herbicides is probably caused by the rice water management used in the fields. The maintenance of flooded areas makes herbicides prone to contaminate the environment. To reduce the environmental contamination risk it is necessary to adopt measures to avoid overflow of flooded rice fields, keeping paddy water in the field for time enough to reduce the herbicide concentration before its release and enhancing the quality of the levees to reduce the probability of paddy rice overflow.
clomazone; environmental impact; pesticides; propanil; quinclorac