Comparison of Atrazine Sorption and Degradation Properties in Packed and Intact Soil Columns

Sorption and degradation behaviors of atrazine were investigated with packed and intact soil columns. The measured breakthrough curves from columns were fitted with CXTFIT model program. The high mobility and long persistence of atrazine indicated by experiment results confirm that atrazine application may cause potential groundwater pollution. It was found that the obtained sorption and degradation parameters from the packed column experiments were quite similar to those obtained from the intact column experiments. These results suggest that sorption and degradation behaviors in both experiments can be used jointly to model herbicide transport at a large scale if the soil is relatively homogeneous.