The study area

7. The study area

The study area is Mae Klong River basin, which is located in the central plain of Thailand. The climate in Thailand can be divided into 3 seasons including winter (October-February), summer (February-May) and rainy season (May-October). Approximate annual rainfall levels are up to 1,100 mm in the rainy season (85% in May to September). The temperatures are between 25-40ºC. The humidity is around 56-79% [20].

The Mae Klong River basin is one of three major river basins in the Chao Phraya Delta, which are an important agricultural area in rice production and other agronomic in

206 Pesticides – Recent Trends in Pesticide Residue Assay

Thailand for some centuries. The other two major river basins are the Chao Phraya and Tha Chin River basins. The Mae Klong River basin covers a total area of 30,800 km 2 in the west central of Thailand with the very flat delta. It is periodically flooded in rainy season (mostly during August to November) [21]. The most important farming activities in this region are rice paddies and orchards including coconut, lime, lychee and mango. The main waterway in this basin is Mae Klong River which ends at the Gulf of Thailand in Samut Songkhram Province, and has the length of 132 km. The river receives water from both the irrigation canal systems and natural tributaries, which flow through cultivated areas where OCPs are intensively used to improve crop yields [7,22]. The discharge of untreated waste from agriculture is a major source of OCPs contamination in this area, and has been a major concern to citizens and officials for more than two decades [7,20,22]. Some organochlorine pesticides accumulation and their degradation along Mae Klong River basin and some of its tributaries will be discussed in this chapter.

Figure 1. Map of Thailand showing the five tributaries of the Mae Klong River in the study area (Poolpak et al., 2008)

Heptachlor and Its Metabolite: Accumulation and Degradation in Sediment 207

Figure 2. The land use in Mae Klong Basin in the area of Samut Songkram Province with the major land use is agricultural area (Poolpak et al., 2008)

The five sampling sites were on the Mae Klong River tributaries at Tumbon Prag Nam Dang, Amphawa, Samut Songkram Province (Figure 1). These tributaries are also major sources for household and industrial water supply in Samut Songkhram Province. As showed in Figure 2, the areas surrounding the sampling sites are a traditional rice- cultivation area in which farmers cultivate rice twice per year. The first crop (rainy-season rice) cultivation typically starts in August and harvested in November or December. An irrigated dry-season crop is planted in April or May and ends in July or August. Five sites were chosen in such a way as to include hot spots of pollution discharges along the Mae Klong River such as industrial regions, paddy fields and orchards for the first year. For the second year of monitoring, sediment samples were collected from Rang Tub Tab canal (site R) and Phi Lok canal (site P), which is an important crossing point of several tributaries in study area. Site R is also the tributary connected to the Gulf of Thailand. Sediment samples were collected monthly for a period of two years, during August 2003 to February 2005. The study areas and sampling locations along the selected tributaries were illustrated in figure 3. Furthermore, the basic physico-chemical properties of natural surface sediment samples within the area are shown in Table 1.

208 Pesticides – Recent Trends in Pesticide Residue Assay

Figure 3. The study areas and sampling locations along the selected tributaries during August 2003 to July 2004 (A) and March 2004 to February 2005 (B) (Poolpak et al., 2008)

Heptachlor and Its Metabolite: Accumulation and Degradation in Sediment 209

Sampling

Sand Silt Clay Sampling sites

Geographical

Water content

pH

year

(%) (%) (%) Kud Kamnan

50.79 5.9 20 24 56 Somboon (K)

(598863N, 1475923E)

Saphan Han (SP) (598450N, 1475000E)

64.15 5.8 30 21 49 Phi Lok (P)

56.88 5.7 25 23 52 Sam-nga (SN)

(595992N, 1475052E)

64.41 5.6 32 20 48 Rang Tub Tab (R) (593496N, 1472125E)

(595235N, 1472125E)

2004 Phi Lok (P)

(595986N, 1472125E;

594718N, 1471496E; 595133N, 1475347E)

Rang Tub Tab (R) (588357N, 1474380E;

589628N, 1474503E; 592581N, 1473464E; 593310N, 1474090E; 593059N, 1472441E;

593899N, 1476626E)

Table 1. Sampling areas and codes of the tributaries of Mae Klong River, their coordinates and the basic physicochemical properties of natural surface sediment samples within the area