Centennial Honors College

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Browsing Centennial Honors College by Author "Christensen, Breanna"

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    Analysis of Pollutants in Local Freshwater Sources Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography
    (Western Illinois University, 2025-05-02) Christensen, Breanna
    Environmental pollutants require intensive monitoring to ensure that freshwater sources are not contaminated and drinking water is kept safe for human use. However, agricultural use of pesticides often results in off-target movement of the chemical into the aqueous environment by way of direct spraying, spray drift, surface runoff, leaching, or subsurface drainage. Ingestion of such chemicals can pose considerable health risks to both humans and aquatic organisms, especially in terms of fertility and cancer, while harming the local ecosystem. Thus, it is necessary to detect and quantify pesticides so that their harm to non-target species may be reduced. Research aimed to detect and quantify the levels of the pesticide dicamba® in freshwater sources surrounding Macomb, Illinois. Water samples were taken from monitoring wells and several ambient water sources. Analysis was performed using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. These instruments separate the components of the sample and facilitate quantification of the targeted analyte. The external calibration method could not quantify the level of dicamba® with reasonable precision; the standard addition method experienced an unacceptable amount of variability between samples. The results indicated that high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection is not a sensitive enough technique for suitable analysis of dicamba® in water.