Pesticides in water supply wells in Zealand, Denmark: A statistical analysis

Data from the Danish National Borehole Database are used to predict drinking water well vulnerability to contamination by pesticides, and to identify the dominant mechanisms leading to well pollution in Zealand, Denmark. The frequency of detection and concentrations of 4 herbicides and 3 herbicide metabolites are related to factors accounting for geology (thicknesses of sand, clay and chalk layers), geographical location (distance to surface water and distance to contaminated sites), redox conditions and well depth using logistic regression, the binomial test and Spearman correlation techniques. Results show that drinking water wells located in urban areas are more vulnerable to BAM and phenoxy acids contamination, while non-urban area wells are more subject to bentazone contamination. Parameters accounting for the hydraulic connection between the well and the surface (well depth and thickness of the clay confining layer) are often strongly related to well vulnerability. Results also show that wells close to surface water are more vulnerable to contamination, and that sandy layers provide better protection against the leaching of oxidizable pesticides than clay aquitards, because they are more likely to be aerobic. 4-CPP is observed more often at greater well depth, perhaps because of anaerobic dechlorination of dichlorprop. The field data are used to create a set of probabilistic models to predict well vulnerability to contamination by pesticides.