Perchlorate assessment of the Nakdong and Yeongsan watersheds, Republic of Korea.

The objective of the present study was to conduct a preliminary assessment for perchlorate in surface water, drinking water, and wastewater treatment plant effluent samples obtained from the Nakdong and Yeongsan watersheds in the Republic of Korea. Samples were analyzed for perchlorate using ion chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection (IC-CD) and/or liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection (LC-MS/MS). Method reporting limits were 5.0 microg/L for IC-CD and 0.05 microg/L for LC-MS/MS analysis. At perchlorate levels above 5.0 microg/L, IC-CD and LC-MS/MS provided comparable results. The levels of perchlorate detected in the samples procured from the Yeongsan watershed were < 5.0 microg/L in each case. However, Nakdong watershed samples contained perchlorate at levels up to 60 microg/L. The highest concentrations of perchlorate were found in surface water samples, although drinking water contained perchlorate at concentrations up to 35 microg/L. In a subset of samples analyzed by LC-MS/MS, chlorate and bromate also were detected at concentrations ranging from < 0.10 to 44 microg/L and < 0.10 to 2.6 microg/L, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first perchlorate assessment reported for water sources in the Republic of Korea.