The In Situ Chemical Reduction (ISCR) process was tested in a nitisol in a French Caribbean banana plantation using five different soil amendments. The addition of 2.8% or 4.0% of Zero Valent Iron (ZVI; dw/dw, 2 different trial plots) in the 0–40-cm soil layer lowered the initial chlordecone (CLD) concentration by up to 74% or 69% in 37 days or 94 days, with 75% of the decrease achieved after only 21 or 24 days of treatment depending on the trial plot. The addition of commercially available Daramend® was also tested by applying the 6% dose (dw/dw) recommended by the manufacturer and using either the regular alfalfa-based product or a bagasse-based product specifically formulated for the study. Both significantly lowered CLD concentrations, but to a lesser extent than with the ZVI-only amendment. A bagasse-ZVI mixture prepared on site produced results slightly better than the two Daramend®. The percentage decreases in CLD concentrations were correlated with the negative redox potentials achieved. In all the trial plots, dechlorinated transformation products appeared in the soil and soil water as the CLD concentrations decreased, with H atoms replacing up to 4 and 7 of the 10 Cl atoms, respectively. None of these degradation products appeared to accumulate in the soil or soil water during the treatment. Instead, the reverse occurred, with an overall downward trend in their concentrations over time. The effects of ISCR treatment on agronomic and human health–related parameters were measured in three different crops. The radishes produced with some treatments were visually of lower quality or smaller in size than those grown in the control plots. Lower yields were observed for the cucumbers and sweet potatoes grown after applying the bagasse-based amendments. Mortality among cucumber seedlings was observed after treatment with ZVI only. Simple operational solutions should suffice to remedy these negative agronomic effects. As regards human health–related effects, the CLD concentrations in radishes grown with three of the amendments were significantly lower than in the two control plots and well below the maximum residue level (MRL), which was substantially exceeded in the radishes grown on untreated soil. For cucumbers, the treatments with regular Daramend® and with a local bagasse-ZVI mixture produced fruits with CLD below the MRL and also below the concentrations in one of the two control plots. As for the sweet potatoes, adding a bagasse-ZVI mixture had a significant positive effect by decreasing contamination below the levels in the two control plots and below the MRL.

In Guadeloupe, the use between 1972 and 1993 of chlordecone, an organochlorine insecticide, has permanently contaminated the island's soil, thus contaminating the food chain at its very beginning. There is today a strong societal requirement for an improved mapping of the contaminated zones. Given the extent of the areas to be covered, carrying out soil tests on each plot of the territory would be a long and expensive process. In this article, we explore a method of demarcating polluted areas. The approach adopted consists in carrying out, using surface water analyses, a hydrological delimitation that makes it possible to distinguish contaminated watersheds from uncontaminated ones. The selection of sampling points was based on the spatial analysis of the actual and potential contamination data existing at the beginning of the study. The approach was validated by soil analyses, after having compared the contamination data of the watersheds with the soil contamination data of the plots within them. The study thus made it possible to highlight new contaminated areas and also those at risk of contamination and to identify the plots to be targeted as a priority during future analysis campaigns by State services.

In the French West Indies, the chlordecone (organochloride pesticide) pollution is now diffuse becoming new contamination source for crops and environment (water, trophic chain). Decontamination by bioremediation and chemical degradation are still under development but the physical limitations of these approaches are generally not taken into account. These physical limitations are related to the poor physical accessibility to the pesticides in soils because of the peculiar structural properties of the contaminated clays (pore volume, transport properties, permeability, and diffusion). Some volcanic soils (andosols), which represent the half of the contaminated soils in Martinique, contain nanoclay (allophane) with a unique structure and porous properties. Andosols are characterized by pore size distribution in the mesoporous range, a high specific surface area, a large pore volume, and a fractal structure. Our hypothesis is that the clay microstructure characteristics are crucial physico-chemical factors strongly limiting the remediation of the pesticide. Our results show that allophane microstructure (small pore size, hierarchical microstructure, and tortuosity) favors accumulation of chlordecone, in andosols. Moreover, the clay microporosity limits the accessibility of microorganisms and chemical species able to decontaminate because of poor transport properties (permeability and diffusion). We model the transport properties by two approaches: (1) we use a numerical model to simulate the structure of allophane aggregates. The algorithm is based on a cluster–cluster aggregation model. From the simulated data, we derived the pore volume, specific surface area, tortuosity, permeability, and diffusion. We show that transport properties strongly decrease because of the presence of allophane. (2) The fractal approach. We characterize the fractal features (size of the fractal aggregate, fractal dimension, tortuosity inside allophane aggregates) and we calculate that transport properties decrease of several order ranges inside the clay aggregates. These poor transport properties are important parameters to explain the poor accessibility to pollutants in volcanic soils and should be taken into account by future decontamination process. We conclude that for andosols, this inaccessibility could render inefficient some of the methods proposed in the literature.

Chlordecone, applied on soils until 1993 to control banana weevil, has polluted water resources in the French West Indies for more than 40 years. At the watershed scale, chlordecone applications were not homogenous, generating a spatial heterogeneity of the pollution. The roles of climate, hydrology, soil, agronomy, and geology on watershed functioning generate a temporal heterogeneity of the pollution. This study questions the interactions between practices and the environment that induce such variability. We analyzed hydrological and water pollution datasets from a 2-year monitoring program on the Galion watershed in Martinique (French West Indies). We conjointly analyzed (i) weekly chlordecone (CLD) concentration monitored on 3 river sampling sites, (ii) aquifer piezometric dynamics and pollutions, and (iii) agricultural practices on polluted soils. Our results showed that chlordecone pollution in surface waters are characterized by annual trends and infra-annual variations. Aquifers showed CLD concentration 10 times higher than surface water, with CLD concentration peaks during recharge events. We showed strong interactions between rainfall events and practices on CLD pollution requiring a systemic management approach, in particular during post-cyclonic periods. Small sub-watershed with high CLD pollution appeared to be a substantial contributor to CLD mass transfers to the marine environment via rivers and should therefore receive priority management. We suggest increasing stable organic matter return to soil as well as external input of organic matter to reduce CLD transfers to water. We identified hydrological conditions—notably drying periods—and tillage as the most influential factors on CLD leaching. In particular, tillage acts on 3 processes that increases CLD leaching: organic matter degradation, modification of water paths in soil, and allophane clay degradation.