Environmental Transfer of Some Organic Micropollutants

Abstract

Investigations of the fate of some organic micropollutants in the Rotmain valley near Bayreuth, West Germany, are reported. Samples were taken at fortnightly intervals to analyse for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons and volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons in air, dryfall, wetfall, river-, soil- and groundwater, soils, sediments, suspended sediments and biota. The equilibrium distribution of organic micropollutants among these environmental compartments, and fluxes between compartments, were calculated. The temporal and spatial variation and the instability of the transfer processes preclude the use of time-continuous models with intercompartmental resolution to describe the environmental fate of organic micropollutants. However, a simple conceptual model is proposed which would provide an effective simulation of pollutant behaviour.