Heavy metals and organic micropollutants in floodplains of the River Waal, a distributary of the River Rhine, 1958-1981

Abstract

Heavy metals investigated include zinc, copper, chromium, lead, cadmium, nickel, mercury and arsenic. Different groups of chemically persistent organic micropollutants were studied: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); polychlorobiphenyls (PCB), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), DDT and DDT-metabolites. In general, the levels of most contaminants decreased substantially between 1958 and 1981. The variation among the different floodplain locations is due to differences in hydrodynamic characteristics of the location. -from Authors