Study Rhine River

Haber found a place to study physical chemistry almost by chance. He had kept constant vigil at the bedside of a dying friend, whose grateful brother suggested that Haber apply to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where an influential relative could help. The school, near the Rhine River in the center of German liberalism, maintained close ties with a large... 

The values observed are consistent with the generally low levels of these compounds found in the rivers Rhine and Meuse. A clear distinction between the values found in the river Meuse and the Rhine river basin was not observed. Analysis of samples from the Rhine and Meuse basins in the same period has shown that in general levels were below the LOD, with occasional detectable values in the range of between 1.0 and 3.5 pgL-1 observed [13,14] (see Chapter 6.3). These findings have been confirmed in a recent study by Jonkers et al. [15], in which total dissolved APEO concentrations in the downstream area of the Rhine river of between 0.2 and 0.9 pg L-1, and concentrations of NP averaging 0.1 pg L-1 with little variation, were reported. 

Wanner U, Egli, T., Fleischmann T, et al. 1989. Behavior of the insecticides disulfoton and thiometon in the Rhine River. A chemodynarnic study. Environmental Science and Technology 23 1232-1242. 

Wanner, O., T. Egli, T. Fleischmann, K. Lanz, P. Reichert, and R. P. Schwarzenbach (1989), The Behavior of the Insecticides Disulfoton and Thiomcton in the Rhine River—A Chemodynamic Study, Environ. Sci. Technol., 23, 1232-1242. 

There is a paucity of studies of nitrobenzene in soil. Decomposition of nitrobenzene in a 1% suspension of Niagara silt loam took more than 64 days, while aniline and phenol, commonly metabolites of nitrobenzene, were completely degraded in 4 and 1 days, respectively (Alexander and Lustigman 1966). In contrast, a study of the efficacy of soil infiltration along the Rhine River in the Netherlands showed that nitrobenzene was removed completely in moving 50 cm through a peat-sand artificial dune (Piet et al. 1981). 

The areas of investigation are spatially restricted. Studies on river water or sediments focussed on selected areas of the Elbe and Rhine river systems comprising the Havel and Spree river (exclusively in the urban area of Berlin), the Elbe estuaiy (German Bight), the Teltow Canal, as well as the Lippe river and the middle Rhine river. Investigations on groundwater contamination were exclusively restricted to two small areas in North-Rhine/Westfalia (Fig. 9). 

Therefore, the main issue of the presented study is to provide a comprehensive view on the state of pollution of Rhine river water with respect to lipophilic low molecular weight organic contaminants. The investigation is spatially restricted to the Rhine river section of North Rhine - Westfalia (Germany) which is affected dominantly by emissions... 

Phthalates were measured in some 400 water samples from the Rhine river and its main affluents in North Rhine-Westfalia. DEP, DMPP, DBP, and DEHP were found in almost all samples and their levels were quite stable throughout the year. The mean values found were at the sub /rg/1. Fatoki and Noma studied the levels of phthalate esters in river and marine water samples from the Eastern Cape Province (South Africa), and found that samples were grossly polluted with several phthalate esters. The relatively high levels in the rivers were not unexpected because many of them receive effluents from industries and municipal sewage works with partial treatment or no treatment at all. The high levels of phthalate esters recorded in this study raise some concern. 

Results of studies on recent mud deposits of the heavily polluted lower Rhine River 31, 33) near the German/Dutch border (13) are compared with the data from a sediment study on Lake Constance (33), where the contamination by heavy metals is still relatively low (34). 

Some properties of the sediment samples from Lake Constance and the Rhine River, possibly relevant for the study of the accumulative eflFects on heavy metals, are summarized in Figure 1. The concentrations of the metals in both samples (13,33) indicate an increase from coarser to fine grained fractions, as exemplified by zinc. Elevated concentrations of metals in the sand-sized material probably originate from heavy minerals or from corrosion products. An even greater grain size effect occurs for phosphorus approximately 0.35% (dry weight) has been... 

Although many of these techniques will require refinement and validation before they can be used routinely in monitoring, there have been some efforts using effluents as well as ambient water. In one 1977 study, for example. Prein et al. (99) found chromosome breaks in mudminnows exposed to Rhine River water. The same water samples were positive when tested for mutagenic potential with the Ames assay. 

Studies of the environmental concentrations of ONCB in other parts of the world appear to be even more limited. Researchers reported in 1990 that they had detected ONCB in water samples from the Rhine River at Mainz, Germany at 0.08 to 0.12 micrograms per liter [46]. A subsequent study of surface waters in Germany between 1991 and 2000 showed that the environmental concentration of ONCB (90th percentile) was in the range of <0.005 to 0.58 micrograms per liter [47]. 

Anaerobic biodegradation of chlorinated aromatics has been conducted using packed columns with sand or sediments. Bosma et al. (1998) studied the biodegradation of chlorinated benzenes on packed columns with Rhine River sediments under methanogenic conditions. This study revealed that Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), Pentachlorobenzene (PCB), Tetrachlorobenzene... 

In the most recent and comprehensive study, 230 measurements from 11 sampling points along 225 km of the Rhine and adjoining rivers were made over a period of one year (1991—1992). The concentration of DEHP found varied from 0.11 to 10.3 )-lg/L the latter value is unusually high as evidenced by the mean concentration of only 0.82 )-lg/L (55). 

Two studies conducted between November 2000 and November 2001 in the neighbouring countries of The Netherlands (five locations at the rivers Rhine and Meuse) [13] and Germany (21 rivers and streams belonging to the river Rhine catchment area in Hesse) [14] allow for some comparison to be made. Dissolved aqueous concentrations... 

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