A Case History of Contamination by Polychloro-1,3-butadiene Congeners

Recently in Lombardia, Italy, a water contamination by industrial wastes was discovered in an area where an uncontrolled industrial development had taken place. The subject of this paper is a case history of pollution by polychloro-1,3-butadiene congeners, a class of 35 volatile or semivolatile chlorinated compounds still in the presence of other compounds arising from a different source. By comparison of a sample taken from the bottom fraction of a rectification column for the production of tetrachloroethene with the carbon disulfide extract of a water sample collected from a well of the municipal water supply of Milan, the source of pollutants was inferred. The extent of pollution was monitored by liquid−liquid microextraction of the water of 24 wells sited in the north, along the prevailing direction of the movement of the underground water, using hexachloro-1,3-butadiene as a marker. The uncertainty of the normative now in force in the assessment of the risk connected with the occurrence of these compounds in drinking water is also discussed.