First survey on the occurrence of chlorinated solvents in groundwater of eastern sector of Rome

Abstract

Groundwater pollution by chlorinated compounds is one of the most common environmental issues affecting urban areas, especially for those with a huge industrial vocation. Even if Rome is not an industrial city, this kind of contamination has been recently started to be detected in the groundwater. In order to better evaluate the presence and distribution of chlorinated solvents in groundwater in the eastern sector of Rome, a sampling survey in the monitoring network of the city has been conducted. First preliminary results, deriving from samples collected in wells mainly located in public green areas in a previous investigation survey, seem to show how the species tetrachloroethylene, trichlorethylene and all their degradation pathway can be associated more with point source of contamination with locally very high concentration values. On the contrary, the detection of trichloromethane and 1,1,2-trichloroethane, which have been found in the new data collection at low concentration in several of the investigated wells, could suggest a diffuse occurrence of these compounds. Unfortunately, even if the presented results represent a good starting point for further evaluations, the preliminary status of this research cannot allow to clearly understand the source of contamination and declare the possible diffusion of these two compounds.