Impact of DOM on the transport of organic contaminants in groundwater.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater is, in elevated concentrations, to be treated as a contaminant per se. Furthermore, it may act as a carrier for different types of contaminants. The degradation of DOM is generally slow in groundwater, but when degradation takes place the binding capacity for different types of organic contaminants may be changed. A better understanding oof these changes in binding capacity will be of importance in order to be able to understand and predict the transport of contaminants from polluted soils, like old petrol stations and landfills, to receiving aquifers. Furthermore, the degradation processes, as well as other types of attenuation of organic matter in the groundwater, are poorly understood, especially in qualitative terms.
In the proposed project we hypothesize that:
- DOM in the landfill leachate polluted groundwater is degraded in such a way that it is not only reduced in qualitity, but is also qualitatively transformed by microbial degradaton processes.
- As a consequence of these qualitative changes of DOM, the binding capacity for organic contaminants is influenced.
Furthermore we intend to elucidate the mechanisms behind observed changes in binding capacity of DOM due to degradation.