**Acknowledgements**

**•** The assessment of the potential impacts of those SAs for which ecotoxicity data is lacking

**•** More information about the ecotoxicity of these compounds to soil organisms should be provided. This regards to acute, chronic and single/mixture toxicity of most of the veterinary

**•** Information on the potential environmental effects of parent compounds (drugs) as well as metabolites and transformation products. This includes the single and joint effects evalua‐

**•** Further research is required on the mixture toxicity of SAs in combination with other

**•** Data from acute and chronic ecotoxicity tests on species belonging to different trophic levels such as bacteria, algea, crustaceans and fish among others, is relevant to illustrate the several adverse effects that environmental exposure to measured concentrations of these contami‐ nants can have. The principal toxicological endpoints/studies that are described are growth, survival, reproduction and immobilization of species, comparatively to trangenerational and population level studies that are still sparse. In the near future, the evaluation of chronic toxicity effects should be set out as a priority for the scientific community since simultaneous exposure to pharmaceuticals, metabolites and transformation products of several thera‐ peutic classes are unknown and whose probable effects on subsequent generations should

**Abbreviation Full name**

CA Concentration Addition DHFR Dihydrofolic Acid Reductase DHPS Dihydropterinic Acid Synthetase EPA Environmental Protection Agency ERA Environmental Risk Assessment IA Independent Action LUC Lucyferase

MEC Measured Environmental Concentration NOEC No Observable Effect Concentrations

PABA *p*-aminobenzoic acid

but are seen to regularly occur in the environment.

80 Organic Pollutants - Monitoring, Risk and Treatment

medicines and non-medicinal substances.

**•** The possible indirect effects of SAs should be identified.

pharmaceuticals.

tion.

be assumed.

**Abbreviations**

Financial support was provided by the Polish National Science Centre under grant DEC-2011/03/B/NZ8/03009 "Determining the potential effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment: an ecotoxicity evaluation of selected veterinary drugs and their mixtures" (2012-2015).

## **Author details**

Anna Białk-Bielińska, Jolanta Kumirska and Piotr Stepnowski

Department of Environmental Analysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

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**Chapter 4**

**The Investigation and Assessment on Groundwater**

Groundwater is an important part of the water resource. It plays an irreplaceable role in supporting the national economy and social development. In China, more than 1/3 of the to‐ tal water resources are utilized. As surveys shown, over 400 cities of all exploit groundwa‐ ter. More seriously, many of them use groundwater as the only source of water supply.

A series of problems emerge gradually with the utilization of groundwater. Just as river wa‐ ters have been over-used and polluted in many parts of the world, so have groundwater. The organic solvents and dioxins pollution of Love Canal occurred in 1978 is one of the most wide‐ ly known examples, which contributes high rates of cancer and an alarming number of birth defects. Similar things occur frequently in recent decades. Governance of groundwater is so ur‐ gent a major matter of peace and prosperity. After years of researches, the nature and pollu‐ tion mechanism of the contaminants in the groundwater have already got comprehended.

General scope of the organic contamination in groundwater is reviewed in this chapter. We will detail account the types of groundwater organic contamination, the pollution source of groundwater. and the fate and transport of chemicals in groundwater. Also a detailed de‐ scription of the investigation and assessment method in this chapter. At last, we give some

The figure 1 described some source of groundwater contamination, and the transport of chemicals in groundwater. We can see the landfills, leaking sewers, oil storage tanks, pesti‐ cides and fertilizer, and septic tank in the picture, all of these could be the pollution source of groundwater. We also can know the groundwater transport and flow in the unsaturated

> © 2013 Wang et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Wang et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

comments and suggestion on the groundwater investigation and assessment.

**Organic Pollution**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53549

**1. Introduction**

zone and saturated zone.

Hongqi Wang, Shuyuan Liu and Shasha Du

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

