Although the utilization of pesticides accounted for the group of persistent organic pollutants was banned years ago, a count of pesticides are still directly or indirectly a source of contamination in Europe. One of them, simazine is still allowed for use in the United States. Aim of this experiment was development of soil remediation method which could be utilized for degradation triazine class pesticides – simazine was an example used. A method for soil remediation based on ozonation processes in fluidized bed was successfully utilized for removal of simazine from contaminated soil. For the study soil highly contaminated with simazine up to the concentration of 0.05% w/w was used. Determination of the pesticide levels in soil was performed using extraction and gas chromatography. The method allowed 80% reduction of pesticide concentration level. The degradation of pesticide was accompanied with changes of physicochemical parameters of soil, i.e., decrease of pH and a increase of nitrates concentration. Despite changes in physicochemical properties of the soil, the developed method proved to be highly effective and can be successfully applied on an industrial scale.

In the period of 1993-1998 six wells known as being contaminated were monitored 3-6 times per year (a total of 143 samples) for the presence of atrazine, simazine and respective chloro-dealkyl metabolites. Samples were prepared for analysis by solid phase extraction (SPE) and determination was by HPLC/UV or GC/NPD techniques, GC/MSD and HPLC/DAD were employed as secondary (confirmatory) techniques. Residues of analysed compounds were present in more than 90% of samples with exception for DeDiA that was found in 81.6% of samples. The highest concentrations of atrazine, simazine, DeA, DiA, and DeDiA were 16.80; 18.60; 7.49; 2.98 and 3.43 μgil respectively. New inputs of atrazine and simazine were observed in ground water of three wells occasionally, probably resulting from fresh herbicide treatments. In the other wells contamination was rather stagnant at lower levels (0.X mg/I).