An unusual and persistent contamination of drinking water by cutting oil

Drinking water contamination by materials, such as cutting oil, used to set up pipelines is an uncommon but possible event. This paper describes the analytical procedures used to identify the components of that contaminant in drinking water. Volatile and semi-volatile chemical species, responsible for an unpleasant taste and odour, were recognised by solid phase microextraction and GC/MS techniques. Among the volatile compounds, the presence of xylenes, bornyl acetate and diphenyl ether was confirmed by certificate standards and quantified in the most contaminated samples.