Investigating groundwater pollution from different sources with combined biological and chemical methods

This paper reviews groundwater pollution caused by the disposal of untreated effluents of a dye factory located 20 km to the west of Nicosia (Cyprus). The task of the work was to investigate the nature of the pollution and differentiate it from other possible pollution sources in the area. It focused on toxicity testing and biofractionation in order to address the most toxic pollutants and, on the evaluation of GC/FID profiles for investigating the connection between groundwater pollution and the effluents. This connection was successful due to a multiple comparison amongst the GC/FID profiles resulting from the polluted groundwater, the water from the reference areas and the dye effluents.