Organic and inorganic pollution of the Vistula River basin

Abstract

The main aim of this work is focused therefore on water quality assessment of the Vistula river and its primary tributaries. The study presents the analytical results of the contamination level of different organic and inorganic pollutants as well as the chemometric evaluation of the entire data set. A broad spectrum of compounds have been determined, including pesticides, polichlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, inorganic ions and some aggregate parameters like BOD. Majority of the organic xenobiotics have been analyzed for first time in the Vistula region on a large, long-term scale. Chemometric evaluation allowed the determination of natural clusters and groups of monitoring locations with similar pollution character. Chemometric analysis confirmed the classification of water purity of the Vistula River basin is related to the land utilization character in this region.

Keywords:

• Vistula River
• chemometrics
• classification methods
• cluster analysis
• river pollution.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Nicholaus Copernicus University Grant no. 343-Ch.