Identification of organic compounds in industrial effluent discharges

Abstract

Samples of 63 effluent and 22 intake waters were collected from a wide range of chemical manufacturers in areas across the United States. The samples were analyzed for organic compounds in an effort to identify previously unknown and potentially hazardous organic pollutants. All sample analyses involved a GC/MS/COMP system that used high-resolution glass capillary GC columns. Organic constituents were identified using the computerized Biemann mass spectral matching system together with some manual interpretation and quantified using GC-FID peak area determinations. Over 570 compounds were tentatively identified of which 33 are priority pollutants. Generally, industrial effluents contained few priority pollutants. Most of the components found in the effluents were specific for a particular industrial site and did not appear in reoccurring patterns. The data suggest that many possible environmentally important compounds would be overlooked if frequency of occurrence is the major criterion for determining environmentally significant compounds.