Estimation of Initial Concentrations of Phenanthrene and Atrazine from Soil Properties and Bioavailability During Aging

Contaminated sites are often abandoned for an extended period of time, thus organopollutants becoming sequestered. The information on the initial concentrations of the contaminants would be helpful for the economic bioremediation of the chemicals. The present study estimated the initial concentrations of atrazine and phenanthrene through multiple regression analyses using soil properties and the amount of chemicals available in situ. Percentage mineralized or extracted was best correlated with organic C or logarithm of organic C, and the $R^2$ values were 0.548 and 0.894 for atrazine and phenanthrene, respectively. Estimation of the initial concentration of the chemicals was then calculated from both the percentage mineralized or extracted and the amount of chemicals extracted or mineralized. Results showed that the estimation of the initial concentration of the chemical at the time of contamination is feasible.