ABSTRACT
Large-scale human operations carried out on the surface of the Earth include ever-increasing intervention in groundwater systems. All uses of water result in an increase in dissolved components, all used water has to be disposed of somewhere, and all disposed water eventually reaches existing water reservoirs: lakes, rivers, groundwater, and the ocean. Hence, an intrinsic part of water use is water contamination-the addition of components that were not there before. Water quality control is, thus, an integral part of water production and consumption and, in the same way, water monitoring and tracing of pollutants is an integral part of the hydrochemist’s field work.
