ABSTRACT
About a third of the US population, or 86 million people, receive their drinking water from groundwater sources. Industrial solvents and related chemicals are present in the groundwater used to provide drinking water for 35 to 50 million Americans, according to a recent survey of drinking water by the United States Geological Survey (Squillace et al., 1999). One or more volatile organic compounds (chemicals which contain carbon and evaporate easily) were found in 47% of the urban wells and 14% of rural wells. US EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) standards were violated in 6.4% of urban wells.
