Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic compounds that tend to persist in environmental media for a long period of time. This work presents a 2-year monitoring study of occurrence of three PAHs (benzo(a)pyrene, naphthalene, and fluoranthene) in groundwater. The groundwater samples were collected from 106 sites of nation’s groundwater quality monitoring network and analyzed by simultaneous analysis method to quantify the concentrations of the PAHs. Benzo(a)pyrene was not detected in all samples. Naphthalene and fluoranthene concentrations ranged from not detected to 12.8 ng/L and not detected to 10.5 ng/L with their detection frequency being 57.8 and 4.2%, respectively. The concentrations of PAHs in ground- and drinking waters are not currently regulated in Korea, but the concentration levels of naphthalene and fluoranthene found in this work were lower than the regulatory limits of other countries (naphthalene 0.001~0.07 mg/L, fluoranthene 0.001~1.4 mg/L). The monitoring result of this study revealed that PAHs exist as trace amounts in domestic groundwater, however continuos monitoring is necessary to protect groundwater from PAHs contamination with growing industrialization and urbanization.

Keywords: Benzo(a)pyrene, Fluoranthene, Monitoring, Naphtalene, Simultaneous analysis