At present chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents rank among the major pollutants found in groundwater. In the interpretation of field data and the planning of decontamination measures numerical transport models may be a valuable tool of the environmental engineer. The applicability of one such model is tested on a case of groundwater pollution by 1,1,1,-trichloroethane. The model is composed of a horizontally 2-D flow model and a 3-D ‘random-walk' transport model. It takes into account convective and dispersive transport as well as linear adsorption and a first order decay reaction. Under certain simplifying assumptions the model allows an adequate reproduction of observed concentrations. Due to uncertainty in data and limited comparabili ty of simulated and measured concentrations the model parameters can only be estimated within bounds. The decay rate of 1,1,1-trichloroethane is estimated to lie between 0 and 0.0005 l/d.
