Focus
Switzerland's
Laboratory for the Environment J
ust north of the city of Zurich, in
Analytical chemistry the small town of Diibendorf, sits of the world's foremost enviplays a major role at ronmentaloneresearch centers. The Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science EAWAG and Technology, or EAWAG (usually pronounced "aer-vag"), has been called "a Mecca for environmental chemistry." It is also a major center for new analytical methods especially those devoted to water analysis. Indeed at EAWAG many research projects begin with analytical chemistry Protecting the water castle EAWAG represents a major commitment to environmental science for a nation with a population of less than 7 million and an area roughly the size of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined. Switzerland is a unique place. With its snow and glacier-tipped mountains, the country has been called the "water castle" 612 A
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, October 1, 1996
of Europe. It is here that the Rhine River begins its journey to the North Sea, cutting through the industrialized heart of Europe. Swiss waters also feed the Danube and Po rivers and flow into the Mediterranean. The Swiss have long appreciated the uniqueness of their natural resources. For example, for more than 100 years the Swiss have required that anyone cutting down trees replace the lost forest with trees planted elsewhere. EAWAG has played a key role in protecting those water resources. The institute traces its origins to 1936, when Swiss citizens concerned about the deteriorating quality of the lakes and rivers caused by industrialization and a growing urban population pressured the federal government to establish an Office of Advisory Services for wastewater treatment and drinking water. "[The Swiss] could already see the effects of organic sewage on lakes and rivers,"
says analytical chemist Walter Giger, head of EAWAG's chemistry department. As an advisory service, the office provided consulting services on sewage and water treatment, monitored wastewater treatment plants and their outflow, conducted research on water treatment, and provided training and education. Today, Switzerland is considered a leader in treating its municipal wastewater; around 90% of its population is served by wastewater treatment plants compared with about 75% in the United States. The office was formally renamed EAWAG10 years later, but the mission continued to be that of an advisory service until Werner Stumm a chemist became director in 1970 "Stumm wanted to understand problems," says Giger. "He introduced basic research in chemistry, biology, and engineering." Stumm also understood the importance of analytical chemistry in tackling those problems, adds Giger. (More information on EAWAG is available in English at http://www.eawag.ch.) Under Stumm's direction, EAWAG became an internationally recognized center for research in environmental issues ranging from topics in sanitation engineering to microbiology to geochemistry. Analytical chemistry was woven through all of these areas at EAWAG, says Giger. EAWAG's current director, microbiologist Alexander Zehnder, has continued this tradition of supporting analytical chemistry, according to Giger. EAWAG has also become a major center for training scientists. "EAWAG is quite the springboard to opportunities " Scivs Jennifer Field an assistant professor at Oregon State University who worked at EAWAG from 1990 to 1992
havior of those chemicals. "We want to learn as much as possible about a particular topic—identify a group of chemicals, some methods that could help, then we develop the ideas." Those are lofty research goals, but EAWAG has been able to maintain this type of commitment to its research projects. For example, EAWAG has participated in a surveillance program that has monitored major Swiss streams for more than 25 years (see map). Analytes such as phosphate, nitrate, and heavy metals are measured biweekly to provide a picture of seasonal as well as annual changes. The results are also used to 3.SSPSS the success of regulatory sures such as the reduction of phosphate discharges EAWAG researchers have also repeatedly sampled selected lakes and rivers notably the Greifensee a small lake about 10 km east of Zurich and the Glatt River which flows from the lake into the Rhine River
for organic
analytes Qiirli ac; tlie Vierbicide atrp7ine (five years of monthly data") the indus-
trial solvent tetrachloroethene, and the laundry detergent ingredient nitriloacetate (1). "Analytical methods should be combined with mathematical modeling right from the beginning [of a research project]. This allows efficient interpretation of the data later on," says Giger. That approach can be seen in EAWAG's commitment to understanding the fate of laundry detergent ingredients in natural waters. The institute's researchers have recently developed a slew of analytical techniques for determining analytes such as quaternary ammoniun surfactants by supercriticalfluidextraction (SFE) and LC (2) secondary alkane and alkylbenzene sulfonates by GC/MS (3 4) aromatic sulfonates bv solid-phase extraction (SPF^ followed hv ion-pair TJC (^ and fluorescent whitening agents bv SPE and L C (fi\ .Tn narti ha
