The Soil Environment

For prediction of the environmental fate of chemicals, the environment may be conceptualized as three distinct components between which, and within which, pollutants move. These three components are the terrestrial, the aquatic and the atmospheric environments. For most practical purposes, the terrestrial component is considered to be a soil environment. Contaminants spilled on the land surface will eventually be transported by physical and chemical processes to subsurface soil, or aquatic or atmospheric sinks.