To begin to understand where particular groups of toxics are found in the environment, the 10 groundwater wells most contaminated with light chlorinated hydrocarbons were identified from a 408-well sample in New Jersey. Thirty other wells were selected: ten each with the highest levels of pesticides and heavy metals and, as a control group, a clean group of ten wells with nondetectable or the minimum detectable levels of 45 toxic pollutants. Twenty-one categories of land use drawn from aerial photographic surveys were measured for the 10 mi surrounding each site. The pesticide wells showed a relative excess of mixed and evergreen forests and agricultural land uses within 1 mi of the well sites. The light chlorinated hydrocarbon wells exhibited a surfeit of urban land uses within 1 mi of the well sites. The land-use profiles of the heavy-metal wells were not distinct from the clean group.

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