Six pure polychlorinated bornanes isolated from technical toxaphene, namely, Parlar 32 (toxicant B), Parlar 42a (toxicant A 1 ), Parlar 42b (toxicant A 2 ), Parlar 49a, Parlar 56, and Parlar 59, as well as the technical mixture were investigated as to their fate in a loamy silt under anaerobic conditions by laboratory studies taking 4 or 6 months. All test substances shared the geminal dichloro group in the C-2 position and, additionally, one chlorine atom each in the C-5 endo and C-6 exo positions, respectively. Reductive dechlorination was the major reaction leading to a sequential removal of a chlorine atom from each geminal dichloro group. Generally, in the first step of transformation, all six compounds lost a chlorine atom from the geminal dichloro group in the C-2 position, preferentially from the endo-position. The dechlorination rate was in the order of nonachlorobornanes > octachlorobornanes > heptachlorobornanes. While the two monodechlorination products formed from Parlar 32 underwent no further transformation, those products with additional geminal dichloro groups lost further chlorine atoms from exactly these groups. Finally, all six compounds formed two very stable end-metabolites in different ratios, which have been isolated and identified as 2-exo, 5endo,6-exo,8c,9b,10aand 2-endo,5-endo,6-exo, 8c,9b,10a-hexachlorobornane. Additionally, one of these end-metabolites was identified as the major product of the degradation of technical toxaphene after 6 months. † Dedicated to Prof. Dr. H.-D. Scharf on the occasion of his 65th birthday.