1,1,1-Trichloroethane (10 mu M) was completely transformed to chloroethane by a methanogenic mixed population in an anaerobic packed-bed reactor. Acetate and methanol served as electron donors. Transformation of TCA by methanogenic bacteria in the reactor was a cometabolic fortuitous reaction and only occurred in the presence of a suitable substrate. The transformation products formed depended on the substrate concentration. At substrate concentrations lower than 2.17 mM, beside chloroethane 1,1-dichloroethane was found as a transformation product. Both sulfate and nitrate inhibited TCA transformation. This inhibition was a result of competition for substrate between the TCA transforming methanogenic bacteria and either sulfate reducing or nitrate reducing bacteria.