We investigated the influence of various known sterilization methods on atrazine assimilation. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of autoclaving, sodium azide and mercuric chloride treatment on the assimilation of atrazine in soil and sediment. The sterilization reactor treated with sodium azide resulted in $^{14}CO_2$ generation and atrazine was rapidly disappeared from reactor through chemical reaction with sodium azide. These findings seem to indicate that sodium azide sterilization is not recommended for atrazine studies. In sample reactors autoclaved or treated with mercuric chloride, $^{14}CO_2$ generation was not detected and most of the disappeared atrazine was found to exist as hydroxyatrazine. These results suggested that autoclaving or mercuric chloride treatment could be effective sterilization methods. However, chemical properties(pH and redox potential) of soil and sediment were altered by any of the sterilization methods applied. So it was suspected that these altered properties could affect distribution and mineralization of atrazine in soil and sediment. In addition, both autoclaving and mercuric chloride treatment have altered $K_d$ values of hydroxyatrazine more significantly than those of atrazine. Consequently, although autoclaving and mercuric chloride treatment are effective sterilization methods, one must be careful in using them in practice as these methods may cause chemical degradation of both of atrazine and its metabolites and changes in chemical properties of soil and sediment. In conclusion, careful assessment of sterilization methods must be made for the degradation studies of chemicals in soil and sediment in order to minimize possible undesirable chemical degradation of sample and/or changes in physico-chemical properties of soil and sediment by the selected sterilization methods.