In recent years, capillary electrophoresis (CE) has demonstrated itself to be an extremely powerful analytical technique. However, CE has not yet been fully evaluated for the environmental analysis of herbicides. In this paper, the potential and drawbacks of CE for the separation and detection of herbicides in water sources are outlined. Details are given both on the applicability of CE to trace level monitoring of herbicides in water sources and on its usefulness in studies regarding the environmental behaviour of herbicides in water systems.