Groundwater nitrate measurements in the central and eastern part of the Netherlands point out that at many locations denitrification occurs. Therefore, models applied for analysis of management decisions concerning the groundwater nitrate distribution, need to take denitrification into account. Little information is available on the rate of denitrification and its spatial distribution. In this report a model concept is proposed to simulate denitrification. The unknown parameters in this concept are determined by a calibration procedure using the program PEST. For calibration nitrate measurements from the Monitoring Network are used as well as nitrate data from the abstracted water in a number of public drinking water pumping stations. Calibration is carried out for nine groundwater-pumping stations in the central and eastern part of the Netherlands. In zones where the presence of organic substances is likely, denitrification may be described as an exponential decay with a half-life time of around 500 days. In zones where organic material is absent, the half-life time is much higher (2750 days). At or near the phreatic surface an instantaneous nitrate reduction is assumed. Here, an average reduction of 50% is found. This figure, however, may also represent a compensation for over- or underestimation of the nitrate input at the water table. The parameter values found in this report appear to have a high measure of uncertainty. Several explanations are suggested and discussed.