International Journal Of Environmental Research
Volume:5 Issue: 3, Summer 2011

Geotechnical investigations of waste fills are rarely undertaken, and consequently the geotechnical community has little knowledge of their engineering properties. In this study, a geotechnical testing program was conducted to evaluate the engineering properties of old municipal solid waste sampled in Whamyung MSW landfill site, Busan, Korea. The conducted tests included water content, specific gravity, Atterberg limits, grain-size distribution, compaction, small scale and large scale consolidation, triaxial compression (CU), and direct shear tests. The Compression Index, Cc, derived from small scale (70mm in diameter) and large scale (250mm in diameter) one-dimensional consolidation tests was about 0.04 and 0.09, respectively. A secondary compression coefficient, Cα, appeared to be less dependent on stress level and more dependent on the aging level. In triaxial compression and direct shear tests, friction angle and cohesion were evaluated as 36~46o and 25~60 kN/m2, respectively. The results reported in this study are comparable to those reported in the literature and obtained from laboratory and field tests.

The present investigation attempted to develop the ceramic adsorbent media in order to remove the mercury from aqueous phase. Two ceramics, akadama volcanic ash soil-ceramic (Aceramic) and improved magnesium oxide impregnated akadama volcanic ash soil-ceramic (MAceramic) were produced from raw akadama volcanic ash soil by heating process to determine the Hg(II) adsorption capacity. Adsorption experiments of ceramics were performed as a function of contact time, solution pH, adsorbent dosage and adsorbate concentration following the batch mode operation. Results clearly revealed the adsorption capacity (265±8.5 μg/g) of MA-ceramic is significantly higher (~12 times) than that of the A-ceramic material. The adsorption was largely pH dependent and neutral pH was associated with higher mercury adsorption capacity in both ceramics. MA-ceramic showed 94% and 86% desorption and resorption capacities, respectively.

Concentrations of several solutes – nitrate, arsenic, sulfate, boron, chloride, and bromide – along with total dissolved solids (TDS) in ten counties bordering the Brazos River in east-central Texas were compiled, mapped, and analyzed relative to regional land use and geology. Agriculture and oil/gas production are major activities and potential sources of groundwater contamination in the study area. Data were compiled from 104 water wells with a median depth of 446 ft (136 m) in the outcrop zones of six sedimentary aquifers: Carizzo-Wilcox, Queen City, Sparta, Yegua-Jackson, Gulf Coast, and Brazos Alluvium. Only two observations surpassed the 44.3 mg/L drinking water standard for nitrate, and four observations exceeded the 10 ug/L standard for arsenic. The median chloride concentration was 53 mg/L; however, the maximum level was almost three times the secondary drinking water standard of 250 mg/L. Chloride, bromide, sulfate, and boron concentrations resembled TDS patterns, with numerous samples exceeding secondary TDS drinking water standards in the Yegua-Jackson Aquifer. Most chloride/bromide ratios were between 100 and 300. Overall, results of this study suggest that natural processes exert a primary control on solute concentrations in the above aquifers, with a potential for modest anthropogenic impacts from agriculture and oil/gas production.

The Water Framework Directive of the European Union has become a milestone in the water policy for this area. This Directive aims to achieve a “good ecological status” of bodies of water in the Member States of the European Union by 2015. The Water Framework Directive calls for the application of economic principles, economic approaches, tools and instruments. The functions of this economic analysis include identifying methods to estimate resource and environmental costs. The purpose of this paper is to define the applications of Environmental Economics techniques in a groundwater valuation, taking the Gavilán Aquifer, located in the southeast of Spain, as a case study. This aquifer discharges support a very important wetland, with high biological, recreational and landscaping values. As this groundwater is also used for agricultural purposes, it is an ideal case to test a methodology aimed at measuring both environmental and resource costs. Two valuation techniques % Contingent Valuation Method and Production Function Approach% were applied so as to achieve this goal. The total economic value estimated for this groundwater is 0.454 €/m3, out of which 16.1% is related to environmental and recreational aspects.

Complex mixtures of disinfection by-products are formed in drinking waters when chlorine is used as disinfectant, among which are found trihalomethanes. Trihalomethanes are very stable in the natural environment and are moderately lipophilic. Thus they accumulate in the human organism, which may be related to a greater risk of certain cancers.The objective of this study is to investigate the association between trihalomethanes exposure (e.g. total trihalomethane concentration, TTHM; occurring as chlorination of drinking water) and bladder and certain digestive cancers. Data were collected on different districts inside a Mediterranean city (Valencia, Spain). Samples were analyzed via head-space and electron capture detector to determine TTHM concentrations. The relative influence of different factors has been evaluated. Our results suggest a possible association between bladder cancer in women and trihalomethanes’ exposure at levels below the European Community legal limit; that, at least, advices that such studies deserves more attention.

Dumpsites can produce serious pollution problems in soil, water and air, and are the most frequent method of solid waste disposal in many developing countries. One of the pollution concerns at dumpsites is the emission of methane, which has been identified as a green house gas. In order to determine the surface emission of methane at an informal settlement built on a former dumpsite, six sampling events were conducted using the enclosed chamber method. The results showed that the surface emission of methane in the study area is high, with a maximum mean value of 2441.8 g/m2/h; this surface emission is between one to four orders of magnitude higher than the maximum values found in other published studies. The total mass of methane emitted at the site is also two orders of magnitude higher compared to studies within a similar area. But it is 177 and 3.5 times lower than in other studies conducted in South Korea and India, respectively. High variation in the surface emission of methane may be a result of the changing conditions in this urban environment.

Arsenic in ground water is a very serious environmental hazard of Bangladesh and West Bengal of India. The presence of high level of Arsenic (<50 μg/L) in groundwater of Bangladesh has been detected in 1980’s. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the permissible limit of arsenic in drinking water is 10 μg/L. 80% of groundwater of the country has been contaminated with arsenic. Nearly 80 million Bangladeshi are now at risk from arsenic related several diseases including cancer. It has been assumed that arsenic is only present in ground water of Bangladesh but some recent studies showed that meantime arsenic had contaminated the agricultural soil as well. A high level of arsenic is also reported food grains and vegetables. The vision of this review is to give an overview of the latest findings of arsenic in agriculture soil and food crops of Bangladesh.

This paper describes a study of operational parameters by using the multivariate data analysis and neural networks for a municipal waste incinerator located in Majorca (Spain). The basis of the study also includes the chemometric techniques: linear multivariate regression to develop a model with certain predictive capabilities; linear principal component analysis, which allow the number of variables to be reduced from 17 to 4, thus fostering visualization in a low-dimension space; and linear discriminant analysis to categorize plant data accordingto the month (probability ≈ 70%). Neural network predictive capability was good, with relative errors around 6-8%. These techniques allow all the variables to be analysed simultaneously and focus on the variables which have a significant impact. In this way, the interrelationships between sets of variables, causal relations among input/output variables, seasonal motivated deviations as well as observation variations have been identified.

The present study reports the changes in the phytoplankton community structure in Taklong Island National Marine Reserve (TINMAR), Guimaras Island, Philippines. Quantification of PAH yielded undetectable results, whereas, primary productivity, phytoplankton density, and diversity values were higher as compared to samples before the oil spill and samples from the reference site. Sixty-nine genera representing 6 classes of phytoplankton were identified. Class distribution revealed that diatoms belonging to Coscinodiscophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Fragilariophyceae were dominant in the area. Class Coscinodiscophyceae was the best represented class with 1,535 individuals/L seawater. The top-ranked diatom genera encountered were Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Thalassionema, Rhizosolenia, and Bacteriastrum. The shifts in dominance of diatoms over dinoflagellates and fast-growing centric diatoms over pennate diatoms are indicative of a stressed phytoplankton community. Both the Simpsons (1/D’) and Shannon-Weiner (H’) values registered for the 2006 TINMAR samples (1/D’:11.23; H’:1.304) were higher than those obtained from pre-oil impacted samples (1/D’:8.83; H’:1.07) and samples from the reference site (1/D’:8.798; H’:1.039). The present findings provided information on the direct impact of a recent oil spill on phytoplankton community and demonstrate the suitability of using phytoplankton as bioindicators of environmental stress.

The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of four additives including iron slag (IS), works debris (WD), fly ash (FA), and lime kiln dust (LKD) on the biochemical properties of biosolids produced at Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWWTP), Auckland, New Zealand. All these additives are homogenously mixed in the laboratory with biosolids at various percentages with and without lime. All these prepared amendments are compacted into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes for curing durations of 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 8 weeks. Water content (WC), volatile solids (VS), pH, total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and VFA’s (volatile fatty acids) are determined for all the samples. These parameters are analyzed initially and after 2, 4 and 8 weeks for every PVC tube. Results indicated that when biochemical changes occurred within biosolids, all of these parameters results are affected. After comparing results of all the amendments it is concluded that FA 50% with lime 20% inhibited most of the biological activities and maintained pH of biosolids at elevated level of 12 or above for 8 weeks and thus can be applied to biosolids for stabilization before land filling. FA 50% with lime 20%, like all the other additives, is added to wet biosolids on the basis of dry weight. Solid content of biosolids is around 25% so the addition of even 70% additive to wet biosolids on the basis of dry weight is very less in amount.\

Papermill sludge (PMS) is the waste product from the paper manufacturing industry and is produced in considerable quantities worldwide. This investigation characterised a PMS from a papermill plant in South Africa and investigated the potential for direct land application of the PMS to soil. In a pot experiment, application of PMS to three contrasting soils at equivalent rates of 0, 10, 20 and 40 Mg/ha resulted in an overall decline in ryegrass yield. Plant germination was reduced at an application rate of 40 Mg/ha, which was attributed to the high EC of the PMS. The nitrogen content of the ryegrass foliage declined with an increase in PMS application rate, this attributed to assimilation of N by organisms in the presence of excess C from the PMS. Other foliage nutrient and metal concentrations were generally either within critical ranges or below detection limits. This was attributed, in part to either low initial concentrations in the soil and PMS, the liming effect of the sludge or, for some nutrients, microbial assimilation processes. An equilibration time period between land application and crop planting is recommended.

Development and optimisation of fast, efficient, quantitative, economic and environmentally friendly analytical extraction techniques for the extraction clean up, and pre-concentration in the quantification of 16 USEPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in contaminated soils have been carried out. Three different extraction methods (Soxhlet, ultra sonication and mechanical shaking) were investigated on a low-level PAH soil certified reference material (CRM131-100) and the results were compared to determine the technique with the highest extraction efficiency. The clean up and pre-concentration procedures were optimized using both the conventional method (i.e. column packing with silica gel) as well as the solid phase extraction (SPE). Chromatographic conditions for the separation of PAHs using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) using UV-DAD and fluorimetric detection with programmed excitation and emission wavelengths were also optimized. Six different extraction solvents: acetone, cyclohexane, 2- propanol, methanol, acetonitrile and dichloromethane, were tested to select the most suitable solvent for the extraction of the 16 PAHs from the certified soil reference material. Acetonitrile, dichloromethane and tetrahydrofuran were also tested as eluants for the optimisation of SPE clean up. The optimized ultrasonic extraction procedure utilizing four 15 minutes extraction cycles at 50 ºC and SPE clean up with tetrahydrofuran: acetonitrile (1:1) and subsequent separation by gradient reversed phase HPLC with fluorimetric detection extracted the PAHs from the certified reference material with recoveries ranging from 63.6 % to over 100 %.

Concentrations of Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd, Pb and Fe in surface marine sediments of the southern coast of Sfax were studied in order to understand current metal contamination at the outlet of a mixed industrial and domestic wastewater effluent discharged into the seawater since 1953. We found that heavy metal concentrations (mg/kg dry weight) in surface marine sediments varied from 42 to 391 for Zn, 15 to 44 for Cu, 44 to 137 for Cr, 6 to 56 for Cd, 19 to 59 for Pb and 52344 to 54543 for Fe. The computed metal enrichment factors (EF) in the sediments showed that EF of Zn ranged from 0.49 to 9.13, EF of Cu from 0.35 to 3.04, EF of Cr from 0.3 to 3.05, EF of Cd from 0.63 to 9.37 and EF of Pb from 0.43 to 3. All heavy metals were characterized by maxima EF values greater than 1.5, indicating a considerable metallic pollution of the study area. The PCA analysis revealed two distinct groups: (i) the first group (G1) is representative of Fe selected as natural tracer and (ii) the second group (G2) is articulated around Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd and Pb. These metals which did not show any correlations with Fe of the first group imply a significantly impact of the selected wastewater effluent. The calculation of the geoaccumulation index (Igeo) showed that all analyzed metals (except for Fe) can be considered as moderate to extreme pollutants. The microbial analysis of seawater samples and also of both water and sediment samples collected from the Sfax solar saltern (placed at the vicinity of the outlet of the selected effluent) showed that no indicator germs of contamination (total coliforms, faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci) were detected.

This paper presents future trends of urban wastes and their impacts on the environment of African cities using plausible mitigation scenarios. To accomplish this, an integrated dynamic model for urban waste flows was developed, tested, calibrated and validated. Its parameter sensitivity was analyzed. Using population projection up to 2052 with different levels of technological implementation, policy enforcement and awareness raising, four runs were executed. The “business as usual” run showed that with no additional mitigation measures, the environmental quality in Kampala and Dar es salaam Cities deteriorates. The “more enforcement” and “more collection” scenarios showed good reduction in environmental loads but they perform less well in resource recovery. The “proper management” scenario that combines enhanced technological implementation, awareness raising and policy enforcement, produced the smallest environmental loads, and recovered the largest amount of resources. Thus, the city authorities, general public, community based organisations and Non-governmental organizations would have to increase their efforts in finances and commitment to improve the urban environmental quality and increase resource recovery.

In this study Caulerpa racemosa has been characterized and used for the removal of Cd(II) and Pb (II) from aqueous solutions. The effect of pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and temperature on adsorption process was studied in batch experiments. Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to describe the biosorption isotherm of the metal ions by C. racemosa biomass. The adsorption data can be well described by Langmuir isotherm. The monolayer biosorption capacity of C. racemosa biomass for Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions was found to be 34.5 mg/g and 29 mg/g, respectively. Kinetics data of both metal ions were best described by pseudo second order model.The thermodynamic studies indicated that the adsorption was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. The analysis with FTIR indicated that possible functional groups involved in metal sorption by this alga were O–H bending, N–H stretching, C–N stretching, C–O and S=O stretching.

The bioavailability of trace metals, their biological uptake and ecotoxiccological effect on soil biota can be better understood in terms of their chemical fractionation. The present study examined the mobility and availability of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in sewage water – irrigated soils using sequential extraction technique as a basis for predicting metal uptake by plants. The residual fraction was the most abundant pool for all the five metals examined. A significant amount (2.7 – 70.2%) of all the five metals was also present in the potentially available fraction: - nonresidual fraction. The result further indicated that the contamination of Cd and Ni in these soils was not as severe as Pb, Cu and Zn. Assuming that mobility and bioavailability of these metals are related to their liability and geochemical forms, and that they decrease in the order of extraction sequence. The apparent mobility and potential bioavailability for these five metals in the soils were: - Pb> Zn> Cu> Ni> Cd.

In this study, cadmium (Cd) accumulation was studied in an experimental aquatic exposure. Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were acutely exposed for 96 h to a high concentration of Cd (12 mg/L) and were chronically exposed to a low concentration of Cd(0.4 mg/L) for 30 days. Cd accumulation profiles differed between the two Cd exposures. The Cd concentation in G. affinis tissues increased linearly during acute exposure. In contrast, chronic exposure presented a biphasic pattern of accumulation, with Cd accumulation increasing until 20 days post-exposure then decreasing by the 30th day of the experiment. Histopathological investigations revealed greater changes in gills, kidney and liver tissues after chronic exposure than those recorded during acute exposure. The changes in gill were characterized by epithelial lifting, total and partial lamellar fusion, epithelial necrosis as well as telangiectasis. Necrosis of epithelial cells of renal tubules, glomerular contraction and reduction of Bowman’s space were observed in the kidney tissue of exposed fish. The liver hepatocytes showed cytoplasmic vacuolization with lipid droplets and glycogen accumulation. Desquamation of hepatic tissue, congestion of the hepatic central vein and an increase in sinusoidal space were also observed. The result showed that, although Cd accumulation, following acute and chronic exposure, severely affects vital organs in mosquitofish; G. affinis adapts to continued metal accumulation. We hypothesise that this adaptation occurs through activation of a metal resistance mechanism.

This study was undertaken to determine the concentration of mercury in edible muscle of five commercially valuable marine organisms from Mosa Bay, Persian Gulf, Iran. The total mercury concentrations were determined by cold vapour atomic absorption spectrophotometry and expressed in μg/g dry weight. Certified reference materials were used for each batch of analysis. Mercury concentration was 0.373 μg/g for Liza abu, 1.172 μg/g Sparidentex hasta, 0.445μg/g for Acanthopagrus latus, 0.390 μg/g for Thunnus tonggol, and 0.360 μg/g for Fenneropenaeus indicus. Carnivorous fish had higher level of mercury than non-carnivorous. Statistical analysis revealed weak correlation between fish mercury concentration and length for all studied organisms. The observed concentrations were comparable to those found in other areas of the Persian Gulf and were lower than the WHO guideline of 0.5 mg/kg wet weight. Our result demonstrated that estimated daily and weekly intakes of mercury via consumption of fish flesh were far below the PTDI and PTWI values recommended by FAO/WHO.

Currently, white fish or Kutum Rutilus frisii is considered to be a good candidate for commercial aquaculture. However, little information is available regarding the nutritional requirement of this fish fry. Experiments were conducted to examine the effects Daphnia magna as live food cultured on two freshwater green algae, Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus obliquus enriched with different B group vitamin dosages (0.00 as control, 0.50, 1.00 and 2.00 mL of enriching solution per liter of algae culture medium) on the growth and survival rates of Rutilus frisii kutum fry. Results demonstrated that increasing in B group vitamin dosages are caused an increasing in nutritional value (Kcal) of two freshwater green algae species Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus obliquus significantly. Significant differences were observed in BWG (%) and SGR between different vitamins treatments both the fed Daphnia magna cultured on Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus obliquus enriched (P<0.05) but not in survival percentage (P>0.05).

This study investigates the effectiveness of the Kriging interpolation model and the Emission Weighted Proximity Model (EWPM) in assessing relative exposure risk of air pollution using results from the American Meteorological Society/EPA Regulatory Model (AERMOD) as benchmarks. We used simulated exposure risk to SO2 in the Dallas area in Texas in this evaluation. Results suggest that the relative exposure risks to SO2 at different locations in the study area as estimated by EWMP are closer to estimated risks from AERMOD when compared with the results calculated by Kriging. In addition, study results also indicate that the relative exposure risks calculated by Kriging are similar to those from AERMOD when the density of emission sources in the area in question is high. It is therefore concluded that relative exposure risks determined by both the Kriging interpolation method and the EWPM are acceptable when it is not possible to use AERMOD. In situations when the density of emission sources is low in the study area, EWPM is a better choice than Kriging.

Behaviors of simultaneous removal of NO and SO2 using the coculture of anaerobic denitrifying bacteria and sulfate reducing bacteria were investigated in a bench-scale biotrickling-filter. Approximate 20 days were required to use the landfill leachate as the microbial seed to develop the biofilm on the surface of packing material. When the combined NO/SO2 removal biotrickling-filter was operated at an empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 76 s and the NO and SO2 feed concentrations of 2 and 2 g/m3 respectively, the SO2 removal efficiency was always above 95%, while NO removal exhibited an evident periodicity of 5-6 days for the initial 60 days after the attachment phase and then a steady-state NO-removal efficiency of around 90% was obtained after 130 days of continuous operation. Contrast experimental results indicated that the coculture in the combined NO/SO2 removal biotrickling-filter showed a higher resistance to shock NO-loadings and a better tolerance of starvation than the single denitrifying bacteria in the NO removal biotrickling-filter.

The value of wetlands is receiving increasing attention and the Cost–Benefit Analyses (CBA) is essential to evaluate the long-term effects of wetland rehabilitation projects. In order to guarantee the water quality of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project of China (east route), the government of Shandong Province started a huge lakeshore wetland rehabilitation project in 2008. The CBA approach was used to evaluate the ecosystem services in the Nansi Lake watershed, in Shandong Province, China. A shadow project approach and market value approach were applied to estimate the economic values of restored wetlands. The results indicated that values of total net ecosystem service would increase each year after wetland rehabilitation and the net benefit varied with the types of the farmland. The increased amount of ecosystem value brought by the wetland rehabilitation project with three types of farmlands will be 747% for low-productive cropland, 257% for ordinary-productive cropland and 32% for vegetable field per hectare each year. The opportunity cost of farmers who enroll in the project will be 1,575 RMB (Chinese Currency, 6.8 RMB=US$1) for lowproductive cropland, 10,027 RMB for ordinary-productive cropland, 40,560 RMB for vegetable field per hectare each year. These results provide decision makers with data on related benefits and opportunity cost of the wetland rehabilitation program in the Nansi Lake watershed.These results are important not only to certify the ecological significance of the project, but also to choose priority of restoring farmland areas and to determine the amount of payments for ecosystem services

In this work, we developed a method which combined the processes of acid-leaching, ammonium jarosite precipitating and electro-depositing to recover copper and nickel from electroplating sludge. Residual sludge from an electroplating plant located in Qingdao was used for acid-leaching, and more than 95% of copper, nickel, zinc, chromium and iron were extracted from the sludge. After acid-leaching, the extracted solution was put into an electrolytic cell for copper recovery by electro-depositing process, and about 95% of copper was recovered under the optimized operation parameters such as cell voltage, pH and electrode material. After copper recovery, the extracted solution was treated with ammonium jarosite precipitating process. About 99% of chromium and iron could be deposited as chromium ferrite in this process. Finally, the left solution was treated with electro-depositing process again for nickel recovery, and about 57% of nickel could be recovered in this process under the condition of pH 5.5 and voltage 5.5V.

Approach of organic material anaerobic biodegradation and species of organic matter in sediment are discussed, and then a classifying method of the species is proposed on a new viewpoint. The pore water sediment oxygen demand (SOD) numerical model in bottom sediment system is proposed originally, which differs from other advection-dispersion-sorption (ADS) model in adding a SOD-creating term. The model was preliminarily validated via pilot experiment. Finally, this model was used to simulate SOD concentration of pore water in bottom sediment, and the sensitivity of parameters in the model was analyzed. The results indicate that SOD-creating factor at beginning stage and pore water SOD-attenuating factor in bottom sediment are the most important coefficients in the new model and should be estimated accurately. Because of the assumption of equilibrium of sorption/desorption, the new model appears to be valid only with less than 5 m/ d vertical velocity of pore water.

This investigation was carried out to reveal the impact of solar radiation on wind flow structure and pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon of aspect ratio of one using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique. The simulation results (velocity and concentration data) show that heating from building wall surfaces and ground lead to strong buoyancy forces as the air is heated by the wall surface when receiving direct solar radiation. This thermally induced buoyancy plays a significant role in determining flow fields within street canyon. When the sun shines on the leeward side of the building and the ground, the airflow structure and pollutant dispersion patterns are similar to that without solar radiation, the buoyancy flux adds to the upward advection flux along the wall strengthening the original vortex. When the windward wall is warmer than the air, an upward buoyancy flux opposes the downward advection flux along the wall, and divides the flow structure into two counter-rotating vortices indicating a clockwise top vortex and a reverse lower vortex within the canyon. Further, the impact of various temperature differences on the windward heating and different velocities for inlet velocity has been examined. The relative influence of the thermal effect can be estimated by bulk Richardson number (Rb)