Extending the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko filter: application to ozone, particulate matter, and meteorological trends

Tropospheric ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM) are pollutants of great concern to air quality managers. Federal standards for these pollutants have been promulgated in recent years because of the known adverse effects of the pollutants on human health, the environment, and visibility. Local meteorological conditions exert a strong influence over day-to-day variations in pollutant concentrations; therefore, the meteorological signal must be removed in order for air quality planners and managers to examine underlying emissions-related trends and make better air quality management decisions for the future. Although the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter has been widely used for this type of trend separation in O3 studies in the eastern United States, this article aims to extend the method in three key ways. First, whereas the KZ filter is known as a useful tool for O3 analysis, this study also evaluates its effectiveness when applied to PM. Second, the method was applied to Tucson, AZ, a city in the semi-arid southwestern United States (Southwest), to evaluate the appropriateness of the method in a region with weaker synoptic weather controls on air quality than the eastern United States. Third, additional forms of output were developed and tailored to be more applicable to decision-makers' needs through a partnership between academic researchers and air quality planners and managers. Results of the study indicate that the KZ filter is a useful method for examining emissions-related PM trends, resulting in small, but potentially significant, differences after adjustment. For the Tucson situation with weaker synoptic controls, the KZ method identified mixing height as a more important variable than has been found in other cities.     

Effect of bone meal (calcium phosphate) amendments on metal release from contaminated soils--a leaching column study

Metal-contaminated soil may be remediated in situ by the formation of highly insoluble metal phosphates if an appropriate phosphorus (P) source can be found. Leaching column experiments have been carried out to assess the suitability of bone meal as such a source. Bone meal additions reduced metal release from a contaminated soil, increased soil and leachate pH and decreased soil leachate toxicity. Minimal P leaching occurred from the soil. The data are consistent with a proton consuming bone meal (calcium phosphate) dissolution reaction followed by the formation of metal phosphates. Although, no metal phosphates were observed to form using X-ray diffraction of scanning electron microscopy this could be due to their low concentration. Relatively low (1:50 bone meal:soil) concentrations of fine (90-500 microns) bone meal would appear to be an effective treatment for metal-contaminated soils.     

Effects of reduced return activated sludge flows and volume on anaerobic zone performance for a septic wastewater biological phosphorus removal system.

Enhanced biological phosphorous removal (EBPR) performance was found to be adequate with reduced return-activated sludge (RAS) flows (50% of available RAS) to the anaerobic tank and smaller-than-typical anaerobic zone volume (1.08 hours hydraulic retention time [HRT]). Three identical parallel biological nutrient removal pilot plants were fed with strong, highly fermented (160 mg/L volatile fatty acids [VFAs]), domestic and industrial wastewater from a full-scale wastewater treatment facility. The pilot plants were operated at 100, 50, 40, and 25% RAS (percent of available RAS) flows to the anaerobic tank, with the remaining RAS to the anoxic tank. In addition, varying anaerobic HRT (1.08 and 1.5 hours) and increased hydraulic loading (35% increase) were examined. The study was divided into four phases, and the effect of these process variations on EBPR were studied by having one different variable between two identical systems. The most significant conclusion was that returning part of the RAS to the anaerobic zone did not decrease EBPR performance; instead, it changed the location of phosphorous release and uptake. Bringing less RAS to the anaerobic and more to the anoxic tank decreased anaerobic phosphorus release and increased anoxic phosphorus release (or decreased anoxic phosphorus uptake). Equally important is that, with VFA-rich influent wastewater, excessive anaerobic volume was shown to hurt overall phosphorus removal, even when it resulted in increased anaerobic phosphorus release.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments,pore water and the amphipod Pontoporeia hoyi from Lake Michigan

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations were measured in Pontoporeia hoyi, the most abundant benthic organism in Lake Michigan, and in its associated sediment/pore water matrix. Individual PAH concentrations ranged from 10 ppb to 1 ppm in three sedimentary environments having different levels of organic carbon. Pore water concentrations appeared to be independent of sediment concentrations. P. hoyi bioconcentration factors ranged from approximately 10⁴ to 10⁵ for seven analyzed PAHs. A major fraction of the phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene in P. hoyi appears to come from sediments and pore water, while chrysene and BaP are primarily obtained from water.     

Pollution prevention in China’s electroplating industry

Pollution prevention holds great promise for China as a strategy for curbing environmental degradation in the face of rapid industrial growth. This potential is demonstrated in the electroplating sector in China, where some firms are pursuing pollution prevention aggressively with results that include increased profits and significant cutbacks in pollution. We conducted research in four Chinese cities to investigate pollution prevention in the electroplating industry. Our study finds that firms with successful pollution prevention programs shared three main characteristics. First, they took a proactive approach towards cutting pollution. Proactive firms in our research employed pollution prevention as an overall environmental management strategy for their companies, and they possessed leaders and managers who demonstrated a strong commitment to pollution reduction goals and activities. Firms with successful pollution prevention programs also employed comprehensive environmental management systems. These systems assigned managers and workers responsibilities for pollution prevention through the use of rules, training, monitoring, and penalties and rewards. Finally, firms that undertook extensive pollution prevention measures employed staff with relatively high levels of technical knowledge and ability. Our results suggest that the aggressive adoption of pollution prevention by Chinese firms can help China address the widespread problems of inefficiency and poor management in Chinese firms, and the rapid spread of industrial pollution in rural areas.     

The limits of technological optimism

Summary Technological optimism is the doctrine that a growing number of technological improvements in such areas as food production, environmental quality and energy will sustain life as human population soars. It evolved as a response to the Malthusian study The Limits to Growth (The Club of Rome, 1972). Like population biologist Paul Ehrlich, Professor James Krier of the University of Michigan Law School believes that the technological optimists may be wrong. Krier describes how the marginal costs of pollution control increasingly rise. He faults biologist Barry Commoner for neglecting population growth as the cause of pollution and positing the postwar technological transition as its cause. He argues that population growth forced this transition as science searched for substitutes for dwindling resources. Krier criticises as an article of faith the technological optimists' belief that S-curve patterns of technological advance will always arrive in response to the J-curve of exponential population growth. He thinks that the technological optimists may be deluding humanity by predicting the continual emergence of technological breakthroughs at ever-increasing rates. He favours growth policies that would allow humanity to ease into a steady state of resource use and minimise the maximum cost, which would be a global crash after technological innovation fails. Krier laments that modern technolgy can worsen pollution and invites problems of latency, irreversibility, zero-infinity risk and remoteness. He thinks that approapriate technologies which have failed economically may fail politically because the political process has been captured by opposing interests. Krier urges that the population crisis should be adressed insteadAndrew D. Basiago is a graduate of UCLA and Northwestern School of Law's environmental law programme. As writer, lawyer and environmental planner he has written articles about ecology for the Cousteau Society and interviewed such luminaries as R. Buckminster Fuller, Amory B. Lovins and     

The role of secondary particulates in European emission abatement strategies

Economic assessments have indicated that the greatest benefits of reducing atmospheric emissions of sulphur and nitrogen compounds in Europe come from the resulting reductions in secondary particulate concentrations. For comparison with abatement strategies devised to reduce exceedance of critical loads for acidification, this paper, therefore, considers optimisation of emission abatement strategies to reduce secondary particulate concentrations and minimise human exposure. It is seen that this changes the relative emphasis between some countries in reducing their emissions, and also places less importance on emissions of ammonia from agriculture relative to those of SO₂ and NO_x. The effect of placing emphasis on improvement in the more highly polluted areas of Europe is also examined by imposing a threshold. The benefits of the strategies in terms of ecosystem protection and human exposure to particulates are presented for all scenarios studied. The scenarios are also interpreted in terms of a blame matrix for human exposure to secondary particulates.     

Evaluation of diffusive samplers and photoionisation detectors for measuring very short peak exposures in the workplace

The extent to which very short peak widths, peak frequency, sampling time and post-sampling/pre-capping time impact upon occupational exposure measurements of toluene has been investigated using diffusive tubes. Additionally, the effect of the width of the peak on the estimation of peak maximum concentration and time-weighted average (TWA) concentration from real-time instruments (photoionisation detectors-PIDs) was also studied, and their responses modelled. No clear differences were perceived between diffusive and pumped tube results. Mean biases of -5 to +6% were recorded but no trend could be distinguished with respect to any of the variables examined; the main source of uncertainty was attributed to analytical uncertainty. The diffusive tubes can therefore be used to measure short term transient toluene concentrations (e.g. 5 s duration) over short (15 min) exposure periods. The two slower responding PIDs (t50 = 4 s) underestimated the maximum concentration of short term peaks having durations less than 10 s. The other three PIDs (t50 < or = 2 s) only significantly underestimated the maximum concentration of short term peaks having durations of 2 s and below. Pulse duration appeared to affect the PID's estimation of peak height more than peak area (TWA concentration).     

A yeast-based cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assay for environmental monitoring using novel portable instrumentation

An assay capable of simultaneously measuring both general toxicity and more subtle genotoxicity, in aqueous environmental samples, is described. The assay uses eukaryotic (yeast) cells, genetically modified to express a green fluorescent protein (GFP) whenever DNA damage, as a result of exposure to genotoxic agents, is repaired. A measure of the reduction in cell proliferation is used to characterise general toxicity producing familiar EC(50) and LOEC data. The assay protocol has been developed for proposed use in the field and hence employs dedicated, portable instrumentation, the development of which is described. A range of environmentally relevant substances has been evaluated using the assay, including solutions of metal ions, solvents and pesticides. Preliminary data comparing the yeast assay's response to that of a standard Daphnia test in the analysis of the toxicity of 34 varied industrial waste effluents are also presented. The sensitivity to a wide range of substances and effluents suggests the assay should be useful for environmental toxicity monitoring.