Phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater by hydrous ferric oxide reactive filtration and coupled chemically enhanced secondary treatment: part I--performance.

This work examines the performance of a hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) reactive filtration (RF) process with coupled chemically enhanced secondary treatment (RECYCLE) for phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater (HFO-RF-RECYCLE). A 3-month, 0.95-ML/d (0.25-mgd) demonstration of HFO-RF-RECYCLE was performed at a municipal wastewater treatment plant equipped with oxidation ditches and secondary clarifiers. Influent to the plant averaged 6.0 mg/L phosphorus, with a tertiary effluent average of 0.011 mg/L phosphorus. Iron doses to the plant were low, at 5 mg/L. Inline recycling of HFO solution rejects to the plant influent resulted in a maximum 90.3%, dose-dependent reduction of phosphorus in the secondary effluent at 4.5 ML/d (1.2 mgd). Other results included reduction of total suspended solids and turbidity. A mass balance analysis was performed. We conclude that HFO-RF-RECYCLE may allow very low levels of phosphorus discharge from municipal wastewater treatment plants with a ferric-iron-based tertiary filtration process and residual recycling.     

Urban estuarine systems under stress: Environmental issues facing Louisiana's Lake pontchartrain

Summary Lake Pontchartrain is part of a brackish coastal estuarine system which serves as an important economic and recreational resource for the New Orleans region. Seafood extraction, shell dredging and leisure time activities are the major uses occurring on Lake Pontchartrain. In the past several decades, man has severely altered this system through urbanization, industrial activity, levée construction and subsequent destruction of wetlands surrounding the lake. There is a growing awareness of the environmental crisis facing Lake Pontchartrain, advanced by recent fish kills, detection of toxic chemicals, curtailment of recreational opportunities and the report of dead zones in the lake. This study summarizes a series of international environmental management techniques and examines the utilization of a regional structure for water resources management in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.Dr. Fritz Wagner is Director and Professor of the School of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of New Orleans and David Hart was a Research Assistant in the same school, and is now employed in a local engineering and planning company.     

Assessment of the Water Quality and Ecosystem Health of the Great Barrier Reef (Australia): Conceptual Models

Run-off containing increased concentrations of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides from land-based anthropogenic activities is a significant influence on water quality and the ecologic conditions of nearshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia. The potential and actual impacts of increased pollutant concentrations range from bioaccumulation of contaminants and decreased photosynthetic capacity to major shifts in community structure and health of mangrove, coral reef, and seagrass ecosystems. A detailed conceptual model underpins and illustrates the links between the main anthropogenic pressures or threats (dry-land cattle grazing and intensive sugar cane cropping) and the production of key contaminants or stressors of Great Barrier Reef water quality. The conceptual model also includes longer-term threats to Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem health, such as global climate change, that will potentially confound direct model interrelationships. The model recognises that system-specific attributes, such as monsoonal wind direction, rainfall intensity, and flood plume residence times, will act as system filters to modify the effects of any water-quality system stressor. The model also summarises key ecosystem responses in ecosystem health that can be monitored through indicators at catchment, riverine, and marine scales. Selected indicators include riverine and marine water quality, inshore coral reef and seagrass status, and biota pollutant burdens. These indicators have been adopted as components of a long-term monitoring program to enable assessment of the effectiveness of change in catchment-management practices in improving Great Barrier Reef (and adjacent catchment) water quality under the Queensland and Australian Governments’ Reef Water Quality Protection Plan.     

Climatic and stream-flow controls on tree growth in a Western montane riparian forest

Humans have severely impacted riparian ecosystems through water diversions, impoundments, and consumptive uses. Effective management of these important areas is becoming an increasingly high priority of land managers, particularly as municipal, industrial, and recreational demands for water increase. We examined radial tree growth of four riparian tree species (Pinus jeffreyi, Populus trichocarpa, Betula occidentalis, and Pinus monophylla) along Bishop Creek, California, and developed models relating basal area increment (BAI) and relative basal area increment (RBAI) to climatic and stream flow variables. Between years 1995–1999, univariate regression analysis with stream flow explained 29 to 61% of the variation in BAI and RBAI among all species except P. trichocarpa; growth by P. trichocarpa was not significantly related to stream flows over this period. Stepwise linear regression indicated that species responded differently to climatic variables, and models based on these variables explained between 33 to 86% of variation in BAI and RBAI during the decade of the 1990s. We examined branch growth of P. trichocarpa for sensitivity to differences in stream flow regimes and found that annual branch growth did not vary between a high- and low-flow site, but that annual branch growth was significantly higher in wet years with greater stream flows. Our results support the establishment of site-specific management goals by land managers that take into account all of the important tree species present in riparian ecosystems and their differential responses to altered hydrologic condition. Instream flow requirements for maintaining tree growth and vigor are only one of the species-specific responses that need to be evaluated, and these assessments should attempt to separate experimentally stream-flow (managed) controls from climatic (unmanaged) controls on growth.     

Evolution and longevity-assurance processes

The role of the development of information fidelity systems in evolution is explored, with evidence that the loss in the ability to maintain the integrity of homeostasis in organisms over time, aging, is correlated with the loss in the ability to maintain integrity at the molecular biological level. Evolutionary-comparative analysis places an upper limit on the number of these systems important to the evolution of longevity in the primates, and suggests the importance of insuring the stability of information bearing macromolecules in evolution and the role of modulators of damage to these moieties in the expression of the senescent state     

The connecticut indirect source review: A methodology and model for evaluating CO concentrations

The body of information presented in this paper is directed to air pollution engineers who are concerned with the effect of indirect sources on ambient concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO). Data taken under controlled conditions are used to empirically derive and calibrate a model for predicting CO concentrations in the vicinity of roadway intersections and other points of possible vehicular congestion. Since the predicted free flow CO contribution of vehicles traveling at normal road speeds is relatively low, it is concluded that idling vehicles at points of congestion are the major cause of CO violations, and that state and federal programs should place more emphasis on relieving congestion and reducing idling emission rates in new vehicles.     

Ambient carbon monoxide monitoring and instrumentation

The information presented in this paper is directed to air pollution engineers who are concerned with monitoring Carbon Monoxide. This paper evaluates systems for CO sampling under conditions where the receptor is located at intersections within 40 meters of the road edge. Non-Dispersive Infrared and electrochemical analysis techniques are used in conjunction with continuous recording, continuous bag sampling, and meter readings at 5 second intervals. The relative accuracy of each system is examined and the conditions for which each system is best suited are described.     

Preliminary Studies on Converting Agricultural Waste into Biodegradable Plastics—Part IV: Polysaccharide Containing Natural Materials

Corn distillers’ dry grain, corncob powder, hardwood powder, and sugar beet pulp were separately anionized by oxidation with sodium hypochlorite in aqueous solution. Solid reaction products instantly precipitated upon admixing each of the above-oxidized materials with soy protein isolate. Infrared spectra and differential scanning calorimetry supported the hypothesis that soy protein isolate complexed with all of the above-oxidized polysaccharides. Reaction products with either oxidized corn distillers’ dry grain or oxidized sugar beet pulp provided hard, brittle pellets with tensile strengths as high as 9.5 MPa, suggesting that these materials could be viable as biodegradable plastics.     

Methods for constructing and balancing ecosystem flux charts: new techniques and software

We describe a general computer program which employs novel techniques to analyze carbon (energy) and nutrient flows in complex food webs. The program uses estimates of metabolic/physiological parameters and ecosystem fluxes to simultaneously calculate the most likely balanced flux charts for carbon and a nutrient. We give an example of how the model can explore the theoretical issues involved with nutrient limitation and recycling.