Disinfection byproduct regulatory compliance surrogates and bromide-associated risk

Natural and anthropogenic factors can alter bromide concentrations in drinking water sources. Increasing source water bromide concentrations increases the formation and alters the speciation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) formed during drinking water treatment. Brominated DBPs are more toxic than their chlorinated analogs, and thus have a greater impact on human health. However, DBPs are regulated based on the mass sum of DBPs within a given class (e.g., trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids), not based on species-specific risk or extent of bromine incorporation. The regulated surrogate measures are intended to protect against not only the species they directly represent, but also against unregulated DBPs that are not routinely measured. Surrogates that do not incorporate effects of increasing bromide may not adequately capture human health risk associated with drinking water when source water bromide is elevated. The present study analyzes trihalomethanes (THMs), measured as TTHM, with varying source water bromide concentrations, and assesses its correlation with brominated THM, TTHM risk and species-specific THM concentrations and associated risk. Alternative potential surrogates are evaluated to assess their ability to capture THM risk under different source water bromide concentration conditions. The results of the present study indicate that TTHM does not adequately capture risk of the regulated species when source water bromide concentrations are elevated, and thus would also likely be an inadequate surrogate for many unregulated brominated species. Alternative surrogate measures, including THM3 and the bromodichloromethane concentration, are more robust surrogates for species-specific THM risk at varying source water bromide concentrations.     

A Tracer Study of Dispersion Over a City

The planning and conduct of series of tracer experiments carried out in St. Louis in the period between 1963 and 1965 is described. Tentative results indicate that horizontal dispersion over an urban area does not differ greatly from that observed over open country, except for a much greater initial spreading of the tracer plume. Vertical dispersion during the daytime does not appear to differ greatly from that observed over open country, and can be best expressed in terms of travel time rather than travel distance. Vertical dispersion during the evening over an urban area is much greater than that observed over open country; the limited results obtained suggest the formation of a slightly unstable layer as the air flows over the city.     

Application of an Improved Micro-amount of Virion Enrichment Technique (MiVET) for the Detection of Avian Influenza A Virus in Spiked Chicken Meat Samples

Food and Environmental Virology - Highly sensitive detection of pathogens is effective for screening meat during quarantine inspection and export. The “micro-amount of virion enrichment...     

Involving local farmers in rehabilitation of degraded tropical forests: some lessons from Ghana

The role of community-based plantation development in forest rehabilitation and poverty alleviation is a pressing issue for the government of Ghana. In this paper, we present an analysis of the prospects of a community-based plantation using taungya systems and indigenous trees as means to forest rehabilitation and livelihood improvement in Ghana. The project management strategies, communication process and incentive mechanism and their impact on local participation are discussed with the aim to recommending a mechanism through which local farmers can best be involved in rehabilitation of degraded sites in the future in Ghana. Data were collected through a survey using personal interviews of 431 farming households and ten key informants from ten communities living in scattered hamlets in and around forests reserves. The results show a high rate of local participation in project tree planting activities. Four years after the project’s initiation, about 250 ha of plantations had been established using twelve priority indigenous and one exotic species and farmers had indicated improvement in their farming practices and availability of food and forest products. Restoring forest quality as a timber resource and associated values, getting money, food stuff and timber and non-timber for domestic use, and having access to fertile land for farming were the top three issues prioritised by respondents as motivational factors for engaging in the project activities. Overall, this project demonstrates that reversing tropical forest degradation is possible. For this we need local involvement in tree domestication combined with activities that addresses livelihood needs and environmental concerns. This case also demonstrates the prospects of utilising indigenous tree species, not only exotic species that dominated tree planting in the past, for plantations and landscape rehabilitation in Ghana. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Iron and Zinc status in soils, water and staple food cultivars in Itakpe, Kogi State of Nigeria

The levels of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) were quantitatively determined in soil and water samples as well as in staple food cultivars in Itakpe, Nigeria's major iron mining town. The survey was conducted to establish a baseline pollution index for Fe and Zn in the Itakpe environment and to evaluate the role of foods as an exogenous source of these metals among the inhabitants. Exceedingly high levels of both metals characterized the staple food cultivars in the town.     

桑给巴尔岛附近硬珊瑚的分布和丰度模式

东非珊瑚礁的特点是它位于一个离散的动物地理学分区[1],具有经由赤道流接纳和重新分配偏远的种属物质的潜在重要性[2].尽管如此,该地区仍然是世界上研究最少的地区之一.例如,在坦桑尼亚,尽管珊瑚礁是众多的人赖以为生的重要自然资源,却没有受到应有的重视和研究[3～5].为数不多的研究定量分析过坦桑尼亚的珊瑚礁结构[6～13],而且大部分只是限于对一些礁砰进行基线研究.     

Performance and suitability of a landfill bioreactor with low cost biofilm contained clay-waste polyethylene-clay composite liner system for tropical climates of Asian countries

The objective of the study was to develop a low cost and environmentally friendly liner system for a landfill bioreactor to harness energy from waste. The landfill bioreactor test cell was constructed and evaluated for performance under dry tropical conditions of Sri Lanka. The research was carried out from March 2009 to September 2010. The clay-waste polyethylene-clay composite liner system was developed and permeability was tested. The permeability values of the liner under both saturated and unsaturated conditions at the high estimated hydraulic head of 86.2 cm were in between 6.3 × 10⁻⁸ and 2.6 × 10⁻⁸ cm/s. The permeability of the liner under waste filled condition varied between 2.17 × 10⁻⁹ and 8.15 × 10⁻⁹ cm/s, which satisfies the standard permeability value. Thus, the results were below the minimum requirement at very high estimated leachate head. After loading the test cell, leachate and permeate characteristics were analyzed for 273 days, from January 2010 to September 2010. The study showed the relationships among various parameters including pH, electrical permeability, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, total solids, volatile solids, total suspended solids and volatile suspended solids. The results of the analysis indicated that there are significant differences in the values of leachate and permeate parameters. The permeate parameters had values very much lower than those of leachate. It reveals that the clay-waste polyethylene-clay composite liner system reduced the concentration of these parameters when the leachate passed through the liner. The biofilm formed in waste polyethylene within the liner may have degraded most of organic materials found in the leachate when it passed through the liner. Therefore, the clay-waste polyethylene-clay composite liner system can be applied for full scale landfill bioreactors, particularly for Asian developing countries, due to better performance and more environmentally friendly characteristics.     

The effect of phosphogypsum on greenhouse gas emissions during cattle manure composting

Phosphogypsum (PG), a by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, reduces N losses when added to composting livestock manure, but its impact on greenhouse gas emissions is unclear. The objective of this research was to assess the effects of PG addition on greenhouse gas emissions during cattle feedlot manure composting. Sand was used as a filler material for comparison. The seven treatments were PG10, PG20, PG30, S10, S20, and S30, representing the rate of PG or sand addition at 10, 20, or 30% of manure dry weight and a check treatment (no PG or sand) with three replications. The manure treatments were composted in open windrows and turned five times during a 134-d period. Addition of PG significantly increased electrical conductivity (EC) and decreased pH in the final compost. Total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and mineral nitrogen contents in the final composted product were not affected by the addition of PG or sand. From 40 to 54% of initial TC was lost during composting, mostly as CO(2), with CH(4) accounting for <14%. The addition of PG significantly reduced CH(4) emissions, which decreased exponentially with the compost total sulfur (TS) content. The emission of N(2)O accounted for <0.2% of initial TN in the manure, increasing as compost pH decreased from alkaline to near neutral. Based on the total greenhouse gas budget, PG addition reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO(2)-C equivalent) during composting of livestock manure by at least 58%, primarily due to reduced CH(4) emission.     

Impact of land use on soluble organic nitrogen in soil

Although it has been hypothesized that soluble organic nitrogen (SON) plays a central role in regulating productivity in some terrestrial ecosystems, the factors controlling the size of the SON pool in soil remain poorly understood. Therefore our principal aim in this work was to assess the impact of seven different land use systems (rough and managed grassland, deciduous and coniferous woodland, heathland, wetland and tilled land) on the size of the SON and inorganic N (NO^? ₃, NH⁺ ₄) pools in the surface soil layer (0–15 cm). After extraction with deionised water, we found that in most cases the size of the water extractable organic N (WEON) pool was similar in size to the inorganic N pool. In contrast, the KCl extractable organic N (KClEON) pool constituted the dominant form of soluble N in soils under all land uses, perhaps indicating that significant amounts were held on the soil exchange phase. In contrast to inorganic N, which varied significantly with land use, the size of the KClEON and WEON pool was similar for all land uses with the exception of KClEON in tilled land, where significantly lower amounts were observed. We conclude that SON constitutes an important soil N pool in a broad range of land uses, and that its role in microbial N assimilation, plant nutrition and ecosystem responses to atmospheric N deposition warrants further attention.