环境监测站人事制度改革的实践与思考

介绍了镇江市环境监测中心站人事制度改革的主要内容、做法及取得的成效。指出人事制度改革尤其是全额拨款事业单位的人事制度改革是政策性很强、涉及每个职工切身利益及触动诸多方面关系的一项复杂工程 ,为保证这项工程的顺利进行 ,应广泛宣传发动 ,统一思想认识 ,上下反复酝酿 ,制定工作方案 ,预见敏感问题 ,提出解决预案 ,主动沟通 ,争取上级支持 ,精心安排 ,快速稳妥实施 ,狠抓落实 ,深化改革成果。     

Seasonal variations in microcystin concentrations in Lake Taihu, China

An enzyme-limited immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to monitor spatial and temporal variation of microcystins (MCs) in Lake Taihu. MC concentrations were higher in summer and autumn than in other seasons. Maximal MC concentration was 15.6 mug L(-1). Compared to central Lake Taihu and Wuli Bay, Meiliang Bay had higher MC concentrations due to high biomass of Microcystis.     

Distribution, sources, and potential risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in drinking water resources from Henan Province in middle of China

Distribution and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in drinking water resources have been carried out for the first time in Henan Province, China. Water samples collected from four river systems and their tributaries, as well as groundwater resources, were analyzed according to EPA method 525.2. Total of 68 water samples were collected in 18 cities in Henan province in May, August and November, 2001. Concentrations of sum of 16 priority PAHs in water samples ranged from 15 to 844 ng/L with a mean value of 178 +/- 210 ng/L (n = 68). The spatial and temporal distribution of PAHs showed that the Huanghe and the Huaihe river systems had relatively higher concentrations of total PAHs. Higher concentrations of total PAHs were observed in August and November than in May, with respective mean values of 262, 232 and 33.6 ng/L. Ratios of Ant/(Ant + Phe) and Flur/(Flur + Pyr) were calculated to evaluate the possible sources of PAH contamination, which indicated that the coal combustion sources were the main contributors to PAHs in most drinking water resources. Some petrogenic (or pyrolytic) sources of PAHs were also found. The toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) were used to calculate benzo[a]pyrene equivalents (BaPE) for water samples. The average value of BaPE was 0.6 ng/L. The values in most stations were much lower than the guideline values in drinking water of Chinese Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA, 2.8 ng/L) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 200 ng/L). Overall, the drinking water resources in Henan province showed some carcinogenic potential.     

Sources and seasonal variation of PAHs in the sediments of drinking water reservoirs in Hong Kong and the Dongjiang River (China)

The main objective of this study was to investigate occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the sources of the drinking water supply of Hong Kong. The main emphasis was on the Dongjiang River in mainland China which is the major source, supplying 80% of the total consumption in Hong Kong (the remaining 20% is obtained from rain water). Sediments were collected from four sites along the Dongjiang River and four reservoirs in Hong Kong during both the dry and wet weather seasons. The concentrations of total PAHs in the sediments ranged between 36 and 539 microg/kg dry wt. The lower levels were detected at the upstream site on the Dongjiang River and at the reservoirs in Hong Kong (44-85 microg/kg dry wt), while the mid- and downstream sites on the Dongjiang River were more polluted (588-658 microg/kg dry wt). Examination of the PAH profiles revealed that the mid- and downstream sections of the Dongjiang River contained high percentages of 4,5,6-ring PAHs, similar to the amounts of atmospheric particulate matter and road dust collected during the dry weather season from the Pearl River Delta region as reported in the literature. Seasonal changes were revealed in the reservoirs of Hong Kong, with higher PAH levels in the wet weather season than in the dry weather season. For those reservoirs in Hong Kong that store water from the Dongjiang River, a distinct seasonal pattern was also observed, namely, that under dry weather season conditions the PAHs found in the sediments were primarily from petrogenic source, while under wet weather season conditions they were from pyrolytic sources. No such pattern was detected in the reservoirs which stored only rain water.     

A case study predicting environmental impacts of urban transport planning in China

Predicting environmental impacts is essential when performing an environmental assessment on urban transport planning. System dynamics (SD) is usually used to solve complex nonlinear problems. In this study, we utilized system dynamics (SD) to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with urban transport planning in Jilin City, China with respect to the local economy, society, transport, the environment and resources. To accomplish this, we generated simulation models comprising interrelated subsystems designed to utilize changes in the economy, society, road construction, changes in the number of vehicles, the capacity of the road network capacity, nitrogen oxides emission, traffic noise, land used for road construction and fuel consumption associated with traffic to estimate dynamic trends in the environmental impacts associated with Jilin's transport planning. Two simulation scenarios were then analyzed comparatively. The results of this study indicated that implementation of Jilin transport planning would improve the current urban traffic conditions and boost the local economy and development while benefiting the environment in Jilin City. In addition, comparative analysis of the two scenarios provided additional information that can be used to aid in scientific decision-making regarding which aspects of the transport planning to implement in Jilin City. This study demonstrates that our application of the SD method, which is referred to as the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), is feasible for use in urban transport planning.     

Mussel isotope signature as indicator of nutrient pollution in a freshwater eutrophic lake: species, spatial, and seasonal variability

Stable nitrogen isotope ratios of five mussel species from littoral and pelagic areas were investigated with different trophic states in the eutrophic Lake Taihu, the third largest lake in China. Interpopulation variability for these mussels was relatively small in foot tissues because of the slow turnover time. Seasonal and spatial variations among the δ ¹⁵N values of mussels might be due in part to the natural variation in δ ¹⁵N values of potential food sources and the variation in the amount of human pollutions discharged into various locations of the lake. Although the increase of mussel δ ¹⁵N values was accompanied by the increase of nutrient concentrations in most situations in this study, statistically significant correlations were only 22% of the total correlations in this survey, which might be attributed to the different time-scale variations in nutrient concentrations and isotope signatures and the unknown details of the trophic pathways and metabolism for incorporation of these nutrients.     

Investigations on boron levels in drinking water sources in China

To evaluate boron contamination of public drinking water in China, both dissolved and total boron contents in 98 public drinking water sources from 49 cities, 42 brands of bottled water samples from supermarkets in several cities, and 58 water samples from boron industrial area were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Our experimental results showed that boron existed in public drinking water sources mainly in dissolved status with total concentrations ranging from 0.003 to 0.337 mg/L (mean = 0.046 mg/L). The mean boron concentrations in mineral and pure bottled water were 0.052 and 0.028 mg/L, respectively. The results obtained in this work showed that there was no health risk on view of boron in public drinking water sources and bottled water. In boron industrial area, boron concentrations in surface water and ground water were 1.28 mg/L (range = 0.007–3.8 mg/L) and 18.3 mg/L (range = 0.015–140 mg/L), respectively, which indicated that boron industry caused boron pollution in local water system.     

Generalized models for prediction of pentachlorophenol dissipation dynamics in soils

Dissipation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in soil was investigated and the chemical relationships with soil properties were addressed. The results indicate that the dissipation of extractable PCP residues can be described using first-order kinetics equations, with a half-dissipation time (T(1/2)) ranging from 6.5 to 173.3d. The sharply different patterns of PCP dissipation in different soils were closely related to soil properties. Correlations of stepwise regression equations obtained were significant at 0.01 probability level between soil parameters and extractable PCP residues (R(2)=0.974**) as well as T(1/2) values (R(2)=0.882**). Using pH together with organic carbon content (OC) and soil particle size distribution, the dissipation dynamics of PCP in soil could be accurately predicted.     

Filterability of oil sands tailings

In Canadian oil sands mining operations, bitumen is extracted from oil sands using the hot water extraction process, which produces tremendous amounts of tailings. Currently, these tailings are disposed of in large ponds, in which coarse particles settle out relatively quickly and fine particles remain suspended in water and settle very slowly. After years of settling, the fine particles form a stable suspension in water known as mature fine tailings (MFTs). Long-term storage of the MFT is costly and poses a major environmental liability.Oil sands companies are now actively investigating different approaches to replace or reduce the use of oil sands tailings ponds. Filtration of the tailings to produce “dry tailings” for stacking is now being investigated as an alternative by a number of companies. Fast water drainage is a critical step for the filtration process. In this paper, we use simple laboratory-scale filtration tests to evaluate the filterability of the oil sands tailings and to generate a parameter that can be used in filtration scale-up. It was found that the filterability of the original coarse oil sands tailings was relatively low. However, after the fines are flocculated with the coarse particles to form uniform flocs the filterability was improved by several orders of magnitude. The results demonstrate that filtration of the flocculated coarse tailings to produce the “dry” stackable tailings may be viable.