Mobility control: How injected surfactants and biostimulants may be forced into low‐permeability units

Recovering dense nonaqueous‐phase liquid (DNAPL) remains one of the most difficult problems facing the remediation industry. Still, the most common method of recovering DNAPL is to physically remove the contaminants using common technologies such as total fluids recovery pumps, vacuum systems, and “pump‐and‐treat.” Increased DNAPL removal can be attained using surfactants to mobilize and/or solubilize the pollutants. However, very little is understood of the methods developed by petroleum engineers beginning in the 1960s to overcome by‐passed, low‐permeability zones in heterogeneous oil reservoirs. By injecting or causing the formation of viscous fluids in the subsurface, petroleum engineers caused increased in‐situ pressures that forced fluid flow into low permeability units as well as the higher permeability thief zones. Polymer flooding involves injecting a viscous aqueous polymer solution into the contaminated aquifer. Foam flooding involves injecting surfactant to decontaminate the high‐permeability zones and then periodic pulses of air to cause a temporary viscous foam to form in the high‐permeable zones after all DNAPL is removed. Later surfactant pulses are directed by the foam into unswept low‐permeable units. These methods have been applied to DNAPL removal using surfactants but they can also be applied to the injection of bio‐amendments into low‐permeability zones still requiring continued remediation. Here we discuss the principles of mobility control as practiced in an alluvial aquifer contaminated with chlorinated solvent and coal tar DNAPLs as well as some field results. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

In situ remediation of arsenic in contaminated soils

In situ chemical fixation represents a promising and potentially cost‐effective treatment alternative for metal‐contaminated soils. This article presents the findings of the use of iron‐bearing soil amendments to reduce the leachability and bioaccessibility of arsenic in soils impacted by stack fallout from a zinc smelter. The focus of this investigation was to reduce the lead bioaccessibility of the soils through addition with phosphorus‐bearing amendments. However, as phosphorus addition was expected to increase arsenic mobility, the fixation strategy also incorporated use of iron‐bearing amendments to offset or reverse these effects. The findings of this investigation demonstrated that inclusion of iron‐bearing chemicals in the amendment formulation reduced arsenic leachability and bioaccessibility without compromising amendment effectiveness for reducing lead bioaccessibility. These results suggest that in situ chemical fixation has the potential to be an effective strategy for treatment of the impacted soils. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Strategies for Rebuilding Closer Links between Local Indigenous Communities and Their Customary Fisheries in Aotearoa/New Zealand

There is a growing recognition that knowledge of indigenous communities, based on accumulated observations and experience over time, is significant for sustainable environmental management in collaboration with modern scientific knowledge. A number of innovative policy initiatives are currently being implemented in New Zealand to enable indigenous Maori tribes and sub-tribes to rehabilitate and manage their local fisheries in accordance with customary values and practices. These policies are an important milestone from an historical perspective as they are meant to recognise and empower the role of Maori as Treaty partners. The fisheries management regime in New Zealand now provides for Maori representation at the local level within a co-management framework that enables local Maori communities to exercise their customary rights. These institutional arrangements have been crafted to facilitate Maori input, based on customary values and practices, to complement modern Western management practices for sustainable harvesting of marine resources. Nevertheless, the degree to which these initiatives constitute an adequate response to Maori Treaty aspirations is debatable. A major constraint in this respect is that the government is compelled to recognise the needs of other, economically and politically more dominant, non-Maori user-groups in allocating and managing access to fishery resources and the marine environment.     

Local Environmental Investments and Sustainable Development: the evaluation of environmental projects in Scotland supported by the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund

In the UK for the period 1994-99, a broad range of environmental projects were given financial support through the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund under the Objective 1 and Objective 5b programmes. This paper is concerned with the ex-post evaluation of these projects set within a Sustainable Development framework. The aim was to identify project types or characteristics that offered the greatest return on investment. A classification of six broad project types was adopted. The evaluation revealed that there were significant differences between individual projects with respect to the type and scale, and temporal and social distribution of the benefits they delivered. In particular, as well as delivering environmental and economic benefits, many projects made a significant contribution to the development of human and social capital. The paper concludes that it is possible to improve the basis for future project selection in order to maximise the returns on environmental investments in the context of sustainable development.     

Influence of Water Allocation and Freshwater Inflow on Oyster Production: A Hydrodynamic–Oyster Population Model for Galveston Bay,Texas, USA

A hydrodynamic–oyster population model was developed to assess the effect of changes in freshwater inflow on oyster populations in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA. The population model includes the effects of environmental conditions, predators, and the oyster parasite, Perkinsus marinus, on oyster populations. The hydrodynamic model includes the effects of wind stress, river runoff, tides, and oceanic exchange on the circulation of the bay. Simulations were run for low, mean, and high freshwater inflow conditions under the present (1993) hydrology and predicted hydrologies for 2024 and 2049 that include both changes in total freshwater inflow and diversions of freshwater from one primary drainage basin to another. Freshwater diversion to supply the Houston metropolitan area is predicted to negatively impact oyster production in Galveston Bay. Fecundity and larval survivorship both decline. Mortality from Perkinsus marinus increases, but to a lesser extent. A larger negative impact in 2049 relative to 2024 originates from the larger drop in fecundity under that hydrology. Changes in recruitment and mortality, resulting in lowered oyster abundance, occur because the bay volume available for mixing freshwater input from the San Jacinto and Buffalo Bayou drainage basins that drain metropolitan Houston is small in comparison to the volume of Trinity Bay that presently receives the bulk of the bay's freshwater inflow. A smaller volume for mixing results in salinities that decline more rapidly and to a greater extent under conditions of high freshwater discharge. Thus, the decline in oyster abundance results from a disequilibrium between geography and salinity brought about by freshwater diversion. Although the bay hydrology shifts, available hard substrate does not. The simulations stress the fact that it is not just the well-appreciated reduction in freshwater inflow that can result in decreased oyster production. Changing the location of freshwater inflow can also significantly impact the bay environment, even if the total amount of freshwater inflow does not change.     

The Water Poverty Index: Development and application at the community scale

The article details the development and uses of the water poverty index (WPI). The index was developed as a holistic tool to measure water stress at the household and community levels, designed to aid national decision makers, at community and central government level, as well as donor agencies, to determine priority needs for interventions in the water sector. The index combines into a single number a cluster of data directly and indirectly relevant to water stress. Subcomponents of the index include measures of: access to water; water quantity, quality and variability; water uses (domestic, food, productive purposes); capacity for water management; and environmental aspects.
The WPI methodology was developed through pilot projects in South Africa, Tanzania and Sri Lanka and involved intensive participation and consultation with all stakeholders, including water users, politicians, water sector professionals, aid agency personnel and others. The article discusses approaches for the further implementation of the water poverty index, including the possibilities of acquiring the necessary data through existing national surveys or by establishing interdisciplinary water modules in school curricula. The article argues that the WPI fills the need for a simple, open and transparent tool, one that will appeal to politicians and decision makers, and at the same time can empower poor people to participate in the better targeting of water sector interventions and development budgets in general.     

Factor structure of the transformational leadership model in human service teams

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the transformational leadership model in human service teams. As the nature of this work environment mandates certain management‐by‐exception practices, patterns of correlations between perceptions of active and passive management‐by‐exception behaviors and transformational, transactional, and laissez‐faire leadership were of interest. 236 leaders and 620 subordinates from 54 mental health teams completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, form 8Y. Results suggest that active and passive management‐by‐exception factors are independent constructs. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence for biodegradation and volatilisation of dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons during in situ air sparging in large laboratory columns

Laboratory column experiments run for up to 13 days compared air sparging of groundwater contaminated by dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons in sterile and non-sterile aquifer sediments as well as uncontaminated sediments and groundwater. Loss of dissolved BTEX compounds in the contaminated columns was very rapid, occurring through volatilisation. The majority of the dissolved total organic carbon (TOC) persisted for much longer periods however. A direct comparison between losses from sterile and non-sterile columns suggested a negligible contribution of biodegradation to the removal of TOC. This was difficult to confirm through examination of O₂ utilisation because oxidation of a small amount of reduced sulphur in the aquifer materials was the dominant sink for O₂. Despite this, it was possible to conclude that less than 22% of the removal of TOC was through biodegradation during the first three days of air sparging.