Salting our landscape: an integrated catchment model using readily accessible data to assess emerging road salt contamination to streams

A new integrated catchment model for salinity has been developed to assess the transport of road salt from upland areas in watersheds to streams using readily accessible landscape, hydrologic, and meteorological data together with reported salt applications. We used Fishkill Creek (NY) as a representative watershed to test the model. Results showed good agreement between modeled and measured stream water chloride concentrations. These results suggest that a dominant mode of catchment simulation that does not entail complex deterministic modeling is an appropriate method to model salinization and to assess effects of future applications of road salt to streams. We heuristically increased and decreased salt applications by 100% and results showed that stream chloride concentrations increased by 13% and decreased by 7%, respectively. The model suggests that future management of salt application can reduce environmental concentrations, albeit over some time.     

Perchlorate: Sources,uses, and occurrences in the environment

Perchlorate contamination of groundwater and soil continues to be a hot topic in many sectors, including industry, the federal Departments of Defense and Energy, regulators, and the general public. This article presents information on what is currently known regarding perchlorate uses, known and suspected naturally occurring versus anthropogenic perchlorate sources, and past and present manufacturing locations. It provides the reader with a baseline as well as background information to facilitate an understanding of perchlorate in the environment for the ultimate purpose of remediation. The article is based on research conducted by the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council for a forthcoming, more substantial perchlorate overview document scheduled for publication later in 2005. The document will include an overview of the chemical and discussions of remediation techniques and methods of analysis. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Comparison of various sampling methods for PCDDs and PCDFs in stack gas

There have been discussions about how complete PCDDs and PCDFs are sampled from stack gas of waste combustion plants by various sampling methods. In Germany, at present, a sampling method is used, which was first proposed by Nottrodt et al.¹, consisting of a filter device, condenser, and an absorption train. Since this sampling procedure complicates sampling and analysis, we compared this “standard procedure” with a “dilution method”, where only a filter, impregnated with paraffin, is used as trapping device, and also tested the effectiveness of XAD-2 as an adsorption trap.

As standard procedure the standard train was always used in parallel to other sampling methods. The results of four parallel sampling periods confirmed, that comparable results are obtained, when parallel sampling is carried out with the standard train.

The result of our investigation can be summarized as follows: The total emission of PCDDs and PCDFs determined by different sampling procedures varies only insignificantly. This means that sampling and analysis for PCDDs and PCDFs in stack gas could be simplified considerably.     

Abnormal reproduction of the sand crab Emerita analoga in the vicinity of a nuclear generating station in Southern California

Female sand crabs (Emerita analoga) were sampled from 12 beaches along a 350 km stretch of Southern California coastline during the reproductive season in July, 1982. The percentage of mature females with egg masses and the condition of those egg masses were examined at each site. The proportion of mature females with egg masses varied only slightly between beaches. However, at sites within about 20 km of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a high percentage of females carried egg masses consisting of empty egg shells. A transplant experiment was conducted. Females with empty egg masses were taken from the 6.5 km N study site, where only 5% of the mature females carried normal egg masses, and transferred to running unfiltered seawater in Santa Barbara. After 2 wk, about a third of the transplanted females carried normal egg masses, while at the same time the proportion of mature females with normal egg masses remained at 5% on the beach of origin. Heated water discharged from the nuclear generating station is probably not the cause of the abnormal reproduction of sand crabs along the nearby coast. More likely causes are: (1) runoff of agricultural pesticides from a creek 3 km north of the nuclear generating plant; (2) release of metals from corroding cooling pipes, and/or (3) increased turbidity of the nearshore waters.     

When the Going Gets Tough,Communities Believe It's Time to Optimize and Adapt

The people who live in the communities where complex groundwater sites are located are as diverse as the country itself, but those who fight for the cleanup of our groundwater recognize that total cleanup may be difficult, if not impossible, in our lifetimes. Still, as explained in a December 2013 joint letter to US EPA, we want those who are responsible for environmental protection, be they polluters, developers, or regulatory agencies, to try harder before admitting defeat. In Mountain View, California, community activists have developed criteria for the adaptive cleanup of the Moffett‐MEW Regional Plume of TCE groundwater contamination that emphasizes areas with high contaminant mass, source areas, locations that reduce the need for long‐term vapor intrusion mitigation, properties where the detectable plume encroaches on residential areas, schools, and other sensitive uses, and areas planned for reuse. In many other communities, trust is the key to developing community support for remedial strategies. Communities that are listened to tend to feel more empowered. Empowered communities tend to offer more constructive advice. Decision makers tend to listen to communities that offer constructive advice. In summary, when the cleanup going gets tough, empowered communities believe that it is time to optimize and adapt, not to give up. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.