Quantitative determination of 1 -hydroxypyrene in bovine urine samples using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence and mass spectrometric detection

An analytical method was developed to determine quantitatively 1-hydroxypyrene (OHP) in bovine urine samples. The procedure includes an enzymatic hydrolysis to cleave the conjugated metabolite, an enrichment step using solid phase extraction with a non-polar rinse step and elution with dichloromethane. A final clean-up on silicagel was performed before high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis and fluorescence detection. Alternatively, HPLC and electrospray ionization in the negative ion mode applying selective ion monitoring acquisition revealed to be a highly sensitive detection method allowing the quantitation of low pg of OHP in the urine samples. The method was successfully applied to the determination of OHP in bovine urine samples from animals living in urban and rural areas. Urine concentrations of OHP were significantly higher (median 8.6 microg l(-1)) of bovines living close to a highway.     

Review of light-duty diesel and heavy-duty diesel gasoline inspection programs

Emissions from diesel vehicles and gas-powered heavy-duty vehicles are becoming a new focus of many inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs. Diesel particulate matter (PM) is increasingly becoming more recognized as an important health concern, while at the same time, the public awareness of diesel PM emissions because of their visibility have combined to increase the focus on diesel emissions in the United States. This has resulted in an increased interest by some states in including heavy-duty vehicle testing in their I/M program. This paper provides an overview of existing I/M programs focused on testing light-duty diesel vehicles, heavy-duty diesel vehicles, and heavy-duty gasoline vehicles (HDGVs). Information on 39 I/M programs in 27 different states in the United States plus 9 international inspection programs is included. Information on the status of diesel emissions technology and current test procedures is also presented. The goal is to provide useful information for air quality managers as they work to decide whether such I/M programs would be worth pursuing in their respective areas and in evaluating the emissions measurement technology to be used in the program. Testing of HDGVs is generally limited to idle testing, because dynamometer testing of these vehicles is not practical, and most were not certified on a chassis basis. Testing of diesel vehicles has mostly been limited to SAE J1667 "snap-idle" opacity testing. Cost-effective technology for measuring diesel emissions currently does not exist, and, therefore, opacity-type measurements, although not effective at reducing the pollutants of most significant health concern, will continue to be used.     

Composting duck excreta enriched wood shavings: C and N transformations and bacterial pathogen reductions

Composting of agricultural and domestic wastes is used increasingly to reduce weight, volume, and odor; destroy animal and plant pathogens; and improve the quality of end-products to be used as soil amendments and growth substrates. The objective of this study was to investigate the transformation of C and N and the survival of bacterial populations and pathogenic bacteria during in-vessel composting of duck excreta enriched wood shavings. Two feedstocks, collected on different dates, were composted (C1 and C2) in an enclosed hall system equipped with an electromechanical turner. Temperature was continuously recorded, whereas moisture content and bacterial counts were determined twice a week. Data showed that, although the N content of C2 was only half of that of C1, both materials were fully biostabilized at the end of the composting period as indicated by extractable lipid ratios. In the compost with the low C/N ratio (C1), all bacterial populations were eliminated, whereas fecal streptococci, total coliforms, and gram-negative bacteria were still present in C2 at the end of the composting period. Our results emphasize that the composting of manures and other organic wastes needs to be properly managed to stabilize C and N and to eliminate or reduce bacterial populations.     

The long time scales of the climate–economy feedback and the climatic cost of growth

This paper is based on the perception that the inertia of climate and socio-economic systems are key parameters in the climate change issue. In a first part, it develops and implements a new approach based on a simple integrated model with a particular focus on an innovative transient impact and adaptation modeling. In a second part, a climate–economy feedback is defined and characterized. The following results were found. 1) It has a long characteristic time, which lies between 50 and 100 years depending on the hypotheses; this time scale is long when compared to the system's other time scales, and the feedback cannot act as a natural damping process of climate change. 2) Mitigation has to be anticipated since the feedback of an emission reduction on the economy can be significant only after a 20-year delay and is really efficient only after at least 50 years. 3) Even discounted, production changes due to an action on emissions are significant over more than one century. 4) The methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which neglects the feedback from impacts to emissions, is acceptable up to 2100, whatever is the level of impacts. This analysis allows also to define a climatic cost of growth as the additional climate change damages due to the additional emissions linked to economic growth.

Long-Term and Seasonal Changes in Chemical Composition of Surface Waters in Latvia

The changes of the chemical composition in Latvianinland waters over the last twenty years weredetermined, based on data of the National MonitoringProgramme. Relationships between the water compositionwere studied. The chemical composition and seasonalchange pattern depend a lot on hydrological factorswhich differed between eastern and western Latvia.Different pattern of long-term changes is found forsubstances which have different sources andsinks, at first for nutrients (decrease only in the lastfew years) and inorganic ingredients (commonlyincreasing trend). An attempt was made to identify themain sources of the major water ingredients and linkchanges of their concentrations with changes inloading to waters.     

Evaluation and optimization of an urban PM2.5 monitoring network

The objective of this study was to evaluate the PM(2.5) monitoring network established in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky metropolitan area for measuring the 24 h integrated PM(2.5) concentration, as well as-at selected sites-hourly PM(2.5) concentration and 24 h integrated PM(2.5) speciation. The data collected during three years at 13 measurement sites were analyzed for spatial and temporal variations. It was found that both daily and hourly concentrations of PM(2.5) have low spatial variation due to a regional influence of secondary ammonium sulfate. In contrast, the trace element concentrations had high spatial variation. Seasonal variation accounted for most of the total temporal variation (60%), while yearly, monthly, weekly and daily variations were lower. The variance components and cluster analyses were applied to optimize the number of sites for measuring the 24 h PM(2.5) concentration. It was found that the 13-site network may be optimized by reducing the number of sites to 8, which would result in a relative precision reduction of 9% and a relative cost reduction of 36%. At the same time, the data suggest that the spatial resolution of speciation monitors and real-time PM(2.5) mass monitors should be increased to better represent spatial and temporal variations of the markers of local air pollution sources.     

The toxicity and bioavailability of atrazine and molinate to Chironomus tepperi larvae in laboratory and river water in the presence and absence of sediment

Acute (10 day) semi-static toxicity tests in which the midge, Chironomus tepperi, were exposed to atrazine and molinate were conducted in laboratory water and in river water, in the absence and presence of sediment. The bioavailability measured as median lethal concentrations (LC50) and 95% fiducial limits (FLs) of atrazine to C. tepperi in laboratory water in the absence and presence of sediment were 16.6 (14.3-19.4) and 21.0 (18.2-24.1) mg l(-1), respectively while the corresponding values in river water were 16.7 (14.7-19.0) and 22.7 (20.3-25.4) mg l(-1), respectively. For molinate, the LC50 and FL values in laboratory water in the absence and presence of sediment were 8.8 (6.8-11.4) and 14.3 (12.4-16.4) mg l(-1), respectively and the corresponding values in river water were 9.3 (7.6-11.3) and 14.5 (12.4-16.9) mg l(-1), respectively. Atrazine has low toxicity (LC50 > 10 mg l(-1)) while molinate has moderate toxicity (1 mg l(-1) < LC50 < 10 mg l(-1)) to C. tepperi. River water did not significantly (P > 0.05) reduce the bioavailability of either chemical to C. tepperi. However, the presence of sediment did significantly (P < 0.05) reduce the bioavailability of both atrazine and molinate to C. tepperi.     

Biodegradation of low aqueous concentration pentachlorophenol (PCP) contaminated groundwater

Bioremedial treatment to remove low level organic contamination to regulatory standards has met with limited success. In this study source water from a contaminated surficial aquifer at a former wood treatment facility was used to evaluate the potential for indigenous microorganisms to degrade low level (< 1.0 mg) pentachlorophenol (PCP) to a regulatory drinking water standard of 0.001 mg/L. PCP degradation was evaluated in series of batch reactors in a two phase study to (a) determine the rate and extent of PCP removal and (b) evaluate the impact of nutrient amendment (N and P) on removal rate. All reactors with the exception of the abiotic control demonstrated PCP removal to a level < 0.002 mg/L within a maximum period of 32 d with and without nutrient amendment. A regression analysis of reactive phosphate (ortho-P) concentration versus removal rate produced an R2 of 0.94 (p = 0.006) indicating a significant correlation between the level of available phosphate and PCP degradation rate. Selective bacterial enumeration (for PCP degrading bacteria) revealed PCP-degrading bacteria increased in abundance prior to and in conjunction with the degradation phase to a density of between 10(3) to 10(4) CFU/ml. Isolates were also analyzed for total fatty acids using Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) methodology and the results indicated that PCP degrading bacteria were present in the aquifer and consisted of predominately fluorescent, oxidase positive Pseudomonas species. Overall, data indicate that autochthonous microbes are capable of removing low level PCP (< 1.0 mg/L) to approach if not reach the regulatory standard of 0.001 mg/L with the addition of oxygen, with or without nutrient amendment. Results of this research can be applied to full-scale implementation of in-situ or ex-situ bioremediation of groundwater at former wood treatment facilities.     

MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF WATER QUALITY IN THE RICHIBUCTO DRAINAGE BASIN (NEW BRUNSWICK,CANADA)1

ABSTRACT: Specific conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, carbon, phosphorous, and nitrogen species were measured at 36 stations in the Richibucto River drainage basin, including the estuary, in New Brunswick, Canada, over the six‐year period 1996 through 2001. Each station was sampled between 1 and 26 times (mean = 7.5, standard deviation = 6.0) during the ice free seasons without regard to tide. There was significant variance among stations in most parameters. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify the processes explaining the observed variance in water quality. Because of the high variability in specific conductance, stations were first grouped in a freshwater subset and an estuarine (brackish water) subset. For freshwater stations, most of the variance in water quality was explained by pH and total organic carbon, as well as high nutrient concentrations. These high nutrient concentrations, along with water salinity, which varies with flow and tides, are also important in determining water quality variability in brackish water. It is recommended that water quality parameters that were found to explain most of the variance by PCA be monitored more closely, as they are key elements in understanding the variability in water quality in the Richibucto drainage basin. Cluster analyses showed that high phosphorous and nitrate concentrations were mostly found in areas of peat runoff, tributaries receiving treated municipal effluent, and lentic zones upstream of culverts. Peat runoff was also shown to be acidic, whether it is runoff from a harvested area or a natural bog.