In Situ Determination of the Rate of Unassisted Degradation of Saturated-Zone Hydrocarbon Contamination

Abstract

A method to measure the in situ degradation rate of dissolved hydrocarbon contamination has been developed and applied at two locations at a field site. The method uses the rates of downward diffusion of oxygen and upward diffusion of carbon dioxide through the unsaturated zone, as calculated from vertical soil-gas concentration gradients, combined with stoichiometry to obtain two degradation rates in hydrocarbon mass per water table surface area per time. Values of 0.385 gram per m² per day and 0.52 gram per m² per day (based upon oxygen data) and 0.056 gram per m² per day and 0.12 gram per m² per day (based upon carbon dioxide data) were calculated at a field site with dissolved fuel contamination. This result of lower values from ground-air carbon dioxide concentrations is consistent with a significant fraction of the carbon dioxide produced being lost to the aqueous phase. Based upon a single-stage equilibrium phase-transfer model, gas/water volume ratios of 0.02 and 0.2 for the capillary fringe were calculated. Groundwater carbon dioxide fugacities and soil-gas carbon dioxide concentrations were used at the two locations and a third to determine whether the source of elevated soil carbon dioxide concentrations were unsaturated-zone hydrocarbon degradation or a saturated-zone process. This technique has potential applicability in setting risk-based remedial criteria and in allowing inclusion of the contribution of in situ degradation in remedial design. This can result in major remedial cost savings.     

A real-time monitoring and assessment method for calculation of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted in subway stations

Subway systems are considered as main public transportation facility in developed countries. Time spent by people in indoors, such as underground spaces, subway stations, and indoor buildings, has gradually increased in the recent past. Especially, operators or old persons who stay in indoor environments more than 15 hr per day usually influenced a greater extent by indoor air pollutants. Hence, regulations on indoor air pollutants are needed to ensure good health of people. Therefore, in this study, a new cumulative calculation method for the estimation of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted inside the subway station is proposed by taking cumulative amounts of indoor air pollutants based on integration concept. Minimum concentration of individual air pollutants which naturally exist in indoor space is referred as base concentration of air pollutants and can be found from the data collected. After subtracting the value of base concentration from data point of each data set of indoor air pollutant, the primary quantity of emitted air pollutant is calculated. After integration is carried out with these values, adding the base concentration to the integration quantity gives the total amount of indoor air pollutant emitted. Moreover, the values of new index for cumulative indoor air quality obtained for 1 day are calculated using the values of cumulative air quality index (CAI). Cumulative comprehensive indoor air quality index (CCIAI) is also proposed to compare the values of cumulative concentrations of indoor air pollutants. From the results, it is clear that the cumulative assessment approach of indoor air quality (IAQ) is useful for monitoring the values of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, in case of exposure to indoor air pollutants for a long time. Also, the values of CCIAI are influenced more by the values of concentration of NO₂, which is released due to the use of air conditioners and combustion of the fuel. The results obtained in this study confirm that the proposed method can be applied to monitor total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, inside apartments and hospitals as well.

Implications: Nowadays, subway systems are considered as main public transportation facility in developed countries. Time spent by people in indoors, such as underground spaces, subway stations, and indoor buildings, has gradually increased in the recent past. Especially, operators or old persons who stay in the indoor environments more than 15 hr per day usually influenced a greater extent by indoor air pollutants. Hence, regulations on indoor air pollutants are needed to ensure good health of people. Therefore, this paper presents a new methodology for monitoring and assessing total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted inside underground spaces and subway stations. A new methodology for the calculation of cumulative amounts of indoor air pollutants based on integration concept is proposed. The results suggest that the cumulative assessment approach of IAQ is useful for monitoring the values of total amounts of indoor air pollutants, if indoor air pollutants accumulated for a long time, especially NO₂ pollutants. The results obtained here confirm that the proposed method can be applied to monitor total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, inside apartments and hospitals as well.     

Multiple-year black carbon measurements and source apportionment using Delta-C in Rochester,New York

Black carbon (BC), an important component of the atmospheric aerosol, has climatic, environmental, and human health significance. In this study, BC was continuously measured using a two-wavelength aethalometer (370 nm and 880 nm) in Rochester, New York, from January 2007 to December 2010. The monitoring site is adjacent to two major urban highways (I-490 and I-590), where 14% to 21% of the total traffic was heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The annual average BC concentrations were 0.76 μg/m³, 0.67 μg/m³, 0.60 μg/m³, and 0.52 μg/m³ in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) modeling was performed using PM_2.5 elements, sulfate, nitrate, ammonia, elemental carbon (EC), and organic carbon (OC) data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) speciation network and Delta-C (UVBC_370nm – BC_880nm) data. Delta-C has been previously shown to be a tracer of wood combustion factor. It was used as an input variable in source apportionment models for the first time in this study and was found to play an important role in separating traffic (especially diesel) emissions from wood combustion emissions. The result showed the annual average PM_2.5 concentrations apportioned to diesel emissions in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 were 1.34 μg/m³, 1.25 μg/m³, 1.13 μg/m³, and 0.97 μg/m³, respectively. The BC conditional probability function (CPF) plots show a large contribution from the highway diesel traffic to elevated BC concentrations. The measurements and modeling results suggest an impact of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2007 Heavy-Duty Highway Rule on the decrease of BC and PM_2.5 concentrations during the study period.

Implications: This study suggests that there was an observable impact of the U.S EPA 2007 Heavy-Duty Highway Rule on the ambient black carbon concentrations in Rochester, New York. Aethalometer Delta-C was used as an input variable in source apportionment models and it allowed the separation of traffic (especially diesel) emissions from wood combustion emissions.     

Sequential Extraction Versus Comprehensive Characterization of Heavy Metal Species in Brownfield Soils

The applicability of sequential extraction as a means to determine species of heavy-metals was examined by a study on soil samples from two Superfund sites: the National Lead Company site in Pedricktown, NJ, and the Roebling Steel, Inc., site in Florence, NJ. Data from a standard sequential extraction procedure were compared to those from a comprehensive study that combined optical- and scanning-electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and chemical analyses. The study shows that larger particles of contaminants, encapsulated contaminants, and/or man-made materials such as slags, coke, metals, and plastics are subject to incasement, non-selectivity, and redistribution in the sequential extraction process. The results indicate that standard sequential extraction procedures that were developed for characterizing species of contaminants in river sediments may be unsuitable for stand-alone determinative evaluations of contaminant species in industrial-site materials. However, if employed as part of a comprehensive, site-specific characterization study, sequential extraction could be a very useful tool.     

An Ex Post Evaluation of Ohio’s Great Miami Water Quality Trading Program1

Newburn, David A. and Richard T. Woodward, 2011. An Ex Post Evaluation of Ohio’s Great Miami Water Quality Trading Program. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(1): 156‐169. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00601.x Abstract: Market‐based approaches to address water quality problems have resulted in only limited success, especially in trading programs involving both point and nonpoint sources. We analyze one of the largest point‐nonpoint trading programs – the Great Miami Trading Program in Ohio, administered by the Miami Conservancy District (MCD). Our evaluation focuses on the economic and institutional aspects of the program, including cost effectiveness, efficiency of bidding, transaction costs, trading ratios, and innovation. We use a unique dataset consisting of all bids from agricultural nonpoint sources and interviews of soil and water conservation district (SWCD) agents in the watershed. We find that the MCD’s reliance on county‐level SWCD offices to recruit and advise farmers has been essential to achieve relatively high rates of farmer participation. Additionally, the MCD is able to partly free ride on the administrative costs that SWCD offices receive to assist federal conservation programs, which is helpful to lower costs for a fledgling trading program. However, the involvement of SWCD offices reduced the potential cost savings from the reverse auction structure because some agents were able to learn about the threshold price over the six rounds of bidding and help farmers bid strategically. Overall, the program structure serves as an effective model for future trading programs in other regions that seek to involve agricultural nonpoint sources.     

Re-Envisioning the Agrarian Ideal

Critics of The Agrarian Vision: Sustainability and Environmental Ethics (Lexington: 2010, University Press of Kentucky) have difficulties with its commitment to agrarian philosophy, and have also suggested that the program described there needs more elaboration of how sustainability might be pursued, especially in its social dimensions. The book draws upon agrarian philosophy to argue that habit and material practice are an appropriate and vital focus of ethics. Attention to habit and material practice will counterbalance an overemphasis on intentions and outcomes in contemporary environmental philosophy. It is in this sense that agrarianism contributes to an ethic of sustainability by showing how contemporary food practices—the culture of the table—might contribute to an enabling sense of community solidarity. The book does not advocate a return to once vibrant agrarian traditions.     

Exposure Times to the Spring Atrazine Flush Along a Stream-Reservoir System1

Stoeckel, James A., Jade Morris, Elizabeth Ames, David C. Glover, Michael J. Vanni, William Renwick, and María J. González, 2012. Exposure Times to the Spring Atrazine Flush Along a Stream-Reservoir System. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(3): 616-634. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00633.x Abstract: We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to examine reservoir-mediated shifts in spring to fall exposure of aquatic organisms to the spring atrazine pulse over four years in a Midwestern stream-reservoir system. Peak atrazine concentrations in the major inflowing stream exceeded 10 μg/l in all four years. The reservoir had a beneficial effect in two of four years by diluting atrazine below the 10 μg/l threshold. However, during the other two years, exposure times above 10 μg/l were approximately doubled in the reservoir compared to the major inflowing stream. Thresholds of 3 and 5 μg/l were exceeded during all four years in the reservoir. The uplake and downlake reservoir sites were four to five times more likely to exceed these thresholds and aquatic organisms were subjected to longer exposure times above these thresholds compared to the inflowing stream. Release of elevated atrazine concentrations from the reservoir extended exposure times in the outflowing stream. This effect was most pronounced just below the dam. Aquatic organisms upstream of the reservoir were most likely to experience acute exposures whereas organisms within and immediately downstream of the reservoir were more likely to experience chronic exposures. The ubiquity of reservoirs and the annual spring herbicide flush highlight the importance of considering the presence and relative location of reservoirs when assessing risk to aquatic communities as well as locations of drinking water intakes.     

Modeled Summer Background Concentration of Nutrients and Suspended Sediment in the Mid‐Continent (USA) Great Rivers1

Angradi, Ted R., David W. Bolgrien, Matt A. Starry, and Brian H. Hill, 2012. Modeled Summer Background Concentration of Nutrients and Suspended Sediment in the Mid‐Continent (USA) Great Rivers. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(5): 1054‐1070. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.00669.x Abstract: We used regression models to predict summer background concentration of total nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P), and total suspended solids (TSS), in the mid‐continent great rivers: the Upper Mississippi, the Lower Missouri, and the Ohio. From multiple linear regressions of water quality indicators with land use and other stressor variables, we determined the concentration of the indicators when the predictor variables were all set to zero — the y‐intercept. Except for total P on the Upper Mississippi River, we could predict background concentration using regression models. Predicted background concentration of total N was about the same on the Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri Rivers (430 μg l^?1), which was lower than percentile‐based values, but was similar to concentrations derived from the response of sestonic chlorophyll a to great river total N concentration. Background concentration of total P on the Lower Missouri (65 μg l^?1) was also lower than published and percentile‐based concentrations. Background TSS concentration was higher on the Lower Missouri (40 mg l^?1) than the other rivers. Background TSS concentration on the Upper Mississippi (16 mg l^?1) was below a threshold (30 mg l^?1) designed to protect aquatic vegetation. Our model‐predicted concentrations for the great rivers are an attempt to estimate background concentrations for water quality indicators independent from thresholds based on percentiles or derived from stressor‐response relationships.